Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association

Colin Duffy Interview from Andersonstown news - "It's the H Blocks again!"

2012-01-26T14:58:00.000-08:00

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Statement on Massareene verdict

2012-01-21T11:45:00.001-08:00

Statement
The verdict delivered in the trial of Colin Duffy and Brian Shivers yesterday is an indictment of British courts in Ireland. This trial from the outset was a show trial attempting to secure a guilty conviction against Republicans. The failure of the PSNI to apprehend those who were involved in the attack led them to try and frame these two men. We welcome the fact that Colin Duffy was acquitted as it was the only realistic verdict to reach given the total lack of credible evidence. However Brian Shivers, a man with a terminal illness has now been made a scapegoat for the failure of the PSNI. The sentence imposed upon Brian is in effect a death sentence and a gross violation of the due process of justice. Both these men were denied the right to trial by a jury and instead had to face the prospect of a British judge being the sole authority. These courts are now being used as a tool of repression against all those who take a stand against the status quo.The internment of Marian Price on trumped up charges continues and the prisoners continue to be beaten and harassed by prison officers before their appearances in these diplock courts. We urge all Republicans and human rights advocates to stand behind Brian and his family, and those who remain interned in Maghaberry. To remain silent in the face of such violation of human rights is to acquiesce to it.

Ends

The detention of IRA veteran Marian Price harks back to internment

2012-01-18T14:33:00.000-08:00

The facts around Price's detention suggest she is being held not for any crime, but from a belief the state is better off without her.Today, parole commissioners for Northern Ireland will decide whether to order the release of the IRA veteran Marian Price from Maghaberry prison. The 57-year-old has been held since last May, when the Northern Ireland secretary, Owen Patterson, signed an order revoking her licence.
Her detention has been a scandal. Price has been effectively held in solitary as the only female in the high-security prison, charged with encouraging support for an illegal organisation. The charge arose from an Easter Rising commemoration in Derry organised by the 32-county sovereignty movement – widely regarded as the political voice of the Real IRA – during which she held up the script from which a masked man read the Real IRA's "Easter message".
Price was one of nine IRA volunteers sentenced to life for planting four bombs in London, including one at the Old Bailey, in March 1973. Around 180 people were injured, mainly by flying glass. One man died from a heart attack. The bombing party included Gerry Kelly, now a Sinn Féin minister at Stormont, and Price's older sister, Dolours.
Price was freed in 1980 suffering from tuberculosis and anorexia and weighing around five stone. Her lawyers insist that her release was based on a royal pardon, which would mean that Patterson had no legal power to order her detention. His intervention amounted to an egregious abuse reminiscent of internment, they say. However, Patterson's lawyers say that "extensive searches" have failed to locate the crucial document. A copy destroyed in 2010, they have told the parole commissioners, turns out to have been the only copy that existed, so its exact terms cannot be established. But, they add, the "surrounding circumstances" of 1980 suggest that Price was not pardoned but conditionally released.
Many are surprised that British authorities have not been able to come up with a stronger case. Price's lawyers, Kevin Winters and Co, told the commissioners in a submission on 4 January: "It is difficult to fathom how, even exercising a modicum of care, this document was destroyed without someone, before destruction, ensuring that the original (or at least another copy) was still in existence … There is certainly a foundation for suggesting that the document may (and we can put it no higher) have been deliberately 'buried' given the embarrassment it might cause."
In court in Derry two days after her detention last year, despite strenuous prosecution objections, she was granted bail, then immediately rearrested under an order signed the previous evening. Her bail application had thus been made meaningless by Patterson's advance arrangement to trump the court's decision if it went against the state's wishes.
In the high-security jail where she is being held, Price was further charged last July with "providing property for the purposes of terrorism" – connected to the trial for the killing of two soldiers outside Massereene barracks in Antrim in March 2009.
Price had been questioned for two days about this allegation in November 2009 and released without charge. There was no change in circumstances in the interim and no new evidence offered. Again, over the objections of the state, she was given bail and, again, returned to prison. It seems at the least a reasonable suspicion that the new charge was designed to pre-empt the planned challenge to Patterson's authority.
On Monday, Price appeared at Belfast magistrates court on the same charge and was returned for trial. Again, despite bail having been given on the charge in July, she was taken back to prison.
The facts of Price's detention, taken together, suggest she is being held indefinitely not because there is evidence that she is guilty of serious crime, but because the Northern Ireland Office believes the state is better off with her out of the way – that, in everyday language, she is in internment. We thought we were done with that in Northern Ireland. Marian Price should be freed forthwith.

Eamonn McCann

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/18/ira-marian-price-internment?newsfeed=true

Echoes of 1981 - From The Andersonstown News

2012-01-12T08:53:00.000-08:00

The ongoing protest by republican prisoners in Maghaberry will be stepped up if Justice Minister David Ford does not implement the full terms of the August 2010 Roe House agreement.

Representatives of the support group Family and Friends of Republican Prisoners in Maghaberry were speaking to the Andersonstown News as inmates in the prison’s republican Roe House wing continue their no-wash protest at the continued use of full body strip-searching by prison authorities. The Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) claim the use of full body strip-searching is “essential” for security reasons, an argument dismissed by the prisoners and their supporters, who say the inflammatory practice never guaranteed prison security in the past.

It has also been alleged that some long-serving prison officers are using full body strip-searching as “an opportunity to even old scores” against republicans.

The August 2010 Roe House agreement, which was struck between the republican prisoners and prison authorities with the help of independent facilitators, did away with full body strip-searching in the prison in favour of the non-invasive BOSS chair scanner and other technology-based procedures. The agreement also allowed for a gradual reduction in controlled movement for republicans within Roe House.

However, that agreement was to break down only a month later after prison authorities claimed it did not cover strip-searching in the reception area of Maghaberry Prison as prisoners were leaving and entering the facility.

The ensuing stand-off with the prison authorities over the issue, say supporters and relatives, has led to nearly 200 forced strip-searches on republicans inmates and the beating of prisoners who refuse to submit to strip-searching. It also saw the start of the latest no-wash protest, in May 2011.

Tensions have escalated to such an extent that the prison’s riot squad now permanently mans part of the wing in place of regular prison officers.

Brendy Conway of Family and Friends of Republican Prisoners in Maghaberry, himself a prisoner in Maghaberry at the time of the Roe House agreement and who helped negotiate that agreement on behalf of the prisoners, said the problem has become so bad that prisoners are “looking into the abyss”.

“Nothing has given rise to any hope at this stage that this can be resolved,” said Brendy. “The prisoners believed that they had been given cast-iron guaranteed commitments by the [prison] administration to do away with the strip-searching completely and to relax controlled movement within a given time-frame. It was also the understanding of the facilitators that that was the case. However, the Prison Service have now made it quite clear to the facilitators that the August 12 agreement did not cover strip-searching in the reception area. Had we known that we would never have signed the agreement.

“Since May 5, the protest has increased. We have a situation now where we have prisoners on various forms of protest – some are on dirty protest and some guys are not, due to health reasons and age. We are looking into the abyss.”
Former blanketman Alex McCrory, also of Family and Friends of Republican Prisoners in Maghaberry, said that elements within the prison and the NIPS “began to work against the agreement” immediately after it was agreed upon by the relevant parties.

“Strip-searching was re-introduced after the agreement within a very short time and progress on controlled movement was stalled to a snail’s pace,” said Alex. “The prisoners would refuse to comply with the strip-searching as they said it was in breach of the agreement and this then led to forcible strip-searching. Since August 2010 there have been almost 200 forced strip-searches in the prison, leading to countless injuries to prisoners. These searches are very aggressive, involving four to six screws dressed in riot gear wielding shields and batons. Prisoners are beaten to the ground. They have restraining locks applied to their joints and their clothes are forcibly removed. On at least two occasions clothes have been cut off from their bodies using scissors. Several prisoners have received injuries as a result of that. In relation to controlled movement, in Maghaberry today there is a ratio of three screws to one prisoner and five screws to two prisoners. In Long Kesh you had a ratio of two screws to thirty-plus men on a wing with unrestricted movement. The history of republican wings tells us that prison staff are safe when points of conflict are removed. That is the situation that we find ourselves in at present.”

Alex said the facilitators who helped broker the initial Roe House agreement have told the Friends and Family group that a “a blockage in the system at a very senior level” is preventing the full implementation of the terms agreed in August 2010. He added that long-serving prison guards were the main instigators of the “hassle” the prisoners were getting.

“They [the independent facilitators] said that there are people within the system that are totally opposed to the ending of full body strip-searching for the purposes of security even though there is new technology available that makes a full body strip-search obsolete and unnecessary.

“Certain protestors are singled out, such as Colin Duffy [Lurgan] and Harry Fitzsimons [Ballymurphy], men who have a history going back to Long Kesh. There is a sense that some prison guards are getting their own back now for what happened in the past. They have this old mindset and unfortunately Maghaberry affords them the opportunity to even old scores.”

The current no-wash protest involves some 35 prisoners aligned to different republican groups who are refusing to wash, shave or have their hair cut.

“For example, on the top landing you have ONH [Óglaigh na hÉireann]-aligned and RSF [Republican Sinn Féin]-aligned prisoners who are putting their human waste on the walls,” explained Alex. “On the bottom landing, prisoners aligned to the 32 County Sovereignty Movement and independent prisoners are putting their human waste on to the landing.
Although there are differences in tactics, there is a full protest at present.”

Alex added that current conditions for prisoners in Roe House are “extremely harsh” and the atmosphere within the wing is “extremely hostile and tense”.

“The bottom landing, which holds 14 of the protestors, is being run by the prison riot squad in full riot gear so the ordinary screws have effectively been withdrawn,” he said. “The prisoners are searched leaving the cell, outside the cell and on returning to the cell. The screws in the riot squad are trained to be aggressive and in-your-face so there has been an awful lot of hostility and tension which the prisoners live with on a daily basis. There is always potential for a flare-up because of the tense relationship between the prisoners and the riot squad. A few of the prisoners have been in jail before and a sizeable number have been in the Kesh, but for the vast majority of them this is their first time in jail. There are no former blanketmen there, so this would be their first experience of these types of conditions and they find it very, very difficult to cope with, but they are very determined to see the agreement implemented in full.”

NIPS claims that the use of full body strip-searches is essential for security reasons have been rubbished by the Friends and Family group.

“As ex-prisoners, we can tell you that that’s complete nonsense,” said Alex. “A full body strip-search never guaranteed prison security. On the blanket protest we were able to bring in thousands of comms, tobacco, radios and God knows what else despite a full body strip-search and mirror search. The full body strip-search is about control and domination, it’s as simple as that. It’s the first contact that the prisoner has with the system and in the first contact you have with that system you are compelled to remove your clothing and stand naked before three or four grown men. The ironic thing is that the technology that we are proposing probably enhances security rather than compromises security.”
The support group backs the implementation of the recommendations of the recent independent review into the Northern Ireland Prison Service by Dame Anne Owers, in which she found the Prison Service here to be “dysfunctional” and “ineffective”.

“She recommends that the Prison service as a whole gets other forms of search procedures in place other than full body strip-searching,” said Alex.

“She says there are new technologies that would render the full body strip-search absolutely unnecessary and describes the practice as ‘an invasion of privacy and intrusive’. That report was released two months ago but [Justice Minister] David Ford is saying that it could take two years to implement her recommendations.”

The two men say that prisoners feel that they are not getting “the type of support they deserve from former friends
and comrades who should know better and who have been through this whole experience before”.

“Sinn Féin have met with the prisoners on several occasions and met with our group on several occasions and we have discussed the issues inside-out,” said Alex.

“They have made numerous public statements calling on David Ford to implement the agreement, but unfortunately that is not enough. We believe there has to be some sort of meaningful political action following on from these statements. The DUP are the main obstacle to the implementation of this agreement so there has to be a counter to that. The Family and Friends group are calling on Sinn Féin to use their political strength in a positive way to counter the DUP on this issue and to bring a speedy resolution to this problem.”

Alex accepts that the lack of outside interest in the protest could be because it involves prisoners from micro-republican
groups.

“To a large extent that is the case, but I also think that people don’t like the idea of the past coming back to haunt them,” he said.

“The situation is bad at the moment and it is difficult to see how the protest can be escalated without something drastic coming into play. Obviously that’s not something that’s being talked about by prisoners or the organisations they align to, but we are talking about a situation here where prisoners are living in their own waste. Now I spent two and a half years on the blanket protest and it cannot get any worse than that. They are under enormous pressure in terms of the physical conditions in which they find themselves and because of that, that puts enormous pressure on the men’s families.”

Brendy Conway added that the prisoners “are not looking anything that was not already agreed as far back as August 2010”.

“Going into 2012 we have prisoners still on dirty protest and locked down 23 hours a day and people going through lengthy trials who are being forcibly stripped twice a day, such as Colin Duffy,” said Brendy.

“The ball’s in their court. To quote the facilitators, an hour could sort this out.”

A spokesperson for the NIPS said the service has “consistently maintained that full body searching on entering and exiting any prison is essential to preserve the security of the establishment and the safety of other prisoners, staff and the wider community in line with practice in other jurisdictions throughout Europe”. The spokesperson continued:“A search facility for separated prisoners at Maghaberry, incorporating a BOSS chair, has been operational since November 17, 2010. In line with the August 2010 agreement, there is no longer any requirement for routine rub-down searching within the separated wings, except where a prisoner is being moved out of the wing. However, the BOSS chair cannot detect non-metallic items. NIPS believes that the existing arrangements are consistent with the August agreement and remains committed to the implementation of the agreement. This position was upheld by the courts when it was challenged by judicial review earlier this year.

“In line with Dame Anne Owers’ recommendation that we should seek an alternative to ‘full body searching’ in her review of NIPS, we are currently researching what, if any, other alternative technologies are available. To date, no viable alternative has been identified.”

Asked about the deployment of the prison riot squad at sections of Roe House in place of regular prison guards, the NIPS spokesperson added: “Members of the NIPS Dedicated Search Team are currently deployed to Roe House at Maghaberry prison for operational reasons, but this arrangement is kept under review by the Governor.

“There is a complaints procedure in place, in particular the Prisoner Ombudsman, should any prisoner believe that NIPS staff have behaved inappropriately.”

Sister speaks of brother’s beating

The family of a West Belfast man currently on the no-wash protest in Maghaberry prison have vowed to stand by him 100 per cent “no matter what decisions he makes” as fears of a protest escalation mount.

Lilian Fitzsimons, sister of 43-year-old Harry Fitzsimons from Ballymurphy, was speaking to the Andersonstown News as her brother continues on the no-wash protest in the Roe House wing of the County Antrim prison.

Harry’s family say the father-of-four has been severely beaten on two occasions by guards at the prison, with the last attack in May 2011 leaving him with a suspected cracked rib and extensive cuts and bruising to his face and body.
Speaking about the most recent beating, Lilian said her brother was given a 15-minute ultimatum to agree to a strip-search before it was brutally forced upon him in his prison cell.

“When they [the prison guards] came in they got him on the ground,” she said.

