The author chronicles the abuse by the British state of emergency laws: harassment and intimidation of civilians; injuries and deaths caused by rubber and plastic bullets; collusion between British security forces, British intelligence and loyalist paramilitaries; unjust killings and murders by the security forces; excessive punishments and degrading strip-searches in prisons - abuses ignored by all but a handful of individuals and civil rights organizations. This is the fascinating diary of the first man to give his life in the 1980s hunger strike.