John McGuffin
(1942 – 2002)

Professional Writer

some of his works

‘Last Orders, Please!’ by McGuffin


Irish Resistance Books, £8.99, ISBN 0-9539482-0-X 

‘Last Orders, Please!’ is the first book published by Irish Resistance Books. Written by John McGuffin it consists of 24 tasteless tales from the ‘troubles’, written over a 25 year period. The stories were written in Belfast, San Francisco, Borneo and Derry. Some have been published in German in ‘Der Mann, der mit Chuck Berry getanzt hat’ and in English in ‘Tales from the Barricades’, a limited edition published in Santa Barbara, California in 1990. This is the first complete and unexpurgated issue and contains seven completely new stories.

‘Internment’ by John McGuffin (1973)

Anvil Books Ltd., 1973. Paperback, 228 pp. Out of Print.

From the back cover: Internment: the story of 50 years
repression of the Irish

A knock on the door! In the early hours of the morning. A splintered lock and armed men break into your home. They are military and police. You are dragged from your bed. Jail or internment camp? No charge. No trial. This has been the pattern in Ireland, North and South, for more than 50 years.

It is the story of internment; of the thousands of men and women who have been subjected to it; of the conditions, the brutality the escapes and the politics of it all. From Frongoch to long Kesh, Mountjoy to the Curragh. From the hulk of the Argenta to HMS Maidstone.

Did internment work in the past? Why did it fail in 1972? Why did Britain contravene the European Convention of Human Rights? What really did happen in Palace barracks? What was it like in the camps? How do the Special Courts work, North and south?

The man who laughs has not been told the news — Bertold Brecht.

‘The Guineapigs’ by John McGuffin (1974, 1981)

Originally published in London by Penguin Books, 1974. Paperback, 192 pp. Out of Print.
2nd edition Minuteman Press, San Francisco, 1981. Paperback, 75 pp. Out of Print.

The first edition by Penguin sold 20,000 copies and was banned after one week by the British government and Reginald Maudling. The 2nd edition in 1981 updated the fate of the victims and named the torturers, but omitted two chapters from the original edition.
A complete compilation of both editions is now here available for the first time. Feel free to download these pages, but if you decide to do so we would like to ask you to make a donation to Irish Resistance Books, in order that IRB can publish further works. (Note: We are not in receipt of any grants or Art Council funding.)
You may not edit, adapt, or redistribute changed versions of this for other than your personal use without the express written permission. Redistribution for commercial purposes is not permitted.

From the back cover (2nd edition):
The Guineapigs in the title were fourteen Irish political prisoners on whom the British Army experimented with sensory deprivation torture in 1971. These 'techniques' are now outlawed, following Britain's conviction at the International Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg, but have been exported and used by Britain's allies throughout the world. This book first appeared in 1974, published by Penguin Books in London. It sold out on its first print run and was then abruptly taken off the market following pressure from the British Government.