“While they were beating him and trailing his clothes off him, one of them was ramming a knuckle into a pressure point below his ear constantly. There were six of them that came in and it lasted about 15 to 20 minutes.”

Lilian said when she heard about the attack and tried to contact the prison, she was told nothing of the injuries that her brother had suffered.

“When I asked about him and said I heard that he was beaten I was told ‘No, no, no. We don’t beat our prisoners. Don’t be silly, we don’t beat our prisoners’,” she said.

“I had a visit the next day with him and when I went up I saw the physical injuries on him and I could see the cuts where they had kicked his glasses into his face when he was lying on the ground.

“You could actually see the other visitors and prisoners that were in the visiting room that day taken aback when they saw Harry. It was awful and it was sad, particularly knowing that you couldn’t do anything about it. Even for me to hug him was hurting him.”

Lilian said a priest at the prison spoke to her about Harry’s injuries.

“He said to me, ‘He’s alive but he didn’t get that bumping into a door.’”

Headaches

The family say it was six days before a doctor examined Harry’s injuries.

“The prison was saying he was refusing to see a doctor. He wasn’t as he was in absolute agony,” said Lilian.

“Harry wears prescription glasses so he wasn’t able to see properly and he also gets terrible headaches when he has no glasses. The reason they gave for the savage beating is that when Harry was throwing his waste out on to the landing after the cell doors were opened some of it got on the prison guards’ shoes and that’s why they entered his cell.”

Lilian said that after the first beating her brother received in April 2010, he was put in the special supervision unit for 14 days.

“They didn’t even let his solicitor in,” she said. “We didn’t know if he was alive or dead or what physical state he was in as they gave him a real physical beating that time too. Families are given such little information and to us it seems these people think it’s their God-given right to beat any republican in the jail. It’s the same administration and regime that’s running the jail as it was pre-hunger strike and I get the impression that they can do what they want. This leaves the family so distressed, it hurts you and it makes you so angry and that’s why people are protesting on the outside as they know it just isn’t right.

“This isn’t normal, if this happened anywhere else in the world there would be such an uproar about it. In this day and age they should not be allowed to get away with stuff like that.”

Lilian added that despite the gruelling conditions her brother has to endure, “he is still very strong in body and mind”.

“No matter what, he stands up for what he believes in and a lot of people will stand by him,” she said.

“Nothing would get him down and this isn’t something that would break him, if anything it would make him determined to carry on.

“As a family we will stand by him 100 per cent no matter what decisions he makes, we will be there for him and we will stand by him.”

The bad faith and broken promises

1998: Good Friday Agreement is implemented. Political prisoners are released early on the condition that the groups they are affiliated with are on ceasefire and continue to remain on ceasefire

September 2000: The H-Blocks are closed down. Any republicans arrested after the closure of the H-Blocks are now integrated with ‘ordinary decent criminals’ (ODCs) in Maghaberry prison.

“They were mixed in with loyalists and the likes of paedophiles and so on,” said Brendy Conway, former Maghaberry prisoner and member of the Friends and Family of Republican Prisoners in Maghaberry.

“As the number of republican prisoners increased in Maghaberry over the years they spread them out throughout the prison.”

2002: Republican prisoners in Maghaberry begin forms of no-wash protest. Republican prisoners demand a separate wing in the prison from loyalist prisoners, after several clashes, and from ODCs.

September 2003: Publication of the Steele Report. Following escalations in the no-wash protests at Maghaberry, the British government commissions a review of conditions at the prison conducted by a team headed up by Sir John Steele, a former Director of the Northern Ireland Prison Service. The report recommends “separation by paramilitary affiliation” of prisoners to help provide a safer environment. The report recommendations are adopted. Two new wings are now to be built at Maghaberry Prison – Roe House for republican prisoners and Bush House for loyalists.

“On the basis of the Steele Report’s findings, and as part of the agreement then reached between the prisoners and the prison authorities, the prisoners agreed to come off protest until this new wing was built,” said Brendy.

“It was also agreed that the authorities would recognise prisoner structures – i.e. the prisoners would have representatives to deal with the authorities on education, for instance, or the day-to-day running of the landing.”

March 2004: Roe House is opened and republican prisoners move in. However, in a position statement shown to the Andersonstown News, republican prisoners claim the previous agreement with the authorities was instantly reneged upon when the wing was opened and a “criminalisation regime put in place which was again designed to control, degrade and criminalise republican prisoners”. This is alleged to have included: prisoners searched up to six times a day when moving between cells and recreation area; daily cell searches; “degrading” full body strip-searches; prisoners locked up for up to 22 hours a day; three guards to every prisoner when they left their cells.

2004 to 2008: Prisoners begin protesting again, this time in reaction to deteriorating conditions at Roe House. “There were different token protests by the prisoners to get the authorities to change the ratio of guards to prisoners,” said Brendy.

“This approach worked to some extent – they increased the number of prison officers to five officers for two prisoners but then the maximum number of prisoners allowed out was changed from three to eight.”

2008 to 2009: Talks and debates begin between the republican prisoners to decide how best to move the protest forward and improve the conditions for republican prisoners. “We identified the main areas that we wanted dealt with before we would come off protest,” said Brendy, who was then a prisoner in Roe House.

“These areas were: the controlled movement of prisoners; the full body strip-searching of prisoners; recognition by the Prison Service that republican prisoners were not ordinary prisoners and therefore should be treated differently. Strip-searching and controlled movement were the two main areas that we wanted movement on. I was involved in those negotiations and we came to an agreement on how we were going to do it. The first stage of that took place in April 2010.”

April 4, 2010: The prisoners barricade themselves into the canteen area of Roe House for 36 hours. “We were then forcibly removed from the canteen and returned to our cells,” said Brendy.

“After that the protest inevitably increased through April, May and into June. There were 28 prisoners on the two landings in Roe House and all of them were on full protest, which was throwing our waste on to the landing.

“On one occasion West Belfast man Harry Fitzsimons had a disagreement with an SO [senior officer]. He went out for an hour’s exercise, came back and after lunch a riot squad was sent into his cell and severely beat him. They pulled him off the wing and put him in the SSU (special supervision unit), handcuffed him to a bed, cut his clothes off and strip-searched him. That evening when they took him off the wing all the prisoners wrecked their cells, which signalled the start of the protest escalating.”

The new no-wash protest saw prisoners putting their waste out of their cell doors and windows and refusing to wash.

June 2010: Facilitation between prisoners and the Northern Ireland Prison Service begins. As the stalemate between the prisoners and the prison authorities deepens, the group Family and Friends of Republican Prisoners in Maghaberry is formed outside the prison to raise awareness of the prisoners’ plight. By the end of June a facilitation group made up of Derry community worker Conal McFeely, Peter Bunting from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and Dr Ram Manikkalingam from the Dialogue Advisory Group enters the prison to help mediate a deal between the prisoners, the Northern Ireland Prison Service and the Maghaberry prison administration.

“The prisoners debated this [the involvement of the facilitation group] and agreed to it, under certain conditions – that we would speak to them frankly and at all times be in control of what we were doing,” said Brendy.

“A 10-man negotiating team was then set up by the prisoners to speak for them, who then elected two people to speak on their behalf, who were myself and Colin Duffy.”

The prisoners’ two main demands are: an end to strip searching and for more humane and less intrusive methods to be used instead; the end to controlled movement.

“We met facilitators and then met directly with prison governors,” said Brendy.

“The governors said they were willing to look at our demands, but only if the prisoners came off protest, which we refused.”

Negotiations continue.

August 6, 2010: A “final proposal” is offered by the prison that does not address the prisoners’ two main demands. “The facilitators told us there was nothing more that could be done,” said Brendy. “So the prisoners decide to increase the protest in jail, which led to a cessation of visits and an increase in tension in the prison.”

August 11: Facilitators re-enter the prison with a new agreement ending full body strip-searching. “It was supposed to remove the practice entirely from within Maghaberry, except in two circumstances,” said Brendy.

“One was if intelligence-led information suggested that a prisoner was smuggling stuff in and this information could be stood over by a credible third party (video footage etc). Secondly, if the technology we agreed could be used in the new search indicated that there was something there, a full strip-search could be carried out. So we gave them room that they still had an opportunity to carry out strip-searching in certain circumstances.”

The technology the prisoners agreed could be used in place of full body strip-searches includes a BOSS scanner, effectively a metal-detector chair.

“We agreed that if we were leaving the prison to go on visits or go to court we would remove our footwear, belts and outer coats and put them through an airport-type scanner,” said Brendy.

“We would then be given rubdown searches, scanned over with a metal-detector and seated in the Boss chair. We agreed on that and accepted it.

“In terms of controlled movement, we agreed that, on the signing of the agreement and on the end of our protest, the authorities would immediately increase the number of prisoners allowed out at one time. The number of prisoners allowed out on the landing at one time was increased from three to six straight away. It was also agreed by December 2010 that the number of prisoners allowed out would increase again, and by early 2011 we would all have freedom of movement within Roe House and the two landings from 8am in the morning to 8pm at night.

“The prison staff were always concerned that it would go back to a Maze-type scenario where there would only be a small amount of guards on the wing at any time. But we never negotiated for the removal of prison officers from the landing, if there had to be 50 of them we didn’t care as long as it didn’t impede our freedom of movement, i.e. that as prisoners our doors should be opened in the morning and we could move freely about our landings, canteen and yard.”

August 12, 2010: The Roe House agreement is signed. “Within the first few days there were teething problems on controlled movement – which we allowed for – for instance they were not allowing six out at a time as the place was upside down with tradesmen in working etc,” said Brendy.

“But right to this day they have never let six prisoners out as the guards were refusing to let that number out without 15 to 16 staff on the landing.”

September 23, 2010: First forcible full body strip-search since Roe House agreement is carried out on Brendy Conway as he is leaving for court appearance. “I was told to strip but I flatly refused as it was not part of the Roe House agreement,” said Brendy.

“I was told by guards it was part of the agreement as reception was not covered in the agreement. A big argument then started between prison governors and myself and during this I was forcibly removed from the reception area, brought to the punishment unit of the prison where I was pinned to the floor and forcibly strip-searched.”

Prisoners opt not to go back on protest but to inform facilitators of the agreement breach against Brendy Conway. The recently inactive group Family and Friends of Republican Prisoners in Maghaberry is reformed on the outside.

November 17, 2010: New search facility opens adjacent to Roe House. This new search facility contains the aforementioned Boss chair and scanners. Prisoners are now searched leaving and entering Roe House to visit other parts of the prison as well as being strip-searched in the main reception area of Maghaberry when they are leaving and entering the prison site.

On the first day the new search facility at Roe House is used a mouth search is introduced on prisoners which they refuse to cooperate with. This sparks a stand-off between prison staff and prisoners in the run-up to Christmas which leads to the cessation of prison visits. Facilitators are brought in again and it is agreed that conversing between prisoner and guard would be seen as acceptable in place of a mouth search. Visits begin again in the week leading up to Christmas.

Early 2011: Prisoners continue meeting with facilitators and political parties visiting the prison while the Family and Friends group continue their campaign on the outside.

May 5, 2011: Prisoners begin protest again. The Prison Service makes it clear to facilitators that the agreement did not cover strip-searching in reception area.

“The prisoners deemed the agreement as effectively over as authorities were no longer adhering to it,” said Brendy.
“Prisoners then wrecked their cells and began a no-wash protest again. What needs to be made absolutely clear is that as far as the facilitators were concerned their interpretation of the Roe House agreement of August 12, particularly in regards to full body strip-searching, was always in line with the prisoners’ interpretation.”

October 2011: An independent review into the Northern Ireland Prison Service is published. The independent review, commissioned by the Minister for Justice David Ford and headed up by Dame Anne Owers, finds the Prison Service here “dysfunctional” and “ineffective”. One of its key recommendations is the need to do away with full body strip-searching in favour of using other technologies.

The no-wash protest continues.

Dirty protest by republican prisoners puts top jail on brink of deadly disease

2012-01-04T04:31:00.000-08:00

A Republican on dirty protest in Maghaberry jail claims the North's top security prison is fast deteriorating into a cesspit of disease.
Damien McLaughlin, the first prisoner on the protest to be freed, described in graphic detail the horrific conditions in which republican inmates live and prison staff work.
The 34 republican inmates are engaged in a bitter dispute with the authorities over forced strip-searching.
McLaughlin said: "Prisoners are smearing their excrement on cell walls or else mixing it with urine and pouring it out their doors onto the landing.
"Inside the cells are awful, outside is a mess too. The stench is unbelievable. The riot squad are permanently on our landing. They're dressed in white disposable boiler suits, helmets, boots, and latex gloves.
"They're armed with batons. They tramp through the excrement and urine to hand us meals to be eaten in our cells. It's a serious health hazard and there's a real danger of a disease outbreak."
The protesting prisoners claim a BOSS chair – an X-ray-type machine already in Maghaberry – means strip searching isn't needed and is used only to "degrade and criminalise" republicans.
But prison officers insist strip-searching is vital to security and the prisoners' protest is to blame for the current health risks.
McLaughlin claimed the prisoners were locked in their cells 22 hours a day and were sometimes denied food for up to 16 hours.
The situation was "at breaking point", he claimed: "Tensions are at an all-time high. Maghaberry is a powder keg."
Republican inmates are refusing to shave or cut their hair. McLaughlin, a 35-year-old father of two from Ardboe, Co Tyrone, was released last Friday.
Emerging from the prison to be greeted by family and friends, he looked like a H-Block blanketman from the 1970s, sporting a bushy beard.
McLaughlin, who served two years in Maghaberry for weapons' possession, was forcibly strip-searched 23 times. He said Colin Duffy – charged with murdering two British soldiers at Massereene – had been strip-searched 76 times.
McLaughlin claimed strip-searching was brutal. "One prison officer grabs your head, two others grip your hands, while the fourth holds you down on the floor," he said.
"They tear off your trousers, socks and boxer shorts. They run a scanner over your back passage and genitals. Then, they search your upper body.
"After a strip search, you feel like you've been in a car crash. Your whole body aches."
When asked why there should be any public concern for men accused or convicted of serious offences, McLaughlin said: "We know many people have no sympathy for us.
"Prisoners don't expect kid-glove treatment. Jails aren't holiday camps but neither should they be places of inhumanity. The dirty protest was a last resort because we were being treated like animals."
McLaughlin claimed lights are deliberately shone into prisoners' cells, or else their doors are banged three or four times a night, to stop them sleeping.
The prison service strongly denies allegations of brutality or harassment. The DUP accuses republicans of wanting to "turn Maghaberry into the Maze".

http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/breen/arts2012/jan1_dirty_protest_prison_brink_disease___SBreen_Sunday-World.php

British destroyed document to prolong incarceration of Marian Price

2011-12-31T05:27:00.000-08:00

Pressure is growing for the immediate release from jail of former republican spokeswoman Marian Price after it was admitted that a royal pardon central to her case has been shredded by the British government.

