It’s dark in the cell. This letter, and many others like it, raised public awareness about the day-to-day goings on inside Armagh as the 32 protesting women were subjected to increasingly poor food, little to no interaction with fellow prisoners, unpleasant temperatures, violence at the hands of their guards, and an accumulation of stress due to the worsening conditions of their surroundings. The defining condition for the women's dirty protest, however, had not to do with bathing or using the toilet, but with the menstrual cycle. While Ireland and the world was appalled at how the men at Long Kesh were living day in and day out, the presence of such an intimate and inherently sexual bodily fluid direct contrasted with the pure, model Irish women which Irish Republican activists were intended to illustrate. Indeed, even the mention of menstruation caused outrage in the guards and other men who came into contact with the issue, whether in person or in passing: "I’ve taken my period’ she said simply. “I need some sanitary napkins and a wash.” He looked at her with disgust. “Have you no shame? I’ve been married twenty years and my wife wouldn’t mention things like that.” What is the color of shame? All she could see was red as it trickled down her legs.” When the public was made aware that the women were being forced to smear their blood on the walls along with their excrement and urine because of a lack of sanitary napkins being provided to them, most reacted in disgust and disbelief, pointing to this as further proof that women did not belong in prison because they were obviously, naturally more “delicate.” In addition, the presence of blood was believed to provide more opportunity for health risks and disease transmission than the other bodily waste. One of the notable figures of the dirty protest, Pauline McLoughlin, a 19-year-old from Derry. She was arrested and held on remand in Armagh before being sentenced in 1978 for being complicit in the murder of a British soldier. As an initial member of the protest, Pauline lived in the unsanitary conditions from the first days and, because of a previously existing stomach condition, became increasingly ill as time went on. After having lost all of her prison privileges as a member of the dirty protest, Pauline was suddenly unable to receive the packages of food which had kept her sustained and began to vomit continuously after every prison meal.