‘SUPERGRASS APPROACH’ TO MORTARS-ACCUSED !

A DERRY man charged in connection with the discovery of mortars in March R has been approached in prison by MI5 to turn ssupergrass, a court has been told. A solicitor for Gary McDaid, of Glenowen Park, told a remand hearing on Thursday at Derry Magistrates Court that while in Maghaberry Prison his client had been asked on six occasions to plead guilty and become an assisting offender.

The approaches were made in the absence of McDaid’s solicitors, he said.Representations had been made to the Prison Service, the Chief Consable, the Secretary of State and the High Court in regards to the approaches. Deputy district judge John Meehan said one possible remedy could be the granting of bail to McDaid. He adjourned the case for one week for the prosecution to show cause why McDaid should not get bail. The Northern Ireland Office confirmed in a letter that the PSNI had visited McDaid in Maghaberry. McDaid and co-accused, Seamus McLaughlin (35) of Eastway Gardens, Creggan, Derry, are both charged with conspiring to cause expolsions and pocessing improvised mortars on March 3. The charges relate to the discovery of four mortars in a van on the Letterkenny Road in the city.

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MI5/MI6 MEET UVF JUST WEEKS AFTER DUBLIN-MONAGHAN BOMBINGS

Attacks not mentioned at secret meeting.

A HIGH-ranking member of MI5/MI6 met a UVF delegation just weeks after the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. Secret papers reveal that four men from the loyalist paramilitary group met with senior intelligence officer Michael Oatley aafter it had detonated bombs in Dublin and Monaghan in May 1974, killing 33 people.

Senior British government official James Allan also attended the meeting on May 27 at a house in Hollywood, Co Down, known as Laneside. A long-serving MI6 operator, Mr Oatley had strong contacts with both republican and loyalist groups througout the Troubles and is beleived to have been instrumental in the process that ultimatley resulted in the Provisional IRA calling its 1994 ceasefire. The UVF delegation comprised West Belfast man Ken Gibson, beleived to have been the leader of the UVF in 1974, and three other men who are named in the recently uncovered document. Laneside was regulary used by British officils as a discreet location to meet and hold talks with both loyalists and nationalist representatives in the 1970′s. Staffed by various Northern Ireland Office and British government officials, it was also used by officers of MI6, the international arm of the British Secret Services. Documents recentiy uncovered by the Pat Finucance Centre in Derry reveal that MI6 officials meet the four-stong UVF delegation ovef two days. The meetings took place less than two weeks after three UVF bombs exploded in Dublin and one in Monaghan as the Ulster Workers Strike was nearing an end. Despite this, no mention of the atrocities was made during the minutes.

Instead, in a summary of the meeting prepared by James Allan, it has emerged he was keen to protect senior UVF men from arrest. ” The UVF’s relationship with us has become very stange,” he said. ” They are desperately in need of advice as to how to achieve their aims of ensuring working class, and above all UVF participation in politics and they seek this even though they know that there are basic differences between them and HMG on the strike. ” Further, they are clearly worried that their position may be undermined by arrest of UVF leaders. (I beleive we should think very carefully before action is taken vis a vis UVF politicals and I should be greatful to have the opportunity to comment on possible arrest lists).” Two days later, on May 29, Ken Gibson and a second UVF man returned to Laneside for more talks. During these discussions it emerged that the UVF leaders claimed both they and former first minister, then leader of the DUP, Ian Paisley, now Lord Bannside, were supportive of talks with republicans.

The government summary of the meeting said : ” Despite their rough words in public politicians, including Rev Ian Paisley, were in favour of conversations with the IRA.” It would be more than three decades before the DUP leader finally went into goverenment with Sinn Fein at the Stormont assembly. The UVF men also revealed their support for the Price sisters, Dolours and Marian, who at the time were on hungerstrike in an English jail.”ThePrice sisters should be returned to Ireland as should loyalist prisoners like Billy Campbell held in Scotland,” reported James Allan. ” Mr Gibson suggested the loyalist leaders would probably start a ccampaign for the return of all such prisoners. ” Part of their aim in doing so would show solidarity with republicans.” Margaret Irwin from Justice for the Forgotten, a group that represents the families of those killed in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, said she was concerned about the files. ” The thing that is very disturbing is that the British government were considering not arresting UVF leaders especially coming in the wake of the bombings,”  she said. ” It brings home the importance of the British government being up front in relation to undisclosed files.”

• The full files can be seen at
  
• http://www.patfinucanecentre.org

With many thanks to : Connia Young, Irish News.

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DISSIDENT EX-PRISONER HAS RELEASE LICENSE REVOKED

Tough new approach by NIO

” The government will not hesitate to use all the powers at its disposalaccder the law to counter the residual terrorist threat ” - Mike Penning.

A FORMER Republican prisoner accused of supplying a car to the killers of prison officer David Black has had his release licence revoked. Damien McLaughlin (36) from Kilmascally Road, Ardboe, in Co Tyrone was told last week that his governmentrelease from prison, where he had served a sentence for firearms offences, has been overturned.