Ms Price, 57 years old and in poor health, has been held in solitary confinement at the notorious Maghaberry prison since her arrest in May in connection with a republican rally at Derry’s city cemetery on Easter Sunday.
She was jailed for IRA activities in 1973 but was given a royal pardon in 1980 because she appeared to be close to death from anorexia.
But after acting as a spokesperson for the 32 County Sovereignty Committee and heading up a prisoners’ welfare campaign, she was arrested and returned to prisin by British Direct Ruler Owen Paterson.
Her legal team have insisted the pardon should have precluded her return to jail on the basis of previous offences.
Last month the British government confirmed that the pardon document had been “lost”. On Wednesday, a parole commission hearing in Maghaberry heard the pardon had actually been shredded.
The veteran activist will now spend Christmas behind bars after judgment on her parole was reserved until the New Year.
Following the hearing, her solicitor Peter Corrigan said: “The royal pardon is central to the case against our client’s detention.
“During the parole commissioners’ hearing it was confirmed that the pardon has been shredded, in light of this information Owen Paterson should release Marian Price immediately.”
“It’s very convenient that the only lost document in this case is the pardon,” he added.
Mr Corrigan revealed the UN special rapporteur on torture recently called for solitary confinement to be banned in all but “exceptional circumstances” and for it never to last more than 15 days.
“Marian Price has been in solitary seven months. This shouldn’t happen in a civilised country. Even those who vehemently oppose my client’s politics must realise this amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment,” he said.
The SDLP has challenged the Justice Minister at Stormont about the continued internment of Marian Price.
Mr Ramsey said, “I raised with the Justice Minister the current incarceration of Marian Price which I believe to be morally wrong given her state of health and the fact that she is being detained as a result of the Secretary of State’s action in revoking her license, a totally unaccountable act.
“This case is of paramount importance to bring a new level of confidence in how we deal with justice related matters.”
Boards were erected this week highlighting her case and a push to release her for Christmas.
The 32 County Sovereignty Committee in Derry blasted Sinn Fein for their inaction on the matter.
According to a statement, Price’s former comrades “sit within the bastion of Unionism [Stormont] playing at politics and getting handsomely paid for their pretence -- until Westminster, as it tends to do, flexes it muscles to show where the real power lies.
They pointed to a saying attributed to Irish martyr James Connolly: “Ruling by fooling is a great British art -- with great Irish fools to practice on.”
They said; Internment has been reintroduced, Irish innocents are suffering once again British injustices, and those who shouted loudest about previous miscarriages of justice are now implementing new miscarriages of justice for their paymasters.”

http://republican-news.org/current/news/2011/12/liberty_shredded_by_britain.html

Marian Price protest a success in Glasgow

2011-12-31T05:23:00.000-08:00

The Marian Price protest in Glasgow was a great success which enjoyed significant popular support and interest.

Members of the public were shocked at the facts relating to Marian's internment.

The protest went ahead despite the british security agents making threats of arrest and possible violence.

The 32CSM and the IRPWA in England and Scotland wish to thank the comrades and the people of Glasgow who turned out to support the Marian Price protest. By doing so the facts the British state did not want to be known have been placed firmly in the minds of the people.

We salute the POW's and send solidarity greetings to you all. We stand with you in the face of a British government who are willing to breach fundamental rights.

An Phoblacht Abu

The Vol Charles Carrigan and Gaughan Stagg Cumann (32CSM)

Damien McLaughlin released- Forcibly stripped on release

2011-12-23T04:51:00.000-08:00

Damien was released this morning from Maghaberry gaol.Upon his release he was asked to strip and refused..The riot squad were then called for and forcibly strip searched him.

TSG's were waiting outside the gaol and followed before stopping and searching cars

Irish news article on illegal incarceration of Marian Price!

2011-12-21T11:32:00.000-08:00

Click article to view full size

Marian Price reveals horror of seven months' solitary confinement

2011-12-19T02:29:00.000-08:00

Old Bailey bomber, Marian Price, has defiantly refused to condemn the dissident republican campaign despite spending seven months in solitary confinement in jail.

The North's most high-profile female republican revealed the terrible toll her time in isolation in Maghaberry prison has taken on her physical and mental health.

But in an exclusive interview from behind bars with Sunday World, she wouldn't condemn dissident republicanism or 'armed struggle'.

"I remain a proud and unrepentant republican. I make no apology for that," she said.

Price claimed as long as Britain remained in the North, "Irish people have a right to resist that occupation".

Once a close associate of Gerry Adams, she became disillusioned with Sinn Féin in the mid-1990s and joined the dissident political group, the 32 County Sovereignty Movement.

Speaking from Maghaberry jail, she admitted only a tiny minority of people share her views which have little electoral support. "I accept what you're saying but being a republican isn't about entering a popularity contest – it never has been," she claimed.

Price, a 57-year-old mother of two, has been held without charge in isolation in the all-male jail since Secretary of State Owen Paterson revoked her licence in May.

Along with her sister, Dolours, she became a household name when she went on a lengthy hunger-strike and was force fed in Brixton prison. Gravely ill with tuberculosis and anorexia, and weighing only five stone, Price was released on licence in 1980.

Weeks later, she was granted a royal pardon. Her lawyer claims this superseded the licensce, meaning she could never be returned to jail on the basis of her previous conviction.

Asked repeatedly in court to produce the pardon, the NIO says it has been "lost" and probably shredded. Price will appear before the life sentence review commission in Maghaberry on Wednesday.

Solicitor Peter Corrigan, will argue that she be freed immediately. "It's very convenient that the only lost document in this case is the pardon," he said. Corrigan revealed the UN special rapporteur on torture recently called for solitary confinement to be banned in all but "exceptional circumstances" and for it never to last more than 15 days.

"Marian Price has been in solitary seven months. This shouldn't happen in a civilised country. Even those who vehemently oppose my client's politics must realise this amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment," he said.

There's tight security on my visit to see Price. I'm photographed, fingerprinted three times, walked through an airport-type scanner, subjected to a body search and then the sniffer dog.

Price sits alone in a large, soulless room in an isolated part of the jail. Neatly dressed in a cream top and grey trousers, wearing a Celtic cross on a gold chain and pearl earrings, she seems more like a middle-class professional woman than a republican prisoner.

Calm, but clearly stressed, Price said: "I get three visits a week in Maghaberry. Those three hours' conversation is the only contact I have with other human beings. Of course, it's taking its toll on me."

Her hands and arms are covered in psoriasis, brought on by stress. She's shed several stones in weight and is losing her hair. "When I brush it every morning, it falls into the wash-hand basin in clumps," she said.

The DUP claim she's enjoying a life of luxury in the Co Antrim prison. "That's ludicrous," she said, describing in detail her existence in a small sparse cell and tiny exercise yard.

"My cell is 10 x 7 ft. It has a bed, a toilet, a wash-basin and a TV which I pay for. During the day, I have access to a recreation room – with a TV – and a shower room which was so filthy I'd to clean it myself before using it."

The perimeter of her exercise yard measures just 85 paces and is surrounded by a 25-ft high wall.

She speaks of the "mind-numbing boredom" of solitary. She's allowed only two books a week. She reads Swedish crime writer Stieg Larsson's novels and surprisingly the right-wing British Daily Mail "for the word puzzles".

She watches nature and current affairs' documentaries on TV. Again confounding the Irish republican stereotype, her favourite programmes are the English period dramas 'Downton Abbey' and 'The House of Elliott' – "I love the fashion, especially the hats and the coats with the embroidered sleeves!" she declares.

She praised the female prison officers who are nearly all from the unionist community: "Bar a few, they've been lovely and many have been very kind. In a different life, we'd be friends. But the reality in Maghaberry is I'm the prisoner and they're my jailers."

With her sister Dolours and Gerry Kelly, now a senior Sinn Féin politician, Price was part of an IRA team which in 1973 planted four bombs in Britain, including one at the Old Bailey. Around 200 people were injured, mainly with flying glass. One man died of a heart attack.

The sisters were arrested about to fly home from Heathrow. While on hunger-strike in Brixton jail, Price was force-fed 400 times over six months. That stopped when a doctor mistakenly put the tube into her lung and she lost consciousness and nearly died.

"The moment I was imprisoned in Maghaberry, in my head I was instantly back in jail in England. I was institutionalised again. It was like the last 30 years didn't exist. I'd got married and had two daughters but it was as if that hadn't happened and I'd never had a life beyond prison walls."

Price is currently facing two charges relating to dissident activity – holding a speech for a Real IRA member at an Easter commemoration and allegedly providing a mobile phone for terrorist use.

She was granted bail on both charges. When asked if she regretted involvement with dissident republicanism, she replied: "I'm not whinging about either charge. Let justice take its course.

"If convicted, I'll serve my sentence without complaint. But I object to being held as a political hostage without charge because of my past, not my present."

She added: "I'm in Maghaberry because Gerry Adams as OC of the Belfast Brigade sent me to bomb Britain in 1973 when I was 19. But then my memory must be deceiving me. I must have the wrong man because Gerry Adams was never in the IRA."

Price stressed that, unlike many Sinn Féin leaders, she'd never lie about her IRA past and was "very proud" of it.

Asked if she'd condemn dissident attacks, she replied: "The 1916 Proclamation upholds the right of Irish people to take up arms as long as Britain occupies Ireland. I stand by the Proclamation which hangs in Enda Kenny's office."

She's even more uncompromising than her male comrades. When a Sinn Féin delegation, including MLAs Jennifer McCann and Raymond McCartney, visited Maghaberry, the men dissident prisoners met them.

Price refused: "The prison staff said, 'Your friends are here to see you.' I told them 'These people are no friends of mine. If they try to visit me, lock me in my cell.'"

Price claimed the NIO wouldn't have revoked her licence without approval from Sinn Féin and the DUP. "Sinn Féin might be hypocritical but I'm not. I wasn't having them shedding crocodile tears over my case to appease their grassroots."

The forced strip search in Maghaberry - DD McLaughlin

2011-12-16T18:31:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. I’m just back from the court. I was twice subjected to forced strip searches today. That was my tenth forced strip in the last twelve weeks . I’m also out to court next Tuesday so that will be another two.

Today I was brought to the reception where the search team were waiting and forced into a 3ft x 3ft cubicle by two of them where I refused to strip. They laughed at me and said “He’s ready for it!”

I was then brought to a holding cell and kept in there for about 50 minutes with a governor coming in twice to tell me their so called prison rules. (He could talk all day, I wasn’t for stripping and won’t be at any stage while I’m incarcerated in this place)

All the while outside the cell the riot squad are getting ready. Suddenly the Cell door bursts open and in they come in full riot gear, Helmets, shields, body protection, the works.
They ram the shield into my face, 2 of them grab my arms, another grabs my head, I’m forced to the ground - Arms forced up my back, 2 knees forced into my head to hold it down , 2 knees in the back of my legs… Then another one of them starts to force off my shoes, socks and trousers off. I’m then moved into a forced position so that my boxers are ripped down and my frontal private parts can be seen by them. I’m then forced back into a position where my boxers are completely forced off me and a hand held metal detector is ran over my backside.

At this stage, it’s hard to breathe with their gloves covering my face and mouth. I’m still being held by four of them on the floor, my private parts exposed… Naked! Lying there!
They then grab my boxers and jeans and force them up, hurting me .. leaving my private parts still exposed – They then move me into another awkward position to take my t shirt off… I think my arms are about to break in two ! It’s agony at this stage.. My wrists are just numb... Being twisted the whole time this is going on.. My shirt is now off.. I’m lying now with both my arms are forced up my back towards the roof while the riot squad run out of the cell.. My arms just drop to the floor.. I try my best to get onto my feet using my elbows , trousers hanging off me, boxers still below my private parts.. I’m aching all over !
I try to get dressed as the riot squad stand smirking at me. I just stare back at them. I think of the other things they have done to me in the past.. Forced strips, cut my clothes off, broke my nose, stood on me, forced me into squat positions, forced my mouth open by trying to break my wrist… I could go on!

Well, that’s me on the way to court! As soon as I get to Laganside ( where I’m already an hour late because of the forced strip ) I’m brought straight to the court, cuffed, and haven’t seen my solicitor.. Adjourned again ! That’s me down now to a 6ft x 6ft cell to wait for a few hours.Then I’m brought back to the gaol where I go through the whole strip search ordeal again.

Sitting in my cell now – My wrists, knees, ankles, neck, back, head, shoulders are aching.. One image going through my head is the faces of my friends who were waiting patiently for me to come back.. Colly, Harry, Brendy, Gerard, Kevin … It’s hard to explain the look on their faces but I can tell you that it’s one of the worst feelings in gaol seeing one of your friends coming back from a forced strip search, seeing them in pain !

I would take all of their forced strip searches rather than see them in this agony.. pain .. and I know they would do the same for me.

That’s friendship that won’t be broken !

Well, slan for now, another Republican forcibly strip searched.

D.D McLaughlin, POW, Maghaberry gaol

Eamonn McCann - Free Marian Price now!

2011-12-14T09:01:00.000-08:00

The continuing imprisonment of Marian Price in Maghaberry is a scandal and would be seen more widely in this light were it not for her politics.

Ms Price is in jail on the order of Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson, who signed a document last May ordering the police to put her behind bars.
She had been arrested on May 11th and charged with encouraging support for an illegal organisation. This arose from an action at the 32 Country Sovereignty Movement’s Easter commemoration in Derry city cemetery: on a blustery day, she reached up to hold the script from which a masked representative of the Real IRA was reading the ‘Easter Message’.
Two days later Ms. Price appeared at Bishop Street, where she applied for and was granted bail. She was rearrested when she came out onto the steps of the courthouse.
Mr Patterson had signed a document the previous night purporting to revoke the licence on which she had been released almost 30 years earlier from a life sentence for the 1973 Provisional IRA bombing of the Old Bailey.
If the Derry court had remanded Ms Price in custody, the document would not have been produced. We might not know even now that it existed.
It is not clear whether the prosecution had been aware of the document as it argued against bail. What’s clear is that the bail application had been a farce. The role of the court had been rendered meaningless by Mr Patterson preparing the way in advance to have the decision set aside if it went against his wishes.
This was as blatant an abuse of process as can be imagined.
The offence is compounded by the fact that here is real room for doubt whether Mr Patterson had authority to order Ms Price back to jail in the first place.
Her lawyers insist she had been freed from the Old Bailey sentence on the basis of a Royal pardon and that the terms of the pardon supersede the powers of the Secretary of State.
The lawyers have asked three times for the pardon to be produced. Three times, the State has maintained that no copy can be discovered.
At one point, her solicitor was told that the pardon must either have been lost or somehow been shredded.
Thus, Ms Price has spent the last seven months in Maghaberry, not on the basis of conviction for a crime but because Owen Patterson believes that the State is better off with her out of the way. She is imprisoned without trial - in everyday language, interned.
She is the only woman in an all-male prison and thus, for practical purposes, in solitary confinement. She is 57 years-old and in very poor health and in constant pain. But these are not the main reasons she should be released.
She should be released because it is an affront to justice and to the rights of citizens that she has been denied her liberty, and even denied sight of the evidence which Owen Patterson says he has seen and which he claims entitles him to deny her her liberty.
Rights - or privileges
It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the reason there hasn’t been more of a hullaballoo about this matter is that many of those who might have been expected to stand up for civil rights are repelled by Ms Price’s politics.
Which means in turn that the extent to which civil rights are defended in the political mainstream is to some extent at least determined by the political beliefs of whomever is being denied their rights.
This means that the rights we speak of are not rights at all, but privileges to be granted or withheld according to a politician’s judgment of where the State’s interests lie.
The only adequate response is for all who value civil liberties to tell Mr Patterson loudly and with one voice – Free Marian Price now.

