Republican News · Thursday 1 November 2001

Blanket Protest ends

Brit inflexibility remains

WITH only days to go before the British-imposed 28-day moratorium on the loss of remission expires, the British Government has still not been forthcoming in explaining the extent of the proposed prison reforms and has given no indication of whether or not it will force a confrontation on an insistance that prisoners engage in work which they consider penal or degrading, or whether or not refusal to do such work will result in complete forfeiture of remission.

On Wednesday week, 21 October, Brendan McFarlane, H-Block OC, had a short meeting with the recently appointed governor, Willy Kerr, who replaced Stanley Hilditch last month.

The meeting lasted only 15 minutes and Kerr stuck rigidly to the statements and leaflets issued by Direct Ruler James Prior and the Preison minister Lord Gowrie. Kerr made the ridiculous statement that he saw no ambiguity or vagueness with regard to the issue of prison work. However, he made the interesting comment that the question of whether or not a protesting prisoner lost remission was entirely up to him to decide when the moratorium expires next Sunday.

ARMAGH

The following day, Mairéad Farrell, Armagh OC, saw the governor of that jail, George Scott, about the same issue.

Apparently, Scott is awaiting a resolution of the H-Block protest before the Armagh Prison regime is dealt with.

In both H-Block and Armagh the administrations have accepted 39 republican-nominated political prisoners for self-maintenance dutie - serving meals and srvicing the wings - and this entitles these prisoners to claim 'privileges' almost immediately and after three months to claim 50% restoration of lost remission.

By Wednesday, only four republican prisoners were left on the blanket and it was expected that they would receive their own clothes that day, so bringing to an end the historic, blanket protest which began five years ago when Kieran Nugent refused to wear the British criminal uniform.

But the victory has been overshadowed by the deaths of ten comrades on Hunger Strike and continued British inflexibility on the issue of prison work and inflexibility too, presumably, on the issue of segregation.

Last Monday the National H-Block/Armagh Committee welcomed the fact that all prisoners wouls shortly have their own clothes, but expressed concern at the British Government's inflexible attitude and said that they had received no definite answer from Jim Prior about a meeting which they had requested.

Phoblacht, Thursday 29 October 1981