The Al Rawdah prison ship, 1940-41

Here is a history of the Al Rawdah prison ship. It was in use only briefly (in 1940-41) but falls within a longer history of the use of prison ships as internment camps in Ireland, including the Postlethwaite in 1798, prison ships transporting convicts overseas, the Argenta in 1922-24 and more recently the Maidstone in

Deaths during internment in the north in the 1940s

Around 400 men and women were imprisoned for political reasons by the northern government during 1938-50. Of that 400, at least twelve are believed to have died from illnesses and complications arising from the conditions of their imprisonment, a mortality rate of about 3%. Typically, to provide some level of deniability, the northern government released