A Light from Portlaoise?
The brother passed on a gift to me last week, of a Portlaoise lamp
which he has kept at home for more than twenty years. He thought I
should have something made in the prisons for my mantelpiece,
considering as prison art would soon be a thing of the past and Long
Kesh harps or Portlaoise crosses would be collectors items. The lamp
is as good today as it was then, a fine piece of craft work, well
finished and with the legend Óglaigh na hÉireann, Príosún Portlaoise
written on its base. Unfortunately, I don't know who made it, or how
long he spent inside, though I'd hope that by now he is long long out
of prison. Of course, you never know.
Sitting beside the lamp is a Long Kesh cottage, vintage 1998, which
takes equal pride of place on the fireplace and raises just as much
interest among visitors. Who made it? How long did he do? Where is he
now? These are all questions which in the case of the cottage I can
answer, and the answers usually lead to the inevitable questions
about prisoners being released, the pros and cons of it, and a
general acceptance that in the context of a peace settlement
releases are necessary.
What does surprise some visitors to the house, however, is that there
are still prisoners remaining in the H Blocks and in Portlaoise.
Outside of republicans, there is almost a universal misunderstanding
that `all the prisoners are out now, surely' and among republicans
there is an equally dangerous and widespread misunderstanding that
`all the prisoners are going to be out very soon, surely'. Both these
points of view contribute to the whole question of prisoner releases
taking a back seat in the present stage of the process and to the
pressure for releases being dispersed prematurely.
A few months back, when I was given the present of the Long Kesh
Cottage, I flattered myself to think that maybe, just maybe, it would
be one of the last pieces of handicraft to make its way out from Long
Kesh. POWs handicrafts would be a memento, held as lovingly by
families and friends for the next twenty years as the Portlaoise
lampstand was for the past twenty years until the memory of whatever
prisoner made it would become fainter even while his or her craft
remained as a reminder of the culture of imprisonment. Since then,
however, wishful thinking has been taken over by cold reality. POWs
still send out their crafts, and Portlaoise is now as full as it was
a year ago, mainly due to the influx of POWs repatriated from England
and the harps and crosses are a reminder of what is rather than what
used to be.
This week sees the first batch of screws taking early retirement from
the H Blocks as the population there continues to fall. Meanwhile
there are twenty six POWs in Portlaoise, four out of five of them
transferred from English prisons. The screws have apparently taken to
calling the place HMP Portlaoise, knowing as they do that the
majority of their prison population is being held at the direct
behest of the British. Four of these prisoners are now in their
twenty fourth year of imprisonment. The Dublin Government now have
the shameful honour of holding the longest serving POWs in the
history of the Irish British conflict, and not even for any alleged
action carried out on Irish soil. And yet, despite their claims that
they cannot release POWs without British consent the Dublin
government knows that under existing legislation it can release
immediately every remaining political prisoner in Portlaoise. What is
lacking is not the legislation but the political will.
The Good Friday Agreement committed the British and Irish governments
to releasing all political prisoners. Portlaoise Prison now holds a
large group of repatriated POWs, none of whom have any idea as to
when they will be released. It's time the Dublin government took
steps to resolve this issue and to release the remaining POWs in
Portlaoise, something which is within their power. It might throw
some ray of light and hope that they are serious about living up to
what is written in the agreement. After 24 years, they could start by
releasing the Balcombe Street Four this Easter.
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