Free Marian Price! Political Hostage!

2011-12-08T21:17:00.000-08:00

End the torture of Marian Price!

2011-12-06T11:07:00.000-08:00

Article reproduced from www.socialistworker.org

Sandy Boyer, the co-host of Radio Free Eireann on WBAI in New York City, reports on the unjust imprisonment of Northern Ireland political prisoner Marian Price.

December 6, 2011

MARIAN PRICE is the only woman political prisoner in Northern Ireland. She has been in continuous solitary confinement, except for three visits a week from relatives, since her arrest in May.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Méndez, called for the abolition of solitary confinement in an October 18 report to the UN's Third Committee. "Considering the severe mental pain or suffering solitary confinement may cause, it can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."
He called for a total prohibition on solitary confinement for more than 15 days. As this is being written, Marian Price has been in solitary confinement for more than 7 months.
She has been charged twice under Northern Ireland's special security laws. Each time she was released on bail.
Each time Owen Patterson, the secretary of State for Northern Ireland who was appointed by the British Prime Minister, overruled the judge and ordered her back to prison. He said that he was revoking her license (parole). This means that Marian Price is being interned without a charge, trial or release date.
In May, she was charged with "encouraging support for an illegal organization" after she held up a piece of paper from which a masked man read a statement. Perhaps only in Northern Ireland could holding a piece of paper be a crime.
Then, in July, she was charged with "providing property for the purposes of terrorism." The allegation was that she gave a cell phone to someone who participated in the killing of two British soldiers.
She was questioned about the killings and released 18 months before she was charged. Her lawyer, Peter Corrigan, told the BBC that there was no new evidence against her. Many saw this as an attempt to discredit Marian Price, especially since the initial charge was so ridiculous.
Once again she was released on bail, and, again, the secretary of State for Northern Ireland said he was revoking her license and ordered her back to prison.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
BUT MARIAN Price is not actually on license. Convicted of bombings in Britain, she received a full royal pardon when she was freed in 1980 because she appeared to be on the brink of death from severe anorexia nervosa.
The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) has been unable or unwilling to come up with a copy of the pardon in three successive court hearings. Peter Corrigan, Price's lawyer, told The Sunday World "We've asked the NIO to produce the pardon which would free her. They've told us this important document is lost and probably has been shredded. It's all very convenient."
The judge could have released Marian Price in November when he was told that the pardon had been lost. Instead, there will be no hearing until December 21 at the earliest. Unless there is a ruling in her favor, Price could be imprisoned indefinitely even if she is acquitted on all the charges against her.
Marian Price's health was permanently damaged because she was force fed over 400 times when she was on hunger strike in a British prison. She described the force feeding in an interview with Suzanne Breen which was published in The Village in Dublin:

Four male prison officers tie you into the chair so tightly with sheets you can't struggle. You clench your teeth to try to keep your mouth closed but they push a metal spring device around your jaw to prise it open. They force a wooden clamp with a hole in the middle into your mouth. Then, they insert a big rubber tube down that. They hold your head back. You can't speak or move. You're frightened you'll choke to death.
The force-feeding takes 15 minutes but it feels like forever. You're in control of nothing. You're terrified the food will go down the wrong way and you won't be able to let them know because you can't speak or move. You're frightened you'll choke to death.

One day, a doctor put the tube into Price's lung, not her stomach, and water flooded into her lung. "I felt like I was drowning. I passed out. They carried me back to my cell. The doctors were standing over me when I came round. If it had been food, not water in the tube, it would have killed me. The medical and prison staff told the authorities they wouldn't force feed me again."
Price's husband, Jerry McGlinchey, told Radio Free Eireann on WBAI (99.5 FM) that she has never recovered from the force feeding. It caused tuberculosis that had to be treated again just last year. The anorexia has returned and she suffers from such severe arthritis that she can't even open her hand.
McGlinchey said that he is "very, very worried" about his wife's health. He believes that it will get steadily worse as long as she is in solitary confinement.
Marian Price has devoted her entire life to ending British rule in Northern Ireland. She firmly believes this can only be won by an armed struggle. She told Suzanne Breen in The Village interview "Sometimes it's necessary to do something just to let it be known there are people out there who don't accept the status quo. Being a minority of a minority is nothing new for republicans."
Very few people in Ireland would agree with Marian Price. Even many Irish republicans who share her opposition to British rule believe that armed struggle can't accomplish anything in today's Ireland.
But Marian Price's political isolation makes it even more important to defend her human rights. People with unpopular opinions are usually the first victims of government repression.
There are probably hundreds of former political prisoners in Northern Ireland who were released on license. Many have given up on politics. Others remain republicans. Some are even socialists. If the British government succeeds in interning Marian Price, any one of them could be locked up indefinitely at any time for any reason.
Everyone who believes in human rights and civil liberties needs to do whatever they can to help free Marian Price.

Newry to Dublin POW convoy

2011-12-05T12:45:00.000-08:00

Images from the Maghaberry POW solidarity Hunger camp

2011-11-25T08:58:00.000-08:00

There will be a public rally at the gates of Maghaberry gaol tonight at 7.00pm in conjunction with the 24 hour Hunger camp currently taking place within the grounds of the gaol.Prominent speakers will take the podium and will be followed by Music at the gates.

Change of IRPWA website address - www.irpwa.com

2011-11-22T15:30:00.000-08:00

The IRPWA website address can now be accessed through the shorter domain www.irpwa.com although the site can still be accessed by using the older domain

A day in the life of a Maghaberry POW - Letter

2011-11-17T09:23:00.000-08:00

A chara,

We near the start of our 7th month on protest which started on May 6th 2011. The following is what a POW has to endure daily and has been doing so for the past few months while on protest.

After a night of so called “body checks” ( and for those of you who don’t know what it is) – It’s a screw going round each cell door, banging it open and shining a torch on the POW inside while he is sleeping. This is designed to minimise sleep during the night. It happens at least 2-4 times between the hours of 10pm and 7am.Then,at 7am, between 20-25 alarm bells go off loudly, each one lasting from 5 seconds up to 2 minutes. Then, between 7.30am and 8.15am your door bursts open and standing glaring at you is one of the riot squad doing another check. Each POW’s door is opened and closed aggressively. The riot squad trying to intimidate us as soon as they come onto our wing on Roe 4 to start their daily shift. They have been on our wing since May.

I get up, start to do some exercise and walk the 5 paces up and down the cell. Outside on the landing I hear the cleaners with their shovels, brushes and the wet/dry Hoovers making that dull droning noise. They’re cleaning up the mess from last night and they’ll be on the wing all day cleaning all day. The time is 8.30am.I walk up and down the cell waiting for the door to open and get my breakfast. You can wait from 9am to 11am depending on whether the Riot Squad have to forcibly strip one of our comrades before he goes to court. My last meal was at 4pm yesterday and I’m hoping I’ll get some warm water for a nice cup of tea. At last the door opens and four Riot Squad are standing around my door. I am handed a box containing two Weetabix, a half pint of milk, and I get my cup filled with water for tea but it’s lukewarm, again! The Riot Squad are dressed in white disposable boiler suits, helmets, boots and belt with baton etc. these are the same people who forcibly strip us, that hand us our breakfast at the cell door.

The cell door opens again. It’s 10:15am. ‘Phone!’ one of the Riot Squad grunts. I lift my gallon jar which we have to fill daily and use for drinking water and step out onto the landing. One of them searches me while the others stand around me, staring. I am surrounded and marched to the phone where I am locked in. After a few minutes they shout “Time’s up!”, and I step out onto the landing again and searched. Remember now, I am the only prisoner on the landing and I was on my own on the phone, being watched all the time by the Riot Squad and a camera in the phone room. I am surrounded again and marched to the cell. Only one prisoner is allowed onto the landing at a time, surrounded by four Riot Squad.

It’s 11:25am, the cell door opens again. “Shower!” the screw grunts. I step out onto the landing. I am searched again while my towel, boxers, socks and bar of soap (these are the only items we are allowed to bring to the showers) are thoroughly searched. I am again surrounded, marched to the showers and locked in. when finished, I have to wait to get out and I am searched again. These searches consist of arms spread out and searched, from the wrist to the shoulders, then around the neck, ribs and down to the waist, legs and ankles. Most time you are grabbed aggressively and searched. My stuff was searched again. I am surrounded and marched back to the cell and locked in. some days you won’t get a shower or phone call, it depends if the Riot Squad let you out for it or not. POWs with children at school only get to talk to them at the weekend for a few minutes.

Locked in the cell now, waiting for 12 noon lunch. The door flies open, I am handed a box and the door slams quickly shut. A slight exaggeration as I see no beef! I only have a few minutes to eat this and the door opens again for exercise. If you haven’t eaten it, too bad, it will have to do until after exercise. I step onto the landing again, searched aggressively again, pulling at my collar and ripping up my trouser leggings, tearing the hairs off my legs as foes this with his latex gloves. Pure sectarian hatred, just staring me in the eyes. I don’t flinch; I just stare straight through him. I am surrounded again and marched out to the exercise yard. The only thing you are allowed to take to the yard is tobacco if you smoke. We get roughly one and a half hours exercise. It’s great to get some fresh air and exercise. We are locked in a cage – it’s like a large birdcage with the roof and sides double layered with a thick wire mesh. This is the only time during the day that we get to talk to each other. Then when the times up, we are brought one at a time out of the yard, searched again, marched back to the cell and locked up again until tomorrow. Back in the cell, it’s 2:05pm and it is time to start the daily ritual of ‘mixing’ – this is done in a small blue ‘pot’ and you have to stir your urine and excrement until it is in liquid form so it will go out the door easier. The screws have blocked the doors on the outside twice (now with rubber and steel) but where there’s a will, there’s a way. No matter what they do, we always counteract it. So you finish mixing and let it sit brewing. Any rubbish or papers go out the windows. Outside’s a mess, inside’s a mess, cleaners going non-stop all day – cleaning cells, cleaning landings and outside has to be cleaned as well.

It’s 3:20pm and a screw opens the door and says “Duty Governor to see you. Any requests or complaints?” I just stare at them both and he slams the door shut. They get the same from the other 13 lads as well. I do some reading until the dinner comes around. It’s 4:05pm and the door opens - Riot Squad are standing there with a food carton and an apple. I get my cup filled with water, lukewarm again. No words are spoken at the door, and it shuts as quickly as it opens. The food is half cooked sausages, a few spuds, some peas and an oil-like substance – gravy. I balance the carton on my knees and eat while I stare out the window at all the grey mesh and razor-wire. I glance around the cell at the corner where all the rotten bits of food and stuff are lying. No clean knives or forks here, or washing of hands. I haven’t even basic things like a mirror. We are locked in the cells for over 22 hours per day. It’s 4:30 pm and I won’t see anyone else until tomorrow.

It’s 6:40pm now and I look out into the darkness at the high grey razor wire – fences all around me, and I wonder how Marian is getting on? All on her own in isolation, not having anyone to talk to, or go for a walk with. We are lucky here, having each other, when Marian has to go through each day by herself. The only time she sees a friendly face is during her one visit a week – which is only for the guts of an hour. I know she is strong, has been in worse situations before and has beaten it.

As the night creeps in, my mind wanders and I think of my wife, my two wee children and all my family and friends. I know they are 100% behind me just like all the families and friend of all the POWs here on Roe 4. I am in cell 11 where a few months ago, our friend Harry Fitzsimons was brutally beaten and tortured for roughly 20 minutes. We were all locked in our cells during his ordeal. To hear this going on while you are locked behind a door is a terrible feeling. Anger, frustration, and you can’t help or do anything, all the while hoping the person getting the beating will be OK. Then have to sit in a visit and see Harry’s family crying at the shape the Riot Squad had left him…

Then just last week Kevin Murphy came in and wasn’t on our wing one day until he was brought to court and he wasn’t needed at all. Just and excuse to forcibly strip search him. He was pulled by the head up and down the cell by the Riot Squad who forced the clothes off him. That night he said he felt as though he had been in a car crash, his body aching all over. That was his welcome from the screws to Roe 4. At resent between us we have endured over 90 forced strip searches and with trials approaching this will increase rapidly. Colin Duffy’s trial is just over a week away, and with him having to endure 2 strips a day, that’s 10 forced strips per week, and a trial expected to last between 2 - 3 months. Colin could be faced with being forcibly stripped between 80 and 120 times over the duration of his trial. Brendan McConville, John Paul Wootton, Kevin Nolan and Gerard McManus will be facing a similar amount of forced strips as their trials also approach.

With thoughts like these going through your mind, it makes you feel very angry and sad at the suffering POWs have to go through but we are strong, determined and unstoppable in our protest to end strip searching and the criminalisation of Republican prisoners in Maghaberry Gaol. The following men are making a stand; Kevin Nolan, Gerard McManus, Kevin Murphy, Brian Sheridan, Brian Cavlan, Colin Duffy, Harry Fitzsimons, Dominic Dynes, Joe Barr, Sean McConville, John Paul Wootton, Mark McGuigan, Brendan McConville, and myself, DD McLaughlin.

Victory to the POWs

IRPWA POW functions/fundraisers

2011-11-17T02:55:00.000-08:00

This Friday 18th October featuring the Players Brigade.Pay at the door.

Music by the Flight of Earls.Tickets available from 32csm Derry members or email derry32csm@hotmail.com

Generic Marian Price leaflet - Please print & distribute.

2011-11-12T18:35:00.000-08:00

Maghaberry solidarity poem from Portlaoise comrade

2011-11-12T18:20:00.000-08:00

Sadness has distilled the anger burning deep inside,
I had to search to clarify the names,
Confronted by an image of two comrades led to court,
I didn’t recognise them first; blind ignorance, pure shame.

A Crown infected county town, Cole’s monument peers down,
From behind the butcher’s statue in Forthill,
All the days of struggle lost and sacrifice and vain,
As yeomen now still implement a foreign nation’s wall.

The story was a charge sheet invented by the yoke,
To chain and cage the patriotic flame,
No explanation offered on why their eye’s winced at the light,
Wearing beards that might hide bruises, but convey their awful plight.

No report on what awaited them, when the newsmen went away,
No words to state the evil in the gaol,
Black tongues hung out to strip them, defile their human pride,
The gully rats of Ireland, their breeding never fails.

I could hear defiance reaching out to choke the Saxon’s hold,
And tell them “NO! OUR DIGNITY REMAINS!”
I could see their bodies crumble, like their clothes upon the floor,
I could sense their desolation, as they rose to fall again.

I heard them roar in echoed tones, at lines of hooded thugs,
Facing batons with naked shattered bones,
I swore around the walls that hold us here in Portloaise Gaol
That these visions will be present when we reconvene at home.

