The Glasgow riot which was the longest prison siege in history

Graphic scenes of rooftop protests and terrified prison officers being held hostage were shown around the world.

On January 5, 1987, a group of violent inmates at Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow had taken over.

It became the longest-running siege in Scottish prison history and in turn, would lead to major changes in the way our jails were run.

The riot broke out in Barlinnie’s B Hall around 7.30pm following a number of seemingly unrelated incidents during the day, including an alleged assault on a prisoner by prison officers.

Around 41 prison officers were subsequently trapped in the chaos that ensued, but most of them eventually managed to escape.

Five however had barricaded themselves in a cell on the third floor of the hall for their own protection.

But the prisoners had broken into the cell and captured them.

Though two prison officers were released unharmed the remaining three would be kept as hostages.

Later that day masked prisoners began appearing on the roof in balaclavas or improvised hoods with eyeholes cut into them.

They also used bedsheets as cloaks to keep themselves warm in the bitter Glasgow cold.

By Monday night, 24 prisoners had control over the top floor of B Hall, which had enabled them to get onto the roof.

Over the next few days, the rioters would roam across the rooftop tossing slates and concrete slabs onto the ground below.

They shouted and screamed abuse at the prison officers, the watching media and Governor Andrew Gallagher in particular.

A newspaper photographer was struck on the foot by one of the objects.

Photographers at the siege (Image: Newsquest)

A number of other inmates, including one with only a few weeks of his sentence to go, were also taken hostage to show that the rioters meant business.

One of the most dramatic moments in the early days of the siege came when one of the prisoner hostages was paraded on the roof with a knife to his throat as he screamed: “They are going to kill me.”

Another enduring image from that time – shown around the world – was of two rioters standing on chimney pots with their arms outstretched in a crucifix pose.

On the second day, the Scottish Prison Service named the three officers being held: David Flanagan, 28, Andrew Smith, 23, and John Kearney, 40.

It also emerged that negotiations for their release were being conducted with the inmates.

The prisoners claimed brutality behind bars had sparked the riot, which was reflected in the three banners that were hanging from B Hall.

One read, in reference to the governor, “Gallagher is brutality”. A second read “to the death” and the third said, “Sammy Ralston was tortured”.

Ralston, nicknamed The Bear, was serving six years on a robbery charge.

He had previously staged his own rooftop protest in November 1986 while on remand on the robbery charge.

The protesters claimed that he had been beaten by prison officers with sticks and gagged to muffle his screams.

Ralston’s mother travelled to the jail to see her son who said that he did not support the prisoners’ hostage-taking, although they seemed to be demonstrating in his favour.

During the siege, the prisoners would go on the roof around dawn and then leave in the evening when it got cold.

On day two, after eight of the 24 protesters gave themselves up, prison authorities cut off the inmates’ contact with the outside world to force them to focus their attention on the negotiations.

The large number of journalists covering the story from prison gates were moved 300 yards down the road from the jail entrance. Visits to the prison by family members and friends, with the exception of Mrs Ralston, were stopped.

At one point the wife of one protesting prisoner had turned up outside the prison walls complete with a baby in a pushchair.

“You are only making it worse for yourself. Please come down. Ronnie, I love you,” she shouted through tears to her husband. “You are going to get hell. Think of the weans.”

Her husband shouted back from the roof: “Don’t worry about me. I will be all right. Worry about the weans.”

The third day brought some real hope for the first time that the siege might end.

The 16 remaining inmates barricaded in B Hall agreed to release Andrew Smith, one of the three officers being held hostage.

They had previously claimed to have enough food for a month but by the Wednesday they were hungry and food supplies then became an important negotiating tool for the authorities.

Andrew was given up in return for food for the other two hostages and the rioters. He was reunited with his wife and examined by a doctor. Andrew told his colleagues that he had not been physically harmed.

As a result of Andrew’s release soup and sandwiches were sent in for the remaining hostages and prisoners.

Later that evening they were given pies, beans and chips.

In a gesture of goodwill, the rioters let the authorities pass letters to the hostages from their wives.

The release of Andrew was followed late on the Thursday with David Flanagan being handed back to the authorities as another gesture of goodwill in the negotiations.

Several hours later the final hostage, John Kearney, was allowed to join his colleagues outside B Hall.

This happened after supplies of hot food and drink had been sent into the prison for the remaining rioters, now reduced to 12, as four had left the roof protest and given themselves up.

The remaining 12 inmates surrendered shortly before 9.30am on Friday, January 10, after they were allowed to see the prison chaplain, Father John McGinley, over a cup of tea.

The authorities then agreed that the protesters would be examined medically, given access to their lawyers and visits from their families.

But there had been one final act of defiance.

Shortly after 9am, the last of the rioters went back onto the roof for the last time to sing “we shall overcome” before giving themselves up.

Journalists were allowed into the hall to show the scenes of devastation including smashed cupboards, lockers, tea urns, furniture and crockery destroyed.

Remarkably despite the damage and the hostage-taking, no one died.

However, 34 prison officers had been injured during hand-to-hand fighting with prisoners in the early stages of the riot.

The end of Scotland’s longest prison siege – 110 hours – also posed the inevitable question: “Why did it happen?”

The mood in the prison had been ugly for months fuelled by news of disorder in other penal establishments.

Rioting had already taken place at Saughton in Edinburgh and at Peterhead.

In the latter a prison officer had been held hostage in a four-day siege in November 1986, involving 40 inmates, that had ended in a blaze that caused £500,000 worth of damage. John Renton, then head of the Scottish Prison Officers Association, blamed overcrowding and under-manning for the disturbances.

This view was dismissed by Scotland’s then-state secretary, Malcolm Rifkind.

He pointed out that out of a Scottish prison population of 5000 or so, only around 50 were involved in trouble.

Scottish home affairs minister Ian Lang also defended the Scottish penal system, saying that much was being done to rehabilitate prisoners.

He denied that Barlinnie was overcrowded and said that any prisoner alleging brutality could have complaints looked into by the police or procurator fiscal.

Local MP Hugh Brown visited the jail and said that an alleged assault on a certain prisoner had not been the main reason for the siege.

Later that year nine men stood trial at the High Court in Glasgow for their part in the riot and three – Allan McLeish, William Marshall and Hugh Twigg – were found guilty and sentenced to a total of 22 years.

Guards in Barlinnie, 1990. (Image: Newsquest)

Trouble at other Scottish prisons later that year, including Shotts, Perth and again Peterhead, increased the demand for change.

The siege at Peterhead was only ended when an elite SAS unit stormed the building, ordered by the-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

The time had come for a long, hard look at prisons in Scotland, Barlinnie in particular.

The various disturbances led to a more relaxed regime with prisoners eventually allowed their own cells, televisions and access to telephones.

Even the notorious practice of slopping out, which caused much resentment, was eventually banned as was the opening of prisoners’ mail.

The five-day siege at Barlinnie was as dramatic as anything the prison had seen since opening its doors in the 1880s – and thankfully hasn’t been repeated since.