The Men Behind the Wire

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The Men Behind the Wire is an Irish republican song written and composed by Paddy McGuigan of the Barleycorn folk group in the aftermath of the imposition of Internment without trial of some Irish republicans associated with Provisional Sinn Féin (now known simply as Sinn Féin), as well as others unconnected with militant republicanism who had been arrested by mistake in Northern Ireland in 1971. Nearly all active republicans seemed to have prior knowledge of the arrests and escaped arrest.^{[citation needed]}

The lyrics record the raiding of homes by the British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the arrest of individuals who were detailed without trial in Long Kesh, a prison in Northern Ireland subsequently known as the Maze Prison. The central message of the song was contained in the last line of the chorus,

armoured cars and tanks and guns, came to take away our sons, but every man must stand behind, the men behind the wire

In other words, it was a call for the nationalist community to show 'solidarity' with the 'men behind the wire' of Long Kesh.

Though regularly sung in the 1970s and early 1980s, the song is less often heard now, and more associated with extreme republican movements like the Real IRA than with modern-day Sinn Féin and the Provisional IRA, in the aftermath of the 'cecession' of acts of violence of the latter, and the entry of Sinn Féin into a power-sharing executive governing Northern Ireland under the Belfast Agreement.