And Britain asked in haughty tones, what leads us all to act,
Against them without fear or compromise?
Our reason now, Maghaberry Gaol, our logic what it’s done,
“Beware the risen people”….
….When for vengeance, people rise!”

Tarlach Mac Dhómhnaill
E3
Gaol Port Laoise

Maghaberry camp out/Fast - Be there! Show that you care!

2011-11-05T17:48:00.000-07:00

Stand up for Human Rights, support the POW's on protest....There will be a 24hr campout/fast outside Maghaberry on 25th Nov - 26th Nov 2011, please attend and show that you care!No need to affiliate yourself with a particular group, Just be there to show support to POW's whose human rights have been taken away from them....IMPLEMENT THE AUGUST 2010 AGREEMENT NOW! End Strip Searching, Stop Controlled Movement, Political Status for all POW's!

POW Convoy - Newry to Dublin

2011-11-05T17:21:00.000-07:00

A convoy of cars calling for the re-implementation of Political status with an end to the torture within Maghaberry gaol will take place on Saturday 3rd December starting from the B&Q carpark in Newry and taking in Dundalk,Drogheda,Julianstown,Balbriggan and Georges Quay before proceeding to the British embassy in Dublin where a protest will be held.

This is an Independent event organised by Duleek Independent Republicans who have told us that all who are concerned with the conditions within Maghaberry are welcome to partake.

Times and details on poster above.

End the Brutality in Maghaberry! POW Letter on the forced strip search.

2011-11-05T17:07:00.000-07:00

The 1981 Hunger strike saw 10 brave men fast to the death to end the process undertaken by the then British Tory government in their attempt to criminalise Republican POWs with their removal of Political status.

The sacrifice of the 10 and the impact around the world brought about a U Turn by the British government who reintroducted political status thus removing the criminal tag with which they had wanted to brand the Republican volunteers.

Some 30 years later,the status which had been so hard won, has been sold down the river whilst the British take carte blanche in allowing and actively encouraging the brutalisation and violation of Republican POWs within Maghaberry gaol while subtly reintroducing Internment through license revocation.

POWs in Maghaberry are involved in an ongoing protest at the removal of political status and face daily beatings at the hand of sectarian screws in Maghaberry while remand prisoners face 2 forced searches every time they have to make a court appearance.

The forced strip search is a wholly brutal practise designed solely to humiliate the POWs and the agreement reached in August 2010 which was designed to end the practises has been reneged on by the regime and now lies in tatters.

We ask that people who were opposed to the ritual humiliation and brutalisation of Republican POWs while last opposing the removal of political status to lend your voice to the campaign to reinstate it and end the Brutality by the sectarian regime on Irish Republican prisoners.

What follows here is a letter written by Damien "DD" McLaughlin which describes the brutality which is part and parcel of the forced strip search.

Support the Republican POWs on Protest!

Beir Bua!

POW torture in Maghaberry –Letter from D.D Mc Laughlin-Emotive, upsetting & graphic

Hello everyone. I’m just back from the court. I was twice subjected to forced strip searches today. That was my tenth forced strip in the last twelve weeks . I’m also out to court next Tuesday so that will be another two.

Today I was brought to the reception where the search team were waiting and forced into a 3ft x 3ft cubicle by two of them where I refused to strip. They laughed at me and said “He’s ready for it!”

I was then brought to a holding cell and kept in there for about 50 minutes with a governor coming in twice to tell me their so called prison rules. (He could talk all day, I wasn’t for stripping and won’t be at any stage while I’m incarcerated in this place)

All the while outside the cell the riot squad are getting ready. Suddenly the Cell door bursts open and in they come in full riot gear, Helmets, shields, body protection, the works.
They ram the shield into my face, 2 of them grab my arms, another grabs my head, I’m forced to the ground - Arms forced up my back, 2 knees forced into my head to hold it down , 2 knees in the back of my legs… Then another one of them starts to force off my shoes, socks and trousers off. I’m then moved into a forced position so that my boxers are ripped down and my frontal private parts can be seen by them. I’m then forced back into a position where my boxers are completely forced off me and a hand held metal detector is ran over my backside.

At this stage, it’s hard to breathe with their gloves covering my face and mouth. I’m still being held by four of them on the floor, my private parts exposed… Naked! Lying there!
They then grab my boxers and jeans and force them up, hurting me .. leaving my private parts still exposed – They then move me into another awkward position to take my t shirt off… I think my arms are about to break in two ! It’s agony at this stage.. My wrists are just numb... Being twisted the whole time this is going on.. My shirt is now off.. I’m lying now with both my arms are forced up my back towards the roof while the riot squad run out of the cell.. My arms just drop to the floor.. I try my best to get onto my feet using my elbows , trousers hanging off me, boxers still below my private parts.. I’m aching all over !
I try to get dressed as the riot squad stand smirking at me. I just stare back at them. I think of the other things they have done to me in the past.. Forced strips, cut my clothes off, broke my nose, stood on me, forced me into squat positions, forced my mouth open by trying to break my wrist… I could go on!

Well, that’s me on the way to court! As soon as I get to Laganside ( where I’m already an hour late because of the forced strip ) I’m brought straight to the court, cuffed, and haven’t seen my solicitor.. Adjourned again ! That’s me down now to a 6ft x 6ft cell to wait for a few hours.Then I’m brought back to the gaol where I go through the whole strip search ordeal again.

Sitting in my cell now – My wrists, knees, ankles, neck, back, head, shoulders are aching.. One image going through my head is the faces of my friends who were waiting patiently for me to come back.. Colly, Harry, Brendy, Gerard, Kevin … It’s hard to explain the look on their faces but I can tell you that it’s one of the worst feelings in gaol seeing one of your friends coming back from a forced strip search, seeing them in pain !

I would take all of their forced strip searches rather than see them in this agony.. pain .. and I know they would do the same for me.

That’s friendship that won’t be broken !

Well, slan for now, another Republican forcibly strip searched.

D.D McLaughlin, POW, Maghaberry gaol

Marian Price sent to Maghaberry for "operational reasons"

2011-11-05T17:04:00.000-07:00

The Prison Service has confirmed that prominent spokeswoman Marian Price is being held in Maghaberry men’s jail instead of Hydebank Wood women’s prison.
The 57 year-old spokeswoman for the 32 County Sovereignty Movement (CSM) was returned to prison on Monday after Secretary of State Owen Paterson revoked her licence, claiming she posed a significantly increased threat to society.
She had appeared in court in Derry on Monday to face charges of encouraging support for an illegal organisation.
The charge relates to an incident in which Ms Price was pictured holding up a statement read by a masked Real IRA man at a dissident republican rally in Derry on Easter Sunday.
She claimed that the masked man had asked her to hold the sheet and that she had no knowledge of the content of the statement.
She was released on bail on these charges but the court was then informed that the Secretary of State had decided to revoke her licence.
In 1973 Ms Price was jailed for 20 years for her involvement in a PIRA bombing campaign in London.
However, instead of sending the 57 year-old to Hydebank Wood women’s jail, where every other female prisoner is held, a Prison Service spokesman confirmed that a decision had been taken to instead send her to Maghaberry for “operational reasons”.
It is understood that Ms Price is now being held on a prison wing in Maghaberry on her own.
The women’s wing at Maghaberry was closed in 2004 with all female inmates being transferred to Hydebank.
However it is understood the decision to incarcerate Ms Price in Maghaberry has led to a ``logistical headache” for prison chiefs, who may now have to consider re-opening a dedicated wing for female republican prisoners at the Co Antrim jail.
Republican and loyalist male inmates are already held on separate wings inside the Co Antrim prison, because of their paramilitary allegiances.
Ms Price is understood to have insisted that she is entitled to be treated as a republican prisoner and not expected to associate with `ordinary’ inmates.
A Prison Service spokesman said it did not discuss individual cases.
Security sources have confirmed that prison chiefs will now be forced to consider opening a female republican wing, if any other women are remanded in custody on dissident charges.
At present a number of females are awaiting trial in connection with dissident activities.
However, all have so far been released on bail while awaiting trial.
In 1973 Ms Price was jailed for life for her part in the PIRA bombing campaign in London which injured 200 people, including one man who died as a result of a heart attack.
Her sentence was later reduced to 20 years.
Ms Price, her sister Dolours and Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly later went on hunger strike for 200 days to be repatriated to serve their sentences in Northern Ireland.
The Price sisters were returned to Armagh Prison in 1974.
In 1980 Marian Price was released from Armagh jail after then Secretary of State Humphrey Atkins granted her a Royal Prerogative of Mercy (RPM), as she was seriously ill and suffering from anorexia and tuberculosis.
“She is rapidly reaching a point where she cannot any longer be treated in prison," a Prison Service spokesman said at the time.
“We have taken the most expert medical advice in this matter and the Secretary of State (for Northern Ireland) has made his decision on humanitarian grounds in the hope that her condition may be checked."
Ms Price’s legal team are now understood to be preparing to launch a legal challenge, arguing that the Secretary of State was not legally entitled to order that the 57-year-old should be returned to prison, as she had been released by Royal Prerogative of Mercy and not on licence.
However, a Northern Ireland Office spokesman last night insisted that Mr Paterson had been entitled to order Ms Price’s return to prison, claiming that she while she had been granted an Royal Prerogative of Mercy, she had also been released on licence at the same time.
“She was granted a Royal Prerogative of Mercy on the determinate sentence she received, but she was also released on licence for the indeterminate sentence she had also received.’’

MARTIN RAFFERTY: “THEY WILL NOT BREAK US”

2011-11-05T16:45:00.000-07:00

Martin Rafferty, 32csm, speaks openly on the internment of Marian Price. A timetravel inside the Republican Movement and what prospect for a united Ireland

How’s Marian Price?

Gerry – Marian’s husband – was visiting yesterday, and said her spirits are high, but he could see strain on her. Given the fact the all studies show how solitary confinement is the worse form of torture within jail, this is not surprising. But Marian is strong and an inspiration to us all and we know no matter what they try they will not break her.

Republicans took to the streets all over Ireland with passion and dignified protests. What are the next initiative to support the immediate release of Marian Price?
At the moment a lot of our energies have been putting into wider protest within Maghaberry but we plant to incorporate the protest for Marian within her framework. Obviously we do not want to go into much detail. But along with the white line pickets and poster campaigns, we will be embarking on other actions.

The only female detainee in a male prison in Europe. Is there any jurisprudential action to bring her case to the international European human rights court (EcthR) ?
Giving the response from Hillary Clinton, the British administrations and Church leaders to the incarceration of an Iranian woman in an all male jail in Iran, last year, you would think that morally, never mind legally, the case would be won, meaning that is totally wrong to have any woman held in these conditions. But Marian’s legal team are exploring the legality of the British actions. Not just holding her in an all males jail, but also the circumstances of her arrest and the revoking of her license.

Marian has declared that “the ongoing policy of criminalization of the republican struggle has intensified in the last few years; as it is always the case, the republican prisoners in Maghaberry jail being at the coal face of this; well tried but failed policy’’ (see letter on the picture). How would you comment?

In 1981 Thatcher tried a criminalization policy implying that all republican actions where deemed to be a crime and all us republicans where nothing more than criminals.

The policy failed then, and today the Brits feel that if they get former comrades to criminalize the republican struggle today, they may somehow succeed where Thatcher failed. No matter who is pronouncing the words: Thatcher, Cameron, Ford, McGuinness or Kelly; Republicans never were criminals and today it remains the same. As long as there is an occupied part of Ireland there will be Republicans willing to oppose it and given that 75% of Irish people voted for a United Ireland and the British responded by creating a Six Counties State, it is not surprising that today there are still republicans willing to stand and defend the right of Irish people to self-determination.

Her license immediately revoked despite a pardon conferred in the 1981. Can you see the possibility that the pardon she received for her offences prior to 1974 could be restored during next month hearing?

The toll the British State is using at the moment is one of fear and intimidation against all republicans, active and no-active; the no-active republicans, most of whom have life sentences hanging over their heads, in the form licenses, have been warned not to re-engage in any form of republican activity or they too will have their license suspended. In this context the British will do everything in their power to keep Marian in jail. Not because she is a threat to society or is engaging in any activity to justify the treatment she’s receiving, but as a warning to others to keep their heads down.

Interned, marginalized and criminalized. How far is the battle in order to restore the political status?

As it happened in 1981, the British have miscalculated the mood of Republican community. In ‘81 they were told by constitutional nationalists and securocrats that the republican movement was on its knees and almost defeated. At that time they thought the criminalization policy would defeat the republican movement: they were wrong then, and today, as in ’81, the Brits have been told that the Republican Movement is almost defeated and they are again trying to roll out the policy of criminalization inside and outside the jail. But instead to having the effect of demoralizing and breaking the Republican Movement, it has once again galvanized and spurred the Republican Movement on.

During a recent commemoration of Brendan Hughes in County Louth, Martin Galvin prayed Republicans, all Republicans today, to forge a unity and strategy which can break through once more, and get the struggle back on the path of the united and free Ireland which “unrepentant Fenians and so many others sacrificed for and so much to win for us”. Can you see today that opportunity for a shared or a single platform with Republican Network for Unity?
Throughout history of Ireland, and further afield, the British have engaged in a tactic of “divide and conquer”, and today a lot of energy has been put into this tactic. In 1974, during the Sinn Fein split, there were running battle in the streets between former comrades and lives were lost. The Brits and their agents, have been trying to create a similar situation today by releasing misinformation and trying to foment confrontation between different groups. We all acknowledge we are struggling for the same goal and we will not be manipulated by anyone, British or former comrades, into any kind of confrontation with each other. Today we see the hemorrhaging of Sinn Fein and understandably a lot of the people leaving the party do not feel confortable joining with other groupings just yet. We understand and respect this but we are able to have a working relationship with them on matters relating to the jails and other issues. We also have a good working relationship with Republican Network for Unity and we have learnt that if you impose people to accept your interpretation and position on issues, then we will always be divided.

Do you believe in a referendum? And in the perspective of a referendum on national unity, how will the Irish Republican strategies change?
In my view we cannot trust either the British or Government in the free State regarding any form of referendum at the moment. Giving the Irish Government attitude to the Maastricht treaty, when they held the referendum and did not get the answer they wanted the first time, subsequently engaged in an vicious campaign of lies and threats in order to achieve they outcome they wanted. I do not think they have any credibility in organizing a referendum that would remove them from well paid jobs and powerful influences.

