The ‘Troubles’ is the euphemistic term given to the violent clashes in Northern Ireland during the 1970s and 1980s between Nationalists aiming to end British rule in Northern Ireland, and Unionists who opposed separation. The violence was characterised by the armed campaigns of paramilitary groups, which included, on the side of the Nationalists, the Provisional IRA.

The ‘Troubles’ provide the context for Donagh’s Long Meadow.  Long Kesh or ‘Long Meadow’ is the original name of the site in County Antrim that was converted into the Maze Prison, where many IRA prisoners were held. Eight of its buildings were given the nickname of H-blocks because the configuration of their architecture when seen from above formed the letter H.

The IRA prisoners demanded improvements in their conditions and status, wishing to be classified as political prisoners, rather than being described as criminals. With this aim in mind they refused to wear the official prison uniform provided for them. Instead, they wrapped themselves in prison issue blankets, giving rise to the term ‘blanket protest' during this period.  Attempts to break the protest by brutalisation of prisoners saw the escalation to the ‘dirty protests’, during which the prisoners smeared the walls of their cells with their own excrement. When after several years of such protests the detainees were still not accorded political prisoner status, they commenced a hunger strike in 1980 which resulted in the death of one of the protestors, Bobby Sands. His death prompted several days of riots in nationalist areas of Northern Ireland.

In Long Meadow Donagh has created a plan of the prison’s H blocks, and projected the plan in perspective onto a square canvas that echoes the square plan of a single cell block. In a related study, a faint image of the six counties of Northern Ireland is sketched over a photograph of the H blocks, showing the artist's continued reflection on the mapping of these significant areas of land.

Donagh, an artist of Irish descent, showed several paintings about the H-Blocks in the exhibition A Cellular Maze, along with a painting by her companion Richard Hamilton, The citizen (1981-3), which is also part of this display.

Rita Donagh was born in Staffordshire in 1939. She lives and works in Britain.