Some republicans are asking the “equality of arrests” in regard to the case of recent riots in loyalists and republican areas as well as the use of plastic bullets in England, in line with the “50/50 formula” that can be considered the dorsal spine of nationalist revisionism. Dup’s Nigel Dodds, in the aftermath of Ardoyne ‘s riots, called the people opposing the Orange Order parade through the district as Republicans, while Sinn Fein called them “thugs”. How do you see the issue in the wider Republican Movement and what are the differences today between being a Republican and a Nationalist and when does it become a thug?
Regarding the recent events of the marching season, and the actions of the police, it is a fact that no matter how hard they try to paper over the cracks, the cracks will always come through. James Connolly said that until the constitutional question has been addressed there will never be equality. Be it in housing, employment, administration of justice, or any other area of a “normal society”, the things will never be dealt with until the outside interference has been removed. In the Six Counties, sectarianism, equality and injustice are all symptoms of the problem and not the problem itself. People tend to forget that the police role here is to uphold the State and we expect nothing else from them but what we have seen over the marching season. As regarding Kelly and Dodds, as long as there will be Republicans, there will also be people trying to criminalize them. Michael Collins said of the De Valera that he was an illegitimate republican, De Valera said the same of Tom Barry and Gerry Kelly says it of today Republicans. In order to hide the fact that Sinn Fein has now become a constitutional nationalist party, they have to try and discredit Republicans who are engaged to opposing the British presence, be it in Westminster or Stormont.

Sometimes it seems a war under the pillows with Republicans absolutely protagonists over their divisions. “An Irish disease” has been called this chronically split. Unrolled by intelligence and counterintelligence, it appears that the only defeated are Republicans themselves. Are “dossieraggio” and agitprop activities influencing this moment in time of the Irish Question?
The British have always used the tool of informers not only to gather intelligence but also to lead the republican movement in the direction of their liking. As can be seen today through the cases of Stakeknife and Denis Donaldson, they have perfected this art and they are continuing with this strategy. The recent building of the new MI5 headquarters just outside Belfast (Holywood) shows their intent. It is estimated that have hundreds of plain-clothes agents working flat out trying to recruit informers into the ranks. I myself have been approached three times in the recent past with offers of money or threats to my life and my family to make me become an informer. I am more than confident that this practice is widespread and unfortunately some people are giving in to the threats. I spent three years in jail due to a paid informer who engaged in the activities of the State provocateur.

Pearse said- “If we today are fighting for something either greater than or less than the thing our fathers fought for, either our fathers did not fight for freedom at all or we are not fighting for freedom”.
Martin Rafferty, who owns today that inheritance?
Today Republicans, from wherever organization or grouping, are Republicans. We all identified that the problem is the same today as it was seven hundred years ago and until the foreign interference has been removed from our country all the other problems cannot be addressed. As a republican, if you believe this, then it doesn’t matter who holds the mantra as long as the ideal stays the same.

Marian Price Interned

2011-05-19T03:03:00.000-07:00

The political imprisoning of republican Marian Price by British direct ruler Owen Patterson represents an act of utter repression against the Irish people. That an unaccountable British politician can arbitrarily remove an Irish citizen’s freedom in their own country demonstrates clearly, despite recent fawning to the contrary, that we have not entered into a new era of relationships between the two islands. What we are witnessing is an assertion of British sovereignty in Ireland.

It is no coincidence that this repression precedes the royal visit to the Twenty Six County State. Whilst we witness the grovelling of the West Brit brigade, falling over themselves to welcome the sectarian monarch, republicans see clearly the message she brings with her; the Irish are finally in their place.

But more telling is the absolute humiliation that this act bestows on the Stormont regime. On the very day that the micro ministries were being dished out, most noticeably a ‘justice’ ministry, the real seat of power was exercising itself. The farce was exposed for the puppet regime it is. We now challenge those who advocate that this farce represents a route to a sovereign Ireland to state clearly where they stand on this repressive act? We challenge them to state clearly what powers this farce enables them to undo this massive injustice?

This is the Good Friday Agreement in action. These are the fruits of the so called ‘peace process’ and the flawed thinking of outmanoeuvred former republican leaders. We call on all republicans to work together to fight this injustice. We call for unity and solidarity with republican POW’s as they struggle against repression from within their imprisonment. And we say to the Irish people this is what the royal visitor represents and this is why we strenuously oppose it.

IRPWA Welcomes Prisoner Unity

2011-03-05T10:33:00.000-08:00

Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association.

4/3/2011

IRPWA welcome prisoner unity.

The IRPWA welcome the latest development among the republican prisoners in Maghaberry Gaol whereby, it is our understanding, that ALL POW's are now refusing to conform with the prison services policy of strip searches. We hope and trust that all POW's and their representatives on the outside can now come to a common agreement to face down the common enemy of draconian practices and intransigence within the Prison Officers Association and the Northen Ireland Prison Service. We commend all those who have arrived at this decision and support their efforts to defend the agreement made in good faith by the Republican POW's last August.
Restore Political Status Now.
Victory to the POW's.

IRPWA Condemn Brutal Harassment of Colin Duffy

2010-10-12T11:15:00.000-07:00

Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association
12/10/2010

IRPWA Condemn Brutal Harassment of Colin Duffy

The Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association condemn the Brutal harassment currently being handed out to Lurgan Republican Colin Duffy by the Northern Ireland Prison Service and members of the Prison Officers Association. Colin has been badly assaulted and forcibly strip searched on a number of occasions the last being this morning despite the fact that the prisoners, facilitators and prison service signed an agreement on August 12 that all strip searching would end. There is every indication that these attacks will continue every time Colin is brought to and from the prison and the IRPWA urge all republicans to stand behind the POW’s and resist the efforts of the NIPS to renege on agreements reached and their efforts to break their morale. The welfare of republican prisoners is of paramount concern to the IRPWA and we will not stand back and allow POW’s to be mistreated by a vindictive and draconian prison regime.

Maghaberry Resolution Welcomed

2010-08-13T02:57:00.000-07:00

Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association.
12/08/2010

IRPWA welcomes resolution of prison protest.

The IRPWA welcome the news that the protest in Maghaberry prison has been resolved to the satisfaction of the Republican POW’s. We thank all those involved in facilitating this resolution and we pay particular tribute to the prisoners, their families and all those who supported them over the course of the protest. While we are conscious that previous resolutions arrived at by the POW’s and the authorities have not always lasted due to bad faith on behalf of the British we are confident that with good will on all side this agreement can be made to work.

Maghaberry Nightmare Continues

2010-05-25T12:08:00.000-07:00

IRPWA
25/02/2010

The obscenity that is the Six County statelet is once again demonstrated by its brutalisation of Republican POW’s. This brutalisation is State policy. All those who administer the State are culpable in its actions. Maghaberry Prison is part of the Penal and Policing apparatus and cannot be detached to facilitate political expediency or awkward decision making.

The visit to Maghaberry by recently appointed Stormont Minister David Forde was a most cynical and choreographed exercise. Having previously blamed the prisoners themselves for the mistreatment they are enduring it was of no surprise that during his visit Forde refused to interact with the prisoners to hear their point of view. Stormont nor Westminister has any interest other than the implementation of their own shared policy.

We welcome the recent acknowledgement by Provisional Sinn Fein as to the political status of the republican prisoners via the recent delegation to the prison. This recognition is central in seeking the reintroduction of political status as the starting point to addressing wider prisoner concerns. The abuses in Maghaberry are political abuses and can only be resolved in a political context. There can be no horse trading to secure short term resolutions. If the political mindset does not radically shift the prison authorities, as directed by their political authorities, will return to type.

There is clearly a momentum gathering behind the republican prisoners. The frequency and size of public protests is steadily growing. We are mindful that state and party responses to this growth may well be aimed at negating this impact as opposed to genuinely seeking a resolution to the prisoner’s plight. Therefore it is essential that we are not deflected by minimalist efforts but keep ourselves focussed on maximum results.

Maghaberry Protest 11/04/2010

2010-04-11T11:54:00.001-07:00

Perfidious Albion

2010-04-09T10:57:00.000-07:00

IRPWA STATEMENT
Recent statements emanating from British Prison authorities regarding the treatment of Republican prisoners in Maghaberry Gaol have been deliberately misleading and are at total odds with the real situation in the Jail. After Republican prisoners protested on Easter Sunday about their conditions and treatment in the jail they were moved to punishment cells. Subsequently, the British prison authorities released a statement to the media on Tuesday the 6th of April denying that any Republican prisoners were moved to punishment cells and added that they were “currently deciding whether any, or all, who took part in the weekend protest will face disciplinary proceedings”. The Prisoners themselves have documented proof, signed by the governor in Maghaberry, which contradicts and exposes the lies in the statement issued by British prison authorities. Furthermore, as some Republican prisoners were being moved to the boards they were paraded in front of a block which houses loyalist prisoners where they were subjected to serious sectarian abuse. The deteriorating condition in Maghaberry has been a matter of concern to the IRPWA and other Republican organisations for some time now. Basic human rights are being denied to Republican POW’s by a vindictive and sectarian prison regime and the IRPWA and other Republican organisations will do everything in their power to support the prisoners in their battle for conditions befitting republican prisoners. We call on all Republicans, especially ex-POW’s, and those interested in upholding human rights to assist the prisoners in whatever capacity they can. The IRPWA will continue to hold regular protests and collections in support of Republican POW’s.

STATEMENT ENDS

Terry McCafferty Released

2010-03-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

The IRPWA are delighted at the news of Terry McCafferty's release from prison. Terry was returned to British confinement for no other reason than his political beliefs. Attempts by the RUC/PSNI/MI5 to suggest otherwise have foundered even within their own security system which merely confirms the utter spurious nature of his reinternment. The IRPWA takes this opportunity to thank most sincerely all those republicans who braved all weather conditions to campaign for this very day. Your efforts have been vindicated. We wish Terry and his familly all the best for their future.

Criminalisation Resisted

2010-03-22T14:18:00.000-07:00

The IRPWA and the 32CSM would like to thank all Republican activists and supporters who campaigned for Gary’s return to the wing which holds Republican Prisoners. The events of past week and Gary’s return to the wing smashes any illusion that may remain surrounding the bogus threats against Republicans which we are convinced emanated from elements of British intelligence and their dirty tricks department. The purpose of these dirty tricks, whether they were an attempt to create confusion or part of a more sinister agenda can only be speculated upon. However, the united approach shown by republicans over the past week has dispelled as nonsense the attempt by our enemies to portray Republicanism as divided. Whist we are relieved that Gary has been return to his comrades, we are still increasingly mindful of the conditions of all Republican prisoners which are becoming more and more intolerable by the day. The British occupational forces continue their war against Republican prisoners away from the public glare in the most brutal fashions. Republican prisoners have been attacked by Crown prison personnel, one sustaining a serious injury to his arm after a dog which was set on him, mauled him. Republican prisoners are routinely striped searched, have visits denied and have been denied association and basic human rights. When challenged the British prison officials conveniently quote “staff shortages” as an excuse, however, there is never staff shortages when it comes to brutalising prisoners as dozens of riot squad personnel are at hand in a matter of minutes. The IRPWA will continue to campaign, protest and agitate on behalf of republican prisoners and call on all Republicans especially ex- Pow’s to lend their support.

POLITICAL STATUS NOW

Solidarity In Derry

2010-03-16T13:14:00.001-07:00

Maghaberry Protest

2010-03-15T13:05:00.001-07:00

Maghaberry Prison Protest
32 County Sovereignty Movement
14/03/2010

Once again the veneer of normalisation is shattered by London’s policy of criminalisation against republicans. As much as such a policy victimises republican activists and republican prisoners it also highlights the utter impotence of those claiming to be ‘Irish Ministers’ in Stormont. The British Government is now utilising the entire spectrum of its criminal justice system in Ireland in its dirty war against Irish separatists irrespective of devolution. The police, judiciary and prison authorities are at one in the implementation of this policy.

There has been a concerted effort in recent times to smear individual republicans as agents and informers to ferment mistrust and division within republican ranks. Coupled with this have been bogus RUC/PSNI claims of death threats against named individuals purportedly from republican organisations. These are not random or localised occurrences but form part of a centrally controlled strategy. Undoubtedly the spectre of republican unity prompted this strategy at this time.

32CSM activist Gary Donnelly was recently imprisoned after being assaulted by members of the RUC/PSNI in Derry. Shortly into his incarceration Gary was placed on ‘lockdown’ and removed from the republican wing on the spurious grounds that his life was ‘under threat from the Real IRA’. He was placed in a wing housing criminal and sex offenders. As a consequence of this action Gary has refused food pending his return to the republican wing.

This development marks a deliberate intrusion of this dirty war strategy into the prison system. Like all previous attempts to do so it will fail in the face of determined republican resistance both within and without of that system. We call on all republicans to see through this nefarious British tactic and act in unison against it. Criminalisation is directed against all republicans and ostensibly what republicans struggle for. To those who chose to become part of the British establishment under the delusional belief that such an act could remove that establishment from Ireland you now face another choice, your British paymasters expect no less from you.

No Extradition/Colin Duffy Protest 27/02/2010

2010-02-28T08:01:00.000-08:00

RUC/PSNI Assault In Derry

2010-02-22T10:28:00.000-08:00

IRPWA Statement 22/02/2010

On Saturday 20th February 2010 two members of the IRPWA were collecting for Republican prisoners outside the Credit Union at Abbey Street Derry. Shortly after 9.30am they were approached by members of the RUC/PSNI and one activist had his arms forced up behind his back and was rammed face first up against a wall. During the course of this assault they stole money donated by members of the public. This much needed money is destined for the families of Republican prisoners and this is another example of a offensive by Crown Forces in an attempt to break the resolve of the most vulnerable people in the Republican community . It is our belief that this marked increase in the harassment and intimidation of Republican families is in no small part due to the recent pro British media fanfare led by pro establishment mouthpieces which is attempting to whip up anti-republican hysteria. This has obviously buoyed up this British police force who now feel that they can attack Republicans and working class communities with impunity.

Statement Ends

Michael Campbell / Colin Duffy Protests February 13th

2010-02-17T13:12:00.001-08:00

Lithuania Hell

2010-02-11T12:12:00.000-08:00

Republican prisoner held in ‘inhuman and degrading’ conditions!

February 2010.

The conditions in a Lithuanian jail where a republican prisoner, Michael Campbell, is being held on remand have been described as ‘inhuman’ and ‘degrading’ and in direct contravention of prisoners’ human rights.
These findings were included in a recently published report by Professor Rod Morgan, an independent expert in criminal justice and the former head of Britain’s Youth Justice Board.

Professor Morgan’s report re-iterated the findings of the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), which in 2008 inspected the Lukiskes Prison in Vilnius where Campbell, from Dundalk, is being held.

Campbell, from Faughart, has been held on remand in Lukiskes prison for almost two years. He was arrested with his wife, Fiona Duffy, in January 2008 during a sting operation in which it is believed MI5, the Gardaí and Lithuanian police were involved. Duffy was held for four months before being released unconditionally and allowed to return to Ireland.

Prosecutors in the case against Campbell allege he was attempting to procure weapons for use by the RIRA but he insists he had travelled to Vilnius to purchase counterfeit cigarettes and that he is the victim of a conspiracy by British and Lithuanian Intelligence.

Among the conditions which the CPT found to be ‘totally unacceptable’ were cells in a poor state of repair and filthy, little or no access to natural light, inadequate artificial lighting, lack of ventilation, unhygienic toilets, inadequate drinking water provision and absence of outdoor exercise facilities.

Levels of overcrowding were described as ‘outrageous’, with six prisoners sharing an eight metre square cell. While there have also been reports of high suicide rates.

A follow-up inspection by the Lithuanian Ombudsman acknowledged that conditions in the jail are in violation of the human rights standards and sanitation regulations due to overcrowding and the failure of the authorities to carry out basic renovations.

Since his arrest, Michael Campbell has only been seen by his lawyers and an official from the Irish Embassy in Lithuania.

He is denied any visits from his family and it took numerous court appeals by his lawyers before he was granted two brief phone calls to his wife, their only contact in two years.

According to his family, his mail is heavily censored and he is prevented from making any mention of his trial which began in October 2009. The trial is being heard in closed court with family and supporters banned from attending. Severe restrictions have also been placed on media coverage from the court, which sits for just two or three days each month.

Little or no advance notice of some court sittings is given and often Campbell’s legal representatives are not informed of proceedings. With a date of verdict yet to be returned, there is no indication of how long the trial will continue.

Campbell’s brother, Liam, is currently fighting extradition to Lithuania. He has been held in Maghaberry prison since he was arrested in Bessbrook in May last year for an alleged breach of bail conditions.

At the time he was on bail awaiting extradition proceedings from Dublin and it was alleged his bail conditions prevented him from crossing the border. It has since been established that conditions were not breached however, he remains in custody. He faces accusations of conspiracy to procure arms from Lithuania for use by the RIRA.

Soon after his arrest in the north, extradition proceedings were levelled against him at the behest of the Lithuanian authorities, who have requested he be extradited from Northern Ireland instead.
This request was upheld by the Belfast court despite the fact that the same proceedings were already at an advanced stage in the south.

His extradition hearing from the north is scheduled for next month.

March POW Protest

2010-02-11T12:10:00.000-08:00

February POW Protest

2010-01-14T13:07:00.000-08:00

2010 POW Protest Derry

2010-01-14T00:08:00.000-08:00

Remember The POW's

2009-12-21T13:15:00.000-08:00

Free Colin Duffy Message In Tallaght

2009-12-17T13:54:00.000-08:00

Portlaoise POW's statement

2009-12-08T10:41:00.000-08:00

" We the republican P.O.W.'s E3 would like to take this opportunity to extend our thanks to our friends and comrades who have supported us in the last year, and we would like to convey to you all a Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year. The morale of the volunteers on E3 landing is very high at the moment due to our confidence in the leadership. The commemoration for volunteer Kevin "Kiddo" Murray took place on Friday the 13th of November and was carried out with the dignity associated with republican memorials. We would also like to send our greetings and solidarity to our comrades imprisoned at home and abroad and urge you to do the same. We would like to send a message to the Free State government that while they may imprison republicans they will not break the republican spirit.
Beir Bua, O/C E3 Landing Portlaoise Gaol.

White Line Picket Newry 5/12/09

2009-12-06T09:56:00.001-08:00

Derry POW Protest

2009-11-28T11:23:00.000-08:00

Free Colin Duffy Protest O'Connell St 14/10/09

2009-11-15T03:24:00.001-08:00

Michael Campbell Protest 14/10/09

2009-11-15T03:20:00.001-08:00

Colin Duffy Protest Drogheda 24/10/09

2009-10-24T13:16:00.000-07:00

Members of The Friends Of Colin Duffy, 32CSM, RNU, eirigi, Independent Republicans and the IRPWA held a protest picket in Drogheda in support of the incarcerated republican.

Michael Campbell Protest 10/10/09

2009-10-10T14:27:00.000-07:00

Michael Campbell Protest 10/10/09

2009-10-07T13:20:00.001-07:00

Assemble At 1pm
Saturday 10th October
Lithuanian Embassy
Dublin
All Republicans Welcome

POW Protest Drogheda 23/09/09

2009-09-23T13:49:00.000-07:00

Members of Colin Duff'ys familly joined republicans from Dublin, Meath, Louth and Armagh to protest against his continuing incarcration and the extradition of other republican detainees.

All Ireland Anti Extradition Protest

2009-09-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

Anti Extradition Protest Dublin 5/09/09

2009-09-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

Anti Extradition Protest Belfast 24/08/2009

2009-08-27T09:23:00.000-07:00

Protest Against Liam Campbell Extradition

Michael Campbell Protest 1/08/09

2009-08-02T13:30:00.000-07:00

Terry McCafferty/Liam & Michael Campbell Protest

2009-07-22T11:27:00.001-07:00

Terry McCafferty/Liam & Michael Campbell Protest

Saturday 25th July, 2 pm North Queen Street RUC/PSNI Barracks, North Belfast.

The Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association are urging all Republicans, Socialists and anyone concerned with human rights and civil liberty abuses to attend our protest on Saturday July the 25th at 2pm outside North Queen Street RUC/PSNI barracks. This protest is in support of Terry McCafferty, interned by the British secretary of state in Ireland despite having served the requisite amount of his prison term.
Liam Campbell who was kidnapped by the RUC/PSNI after crossing into the occupied six counties and is currently being extradited by the British to Lithuania for alleged offences in that country despite him never having set foot there.
Michael Campbell is currently being held in medieval conditions in a Lithuanian prison accused of attempting to procure weapons for Irish Republicans, Michael has been held hostage for a year and a half despite no evidence being brought forward as of yet.

The IRPWA believe it is imperative that the cases of these three men, among others, need to be brought to the public attention and that all Republicans attend the various protests that are being arranged.

All Republicans and all banners are welcome.

Free Michael Campbell Protest 4/7/09

2009-07-06T11:48:00.000-07:00

Free Terry McCafferty

2009-06-27T13:27:00.001-07:00

Attempts To Curtail IRPWA Fundraising

2009-06-18T07:23:00.000-07:00

IRPWA activists in Derry City have been told by the owner of a well known Republican bar in the city that they are no longer welcome to raise funds in aid of Irish Republican POW’s and their dependents on his premises.

The city centre pub is popular amongst republicans of all shades and hosts popular rebel bands every Sunday. Songs of Irish heroes, Volunteers and Prisoners are sung to lure punters in for profit. The owner was asked by Republican activists to explain his decision to put an end to the weekly collection, no explanation was given.

IRPWA activists are continually harassed by members of the RUC/PSNI making fundraising increasingly difficult. The IRPWA is aware that businesses have been told by senior member s of the Provisional Movement to put a stop to collections on their premises. It is obvious that the Provisional Movement in conjunction with the RUC/PSNI are using everything at their means to prevent fundraising in aid of political prisoners.

The IRPWA would like to thank everyone in Derry City who has made donations to the Prisoner fund no matter how small. IRPWA activists will not be deterred by the RUC or their new cheerleaders and we will continue to offer moral and financial support to all of prisoners and their families.

http://derry32.blogspot.com/

Terry McCafferty Protest

2009-06-08T11:18:00.001-07:00

The next protest for Republican hostage Terry Mc Cafferty will be on Saturday 27th June in North Queen St. Belfast at 2.00pm.

Michael Campbell Protest 5/6/09

2009-06-05T09:45:00.000-07:00

Lithuanian Embassy Ballsbridge Dublin 1pm

POW Protest Portlaoise Prison

2009-05-22T12:01:00.000-07:00

Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association
22/5/09
Republican POW’s end protest.
It is with a sense of relief that the IRPWA can announce that as of today the Republican prisoners E3 Portlaoise have ended their no wash/dirty protest against the politically motivated denial of Temporary Release by the Free State Department of Justice. The protesting prisoners decided to end their protest when Republican prisoners who had previously been denied TR had recently had it granted.
The IRPWA give this change of heart by the Department of Justice and the Irish Prisons Service a cautious welcome and we hope that it is extended to all Republicans prisoners who qualify for Temporary Release and not used as a tool to reward or punish prisoners arbitrarily.
Message Ends.

Martin McGuinness Must Clarify Remarks

2009-05-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

Martin Mc Guinness should clarify his remarks - IRPWA
The IRPWA call on Martin Mc Guinness to clarify his remarks made on a local radio programme on the morning of Tuesday 12th May regarding the case commonly known as the Derry 4. In an outburst Mr Mc Guinness said that he would like to examine the evidence and questioned how Gary Donnelly was released. Martin Mc Guinness has no authority to demand that Gary Donnelly or any one of the Derry 4 explain their activities or discuss any evidence with him. For the record, however, the sole evidence against the Derry 4 was the word of a chief superintendant.

Mr Mc Guinness' position seem to be at odds with his party's official line on the Special Criminal Court. One of Martin's party colleagues at Stormont, Raymond Mc Cartney, had publicly called for the release of these men. This draconian legislation has also been publicly denounced by PSF representatives in the 26 counties. Is Martin Mc Guinness now supporting this legislation which is now more draconian than ever before. The fact is that the Derry 4 spent nine months awaiting trial which is infact a longer sentence than Martin Mc Guinness served for two convictions of IRA membership.

Portlaoise Protest

2009-05-13T13:28:00.001-07:00

Colin Duffy Vigil Derry

2009-05-10T10:48:00.000-07:00

Portlaoise Protest May 30th 2pm

2009-05-06T15:38:00.000-07:00

This Protest Has Been Cancelled

Michael Campbell Protest 2/5/'09

2009-05-05T09:49:00.000-07:00

Derry POW Protest

2009-05-02T12:19:00.001-07:00

POW Protest Derry

2009-05-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

Assemble Free Derry Corner 2pm

Prison Protest Set To Escalate

2009-04-24T14:14:00.000-07:00

Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association
24/04/2009
E3 Prison Protest to escalate.
The current protest by republican POW’s on E3 landing in Portlaoise gaol is set to escalate following a ruling that yet another prisoner has been denied temporary release by the Free State department of justice. Last week two republicans prisoners went on a no wash/dirty protest over the politically motivated denial of temporary release, more prisoners were set to follow but an agreement was made between the Irish Prison Service and the Officer Commanding republican POW’s to call a temporary halt to the escalation of the protest in order to see what moves could be undertaken to end the action by the prisoners.
Earlier today the OC of the prisoners informed the IRPWA that the Irish Prison Service had come back empty handed and another prisoner was denied temporary release. It seems that the Department of Justice and the Irish Prison Service are committed to the policy of confronting republican prisoners.
We have been informed that all republican prisoners on E3 will join the protest on Monday. The POW’s had earlier stated that they would stagger men in pairs until the whole landing was on protest, the OC has informed the IRPWA that this is no longer the case as the prisoners now see no merit in this course of action.
The IRPWA call on the entire republican family to support the men in their protest and to support the IRPWA in a series of protests they are now planning, we thank those republican comrades who have already come out in support of the POW’s.
The Department of Justice and the Irish Prison Service are making a grave mistake if they think they can call these man’s bluff and they are guilty of a gross underestimation of the Óglaigh na hÉireann POW’s resolve.

POW Protest In Portlaois

2009-04-17T17:20:00.001-07:00

IRISH REPUBLICAN PRISONERS WELFARE ASSOCIATION
18/04/2009
Protest on E3 Portlaoise Gaol.
It is with great regret that the IRPWA call upon the republican family to once again support POW’s in their protest against the blatant injustice of the Prison system in Ireland.
The IRPWA have been tasked by the republican POW’s to state how and why this protest has occurred and to clarify the facts of this protest.
A protest is currently underway on E3 Portlaoise due to the suspension of the temporary release (TR) and compassionate release (CR) programmes. It is the belief of the POW’s that this has happened due to IRA actions in the occupied six counties, indeed the Irish Prison Service have indicated this much and one of their spokespersons has even asked the OC of E3 if he ‘Believed in the border’!
The situation at present is as follows: Two republicans prisoners (Vinny Kelly and Justin McCarthy) are currently involved in a no wash/dirty protest, NOT on the blanket as some have suggested. At intervals republican POW’s will join this protest until the whole landing is on protest , at this stage the protest will escalate.
The Irish Prison Service representative and the Governor have asked the Officer Commanding to reconsider the POW’s stance pending talks with the Free State government, the only concession the POW’s have been willing to make at this stage is to delay further men joining the protest for a short period to give them a chance to resolve the issue. It is the understanding of the IRPWA that this window of opportunity is fast closing and we would urge all those involved in the Free State government and the Irish Prison Service to make strenuous efforts to resolve this intolerable situation as soon as possible.

Statement from Republican Prisoners E3 to the Irish Prison Service.

The Irish Prison Service (IPS) states in its mission statement that one of its goals is to try to maintain relationships between prisoners and their families. This is one of the reasons for it's Temporary Release (TR) programme. When a prisoner is released his chances of settling back into normal family relationships are improved. The programme was also to help prisoners to seek housing accommodation and social welfare payments and help further their education upon release.

The process for Political prisoners has always been compassionate on TR. We have always obeyed the rules set out surrounding releases of this nature. We have always maintained the integrity of being Republican prisoners by returning on time and there has never been an issue with this. We recognise the importance of these releases on the grounds that if we are to maintain family ties important events must be attended. In the past the IPS has allowed Republican prisoners to attend funerals of family and loved ones. It has also allowed for important religious events such as Christenings, First Holy Communions and Confirmations.

It has recently stopped all of this without any explanation being given. Examples of this include denials of applications to attend children’s First Holy Communions and funerals of close relatives. One application was submitted when a Republican prisoner’s only aunt passed away and the application came back denied after the funeral had already taken place. Another application was denied for a prisoner to attend the funeral of his twin’s mother and denied again for the twins Confirmation eight months after the death of their mother.
We the Republican prisoners of E3 landing will not tolerate this blatant discrimination and unjust treatment. It is only following recenet events in the six counties that this unfair treatment of our prisoners has intensified. We believe it is directly related and until the IPS and the Governor of Portlaoise Prison are willing to stop this harassment and mistreatment of all Republican prisoners we will commence protest. We will not be used as leverage for the British and Free State governments.

WE WILL NOT BE BROKEN.

Maghaberry POW's Easter Statement

2009-04-13T12:38:00.000-07:00

POW Statement

We, The Republican POWs’ incarcerated in the six county gaol of Maghaberry reaffirm our wholehearted support for and confidence in the Leadership of Oglaigh na hEireann.We wish to send our thanks to the leadership and to all the people both here in Ireland and around the world who have helped us and our families throughout the year. We take great heart fro all the cards and letters we receive on a daily basis.
“Irishmen and Irishwomen, in the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old traditions of Nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom.”
Those who wrote, spoke and died for those words in 1916 showed us how so few could inspire a whole country to stand up to the strongest and most ruthless imperialist occupier the world had ever seen.
Today as so many times in our history we are being subjected to the tactics the Brits know best, Imprisonment, Internment, Remand for years, Harassment of our families and friends, Threats and criminalisation.
I am not a criminal, my comrades are not criminals, Bobby Sands was not a criminal, James Connolly was not a criminal.
As we grow stronger and our people come back to us, as they are today, the Brits and their paid puppets here in Ireland become more desperate in both their words and actions. As those before us have shown for over 750 years, we remain steadfast in our pursuit of the 32 County Socialist Republic.
Tiocfaidh ar la

Belfast Protest 25/03/09

2009-03-26T01:13:00.001-07:00

Michael Campbell Protest 21/2/09

2009-03-11T12:41:00.000-07:00

Protest As RUC Steal Prisoner Funds

2009-03-07T11:50:00.001-08:00

Derry Republicans staged an impromptu protest outside Strand road RUC barracks after the earlier theft of funds which were being collected for the IRPWA.

Criminality Not Tolerated

2009-03-02T10:16:00.001-08:00

Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association
28/02/09

The IRPWA take this opportunity, on behalf of the Republican prisoners on E3 landing Portlaoise gaol, to state categorically that Joe Clarke, a prisoner from Dublin, has absolutely no association with the Republican movement in any way, shape or form. We wish to state that this man was initially associated with the Republican movement and was charged with IRA membership but was dismissed and thrown off the IRA landing when investigations into his conduct uncovered substantial criminality.
Since Clarke was dismissed, nearly two years ago, he was been associated with another organisation but has just been thrown off their landing also when he was caught trying to smuggle a quantity of drugs into the prison.
The IRPWA and the Republican prisoners E3 absolutely condemn this man and his criminal activities and we state that criminality has no part in the Republican movement., we further advise all Republicans to be wary of criminals masquerading as political activists and we urge Republicans to expose their activities wherever possible, these people are part of the criminalisation agenda and are undoubtedly dancing to someone else’s tune. Republicans will not allow their name to be besmirched by people of Clarke’s ilk.
Message Ends

Getting The Message Out

2009-02-02T00:58:00.000-08:00

Bloody Sunday Commemoration 2009

Republican Forum For Unity / Terry McCafferty

2009-01-23T09:49:00.000-08:00

Free Terry McCafferty

2009-01-10T15:38:00.001-08:00

Terry McCafferty Video

2009-01-06T07:55:00.000-08:00

Free Terry McCafferty

2008-12-28T12:45:00.000-08:00

Terry McCafferty Protest

2008-12-24T13:34:00.001-08:00

Release Terry McCafferty

2008-12-23T08:57:00.000-08:00

White Line Picket

Dunville Park, Falls Road

3PM December 24th

Derry 4 Released

2008-12-21T05:05:00.000-08:00

Monaghan IRPWA

2008-12-19T13:00:00.001-08:00

Monaghan IRPWA Christmas Draw.

The Co Monaghan Irish Republican Prisoner Welfare Association would like to thank all our supporters and the general public for buying tickets for our Christmas Draw 2008.
The Proceeds from this Draw are very much appreciated and will go a long way to helping fund the Prisoners and their Dependents in the New Year.
Winners will be notified in the next few days and Prizes will be delivered shortly.

Thank You.

Michael Campbell Protest

2008-12-15T05:15:00.000-08:00

Michael Campbell Protest

2008-12-03T08:48:00.000-08:00

Picket Lithuanian Embassy Dublin

December 13th 1.00pm

Free Derry 4 Protest November 29

2008-11-29T12:17:00.001-08:00

Lithuanian Embassy Protest

2008-11-09T12:21:00.001-08:00

Swedish Support For Michael Cambpell

2008-11-06T09:11:00.000-08:00

Picket Outside Lithuanian Embassy Stockholm

http://www.irlandinformation.org/

Michael Campbell Protest

2008-10-20T13:40:00.001-07:00

The IRPWA will be holding a protest at the Lithuanian Embassy Ballsbridge, Dublin on 8th November at 1.00pm in support of Irishman Michael Campbell currently held in a Vilnius Prison.

Michael has been held for the past nine months with no charges being brought against him. His family have been prevented from visiting him by the main prosecutor there and when a family friend went to Vilnius for one of his court remands he was removed from the court at the insistence of the prosecutor. He is not allowed phone-calls home and the only contact he has had with his family has been a few letters home. He is being held in a cell with three other prisoners, none of whom speak any English and who spend their time smoking drugs. Michael has to keep his head at a broken window to get fresh air. The only toilet is a hole in the ground. The prison food is inedible and the conditions under which he is being held are appalling. The only people to have seen Michael since his arrest have been his lawyers. His family have been working quietly to try to persuade the authorities to allow them to visit but to no avail. They contacted the IRPWA to ask us to raise awareness about his case and alert others to the inhumane conditions he is being held under. We would ask all members of 32CSM cumainn to attend our picket at the Lithuanian Embassy and exert as much pressure as we can on the authorities in that country to treat this Irishman with some semblance of humanity and dignity.

Is míse le meas,
Marian Price (Chairperson IRPWA)

Aidan Hulme Latest

2008-10-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

POSITIVE OUTCOME TO AIDAN HULME CAMPAIGN

The Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association (IRPWA)welcome the latest development in the Aidan Hulme campaign whereby the Prison Governor in Portlaoise Gaol has agreed with the prisoners and Aidan that the OC and Adjutant will be allowed access to accompany Aidan when he is visited by a doctor or when visited by the Governor.

Today (15/10/08) such a visit took place and it is confirmed that gangrene is not present in Aidan’s foot rather the symptoms are a result of a severe infection for which Aidan is now being treated.

Staff from the hospital will now visit Aidan to clean the infected areas of his foot and renew dressings to prevent further spread of infection.

An assurance is also given that Aidan will have a consultant assessment before the end of the month and an agreed care plan is being implemented and developed. This will allow for a proper consultant led care management package.

This positive and jointly agreed approach to Aidan’s welfare will ensure early intervention in the event of deterioration and will allow for continuous monitoring of his condition.

The negative effects of the medication will also be closely monitored and with Aidan’s agreement can be reduced depending on his individual needs at any given time.

The IRPWA on behalf of the POW’s would like at this time to thank most sincerely the many people who moved to support Aidan in his time of need and to those who sent greetings.

We would like to extend this thanks to other republican organisations who pledged their support and advice to ensure that Aidan received immediate professional intervention.

Aidan is indeed most grateful for all the support he has received and extends his heartfelt appreciation to everyone involved.

Marion Price
IRPWA

Benefit Night

2008-10-15T12:59:00.000-07:00

Alarming Concern For Aidan Hulme

2008-10-08T07:53:00.000-07:00

Alarming Concern For Aidan Hulme

Alarming concern has been expressed for the continuing medical condition of republican prisoner Aidan Hulme in Portlaoise Prison. Following a visit from a Doctor it was observed that Aidan’s toes on his injured leg had turned black giving rise to fears of possible gangrene. The Doctor relayed to the Prison Governor that Aidan should be seen by a Consultant in this field as a medical imperative. The Governor has stated that Aidan’s case would be prioritised but as of yet no decisive action has been taken.

Aidan is currently on twenty one tablets a day and requires the use of Morphine Patches to alleviate pain. His complexion has turned yellow which may indicate liver damage as a result of the high dosage of medication. He is currently confined to bed twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. The Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association urges all republican and socialist groups to campaign vigorously to ensure Aidan’s medical needs are urgently met. We will be petitioning Minister Dermot Ahern to intervene immediately so that Aidan can receive the proper medical attention in a proper medical facility.

Marian Price
IRPWA

Campaing Reaches Italy

In Belfast the Resistance Continues

Special on Ireland – An interview with Saoirse Harte, spokesperson in Italy for the 32CSM, the Republicans who refused the sell-out to London

Repression, arrests, sectarianism, discrimination. Words that, hearing them daily embedded in half the world, would nothing other than a memory of The Occupied Six and above all of Irish nationalists. Even more it would mean far memories for people of Dublin and the Republic of Ireland. Unfortunately it is not like that. Tension is on the agenda and Ireland, both North and South, is everything but at peace. There isn’t only Sinn Fein in the Green Island. There isn’t only “the patinated” peace of the Stormont government signed with the English. There are also political movements and parties that still fight for independence and the Irish unity, without an English presence.
Ireland is living a dramatic moment. A Republican prisoner, in Portlaoise Gaol, is risking the amputation of a foot and perhaps even worse because the Irish authorities deny him the possibility of visiting and help from an expert in an external structure. We talked to Saoirse Harte, the spokesperson in Italy of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement about this and other issues.

Q. First of all let’s talk about Aidan Hulme, the Irish prisoner who in this moment in grave danger in Portlaoise Gaol.

A. Aidan was arrested and imprisoned in England in 2003 for the London BBC bomb in March 2001 with two other people. It should be pointed out that there was no direct evidence to link Aidan to the bomb but a series of suggestive evidence linking them to a political group. At that point we mobilized with protests and petitions to have these three people repatriated to Ireland, inasmuch as European citizens they have the right of being moved to a gaol closer to home in order to facilitate the family visits. Of the three, only Aidan and his brother were repatriated in 2006.

Q. Was Aidan already injured when he was incarcerated in the UK?

A. Yes, Aidan had a horrible motorbike accident before being arrested and was undergoing treatment when incarcerated. When he was sent to Gaol in England he was denied medical Treatment and his situation got worse. Then in 2004 we protested against the negligence of the English doctors. What’s worse is that once he was repatriated he was still denied treatment!

Q. When did the situation get to be alarming?

A. In February of this year the situation became more and more alarming. During a recent medical visit, the doctor found that Aidan’s toes had turned black and the doctor fears gangrene. The doctor has asked the Prison Governor to let Aidan see a specialist. The director said that he Aidan’s case would have had the maximum priority, but still no provision has been taken. Aidan is currently taking twenty-one pills a day for the pain and the use of morphine patches has become necessary. His skin has turned yellow which indicates liver damage due to all the medication that he is taking. Currently Aidan is bedridden 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Q. What has been organized?

A. Other than protests, we have started a letter writing petition to the Justice Minister Dermot Ahern for immediate action. I have spoken personally with the Minister’s office but have been fobbed off with the most banal of excuses as have many others. And no progress has been made.

Q. This absurd situation is very similar to what happened to Kevin Murray, isn’t it?
A. Exactly. Kevin was a prisoner in the same Gaol arrested for political reasons. He had continuing headaches, he was not well, he asked for a doctor and he was systematically denied his right to medical treatment. When he was finally allowed to see a doctor, the only thing left to do for him was to send him to a hospice to die because of a massive brain tumour. Maybe the outcome would have been the same, but he had the right to medical treatment. That was 2001. Nobody has been brought to justice for Kevin’s death. After seven years we find ourselves front of a very similar situation, Aidan is risking his life and it seems that no one cares. Republicans are treated like second class citizens by the Irish government.

Q. Tell us about you movement, the 32CSM

A. We are not a political party, but a movement because we do not present ourselves for elections; we do not recognise them as valid and official. We fight for a Free Sovereign Ireland. Our objectives are National Irish Sovereignty, Republican unity and the promotion of the revolutionary ideals of Republicanism. We also demand the immediate and unconditional release for all Irish political prisoners in the world. In the United States as an example there is a prisoner who awaits trail 25 years after his ‘offence’, not being an American citizen and being a Republican.

Q. When was your movement founded?

A. Most of our founding members came from within Sinn Fein and within Sinn Fein there was a committee called the 32 County Sovereignty Committee. In 1997, with the peace talks with the English, the party split. On the 7th December of that year there was a meeting of the activists who had left Sinn Fein because of their sell-out to England. For an English Treaty. And that night the 32CSM was founded. The year after, in 1998, we have sent a legal submission to the UN asking them not to recognise the GFA Referendum, inasmuch as English did not have the right to organize it and it also questioned the British Soverenity in Ireland.

Q. Is the 32CSM a 32 County Movement?

A. Yes, the movement is present in all the 32 counties of Ireland with activists. We are also in England and Italy as international lobby groups. Other than representing the republican cause, we are very active in Social work and work against drugs in our communities and anti-social behaviour as it has no place in society. Obviously also we are also busy working against the Lisbon Treaty.

Q. What is the current situation in Ireland?

A. North and South it’s a difficult situation. In the North the police continue to use the same methods and with a biconfessional government and nothing has changed. For this reason many people are leaving Sinn Fein, which is always further away from its’ grassroots. Republicans are furthering themselves from Sinn Fein who seem to be more interested in being part of a foreign government in Ireland. There is also internment by remand where republican activists are arrested and put in gaol for long periods of time with no evidence against them other than the fact they are Republicans and the word of a police officer this is a serious danger for all Republicans. We also have the use of the Special Criminal Court, a court which is in contravention of Human Rights as set out by the EU and for every seating is fined around €10,000 by Brussels. It should be noted that the Irish government pays this fine in advance, doesn’t it seem strange to you to pay a fine in advance?

Q. Last question. Is there any position with other Pro Independence groups in Ireland?

A. Yes, there is the Republican Network for Unity, a grouping where ex POWs are present, IRSP (Irish Republican Socialist Party) and other independent republicans. In other words, unity is open to all those who have not accepted the sell-out to the English and that continue to resist.

Tommaso Della Longa
Italian Link

Letter Of Protest To President McAleese

2008-10-06T09:47:00.001-07:00

A bhean uasal.

We the families of Michael Gallagher, Patrick Mc Daid, Gary Donnelly and Martin of Neill, would like to take this oppurtunity to present you with this letter of protest. As so called President of Ireland (in fact more accurately President of the 26 Counties), you are a representative of a state which is in effect interning our loved ones.
It is our intention to make you aware that at present your government is in breach of international law by operating the Special Criminal Court. This court is fined on a yearly basis and has the audacity to pay the fine in advance, this shows, in your opinion, the total contempt with which the 26 County administration views international opinion.
In your public role you are are well known for your touring of the world's troubled spots and highlighting instances of human and civil rights abuses that have taken place there. However a blind eye has been turned to what has been going on in this country. At present the government and legal apparatus of the 26 Counties has been doing the dirty work of their British masters, by subverting the civil and human rights of Republicans. The Derry 4, named above, and numerous other Republican prisoners have had their right to silence taken away. We have the unjust situation of the acceptance of the unchallenged word of a Garda Superintendent as evidence, (a force facing many allegations, proven in some cases, of corruption) and as previously stated the operation of illegal Special Courts.
The silence of yourself and the ruling elite in the Free State is a sign that it is now acceptable for the government and the courts of the 26 Counties to apply this legisation and convict people in a manner, which would not be tolerated in the rest of Europe. We the families will at every oppurtunity highlight the injustice faced by our loved ones and expose those who take hypocritical stances regarding such matters.

Is mise
Families of the Derry 4

Portlaoise Disturbances

2008-09-24T14:05:00.000-07:00

Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association
24/09/2008

Óglaigh na hÉireann Prisoners not involved in Portlaoise Row.

The IRPWA wish to state clearly that no Óglaigh na hÉireann prisoners (nor any interned on remand on membership charges) were involved in the recent row between INLA prisoners and prisoners associated with the Provisional Movement.
It is our understanding that prisoners associated with the INLA confronted prisoners associated with the Provisional movement over issues such as the Provisionals blocking INLA prisoners from coming on to a republican wing, throwing INLA prisoners of that wing for talking to other prisoners and trying to prevent the INLA prisoners from using certain visiting boxes, stating they were ‘IRA’ boxes.
Words were exchanged and by all accounts this led to blows being exchanged, we also believe that a small number of ex- Óglaigh na hÉireann prisoners sided with the Provisionals in this row.
Despite misinformation being peddled by a certain notorious Free State tabloid, it is clear that no Óglaigh na hÉireann prisoners were involved in this incident The E3 prisoners have worked hard to create a more tolerable environment for all POW’s incarcerated in Portlaoise and will continue to do so.