It is believed  to be the first time a former republican prisoner convicted of an offence committed after the Provisional IRA‘s 1994 ceasefire has had their release licence revoked. McLaughlin is on remand in Maghaberry Prison charged in connection with the shooting of Mr Black by dissident republicans last November. He is accused of being involved in transporting a car belived to have been used in the attack into the from Co Litrim. McLaughlin denies the charge of ‘ preparation of a terrorest-act ‘. Mr Black, a father-of-two, died after gunmen opened fire on his Audi car as he drove to work at Maghaberry Prison.The attack took place on the M1 near Lurgan, Co Armagh. A group styling itself ‘ the IRA ‘ later admitted responsability for the attack. In 2011 McLaughlin was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for weapons offences dating back to 2009. He pleaded guilty to possessing two rifles, a sawn-off shotgun and ammuntion. He also admitted having two silencers, a magazine and two telescopic sights. The haul was discovered in a rucksack liner in the boot of his car which was parked outside the house where he lived at the time. He was released later in 2011 on conditation he serve the remainder on probatition and after serving some time on remand. In September last year he received a suspended jail sentence after being convicted of damaging his cell at Maghaberry Prison during a republican prison protest.

A spokesman for the Northern Ireland Office said the decision to revoke McLaughlin’s release licence was taken after a recommendation from the Parole Commissioners for Northern Ireland that ” he poses a risk of harm to the public which can no longer be safely managed in the community “. NIO junior minister Mike Penning, who revoked the licence on behalf of Secretary of State Teresa Villiers said : ” The government will not hesitate to use all the powers at its disposal under the law to counter the residual terrorist threat.” Mr McLaughlin’s solicitor Peter Corrigan said his client will ” be challenging the legality of the revocation “. UUP justice spokesman Tom Elliot defended the move. ” At this particular time there is a suspected connection with a serious incident which is murder and obviously they need to take all reasonable precautions in those cases,” he said. Two other republicans, Marian Price-McGlinchey and Martin Corey , are also being held in prison after having their release licences revoked. Price (58) was originally jailed for her part in the 1973 Old Baily bombing and released in 1980. However, her relese licence was revoked in 2011 by then Secretary of State Owen Paterson. Corey (63) from Lurgan in Co Armagh was convicted of killing two RUC men in11973 and released from prison in 1992. His licence was revoked in April 2010, again by Owen Paterson.

With many thanks to : Connia Young, Irish News.

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tiocfaidh Àr Là FREE THEM ALL STOP FUCKINGNG AROUND , FREE ULSTER, CUT THE SLF CONFUSED TRAITORS. PUSSY WILLIS’S NOT TRUE . WRE CLTS , TAKE THM OU.T OUT USED TO SELL EIRIN. ago

(Tiocfaidh Àr Là) ITS HERE,
Antony Mulvihill
Conspiracy theories have never been strangers to Republican circles. The most notable since the 1998 Belfast Agreement, is that so-called ‘securocrats’ are involved in a conspiracy to discredit the leadership of the Provisional movement and undermine the peace process. (1) Securocrats can be defined as “disgruntled members of the security forces who want to force Sinn Fein out of government.” (2) The securocrats allegedly pull the secret strings of Northern Ireland. “These men, skulking in corners of the army, MI5, Special Branch and the Northern Ireland Office, form… a ‘shadow government’, bent on forcing its own, reactionary agenda on the province. In this view, their driving purpose is the defeat, discrediting and humiliation of Sinn Féin and the IRA – regardless of the policy pursued by Tony Blair and his ‘official’ government in Downing Street.” (3) For example, last December the late Denis Donaldson was exposed as a British agent. He had been one of three officials charged with spying on other political parties at Stormont; the alleged ‘Stormontgate‘ plot discovered in October 2002. The Provisional leadership insisted that this was proof that the spy ring had never existed and that the whole Stormontgate affair had been set up by the securocrats. “It was a British spy ring controlled by securocrats, by people within the establishment who are hostile to the peace process” declared Martin McGuinness. (4) This is questionable. Far from launching the Stormontgate affair to give the then Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble an excuse to walk away from power-sharing with the Provisional movement, the securocrats took the view that Mr Trimble should ignore the spying scandal and stay in government.
As Ed Moloney puts it, “The Sinn Féin conspiracy theory – that the spooks are out to destroy the peace process – suffers from a fundamental flaw. Not only is it rubbish, but the exact opposite is the truth. The peace process represents the wildest fantasies of the security establishment come true and the last thing the spooks want is to see it destroyed. The peace process has enabled MI5 and the Police Service of Northern Ireland special branch to achieve something that very few if any security forces have ever accomplished: to see their enemy defanged by its own leadership and led out of violent revolutionary ways into constitutional politics and a world where the principle of consent overrides the Armalite. MI5 and the PSNI know they could never have done this themselves, that they needed people like Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness to do it for them. So why on earth would the spooks want to undermine them, to frustrate them and place obstacles in their way, as the Provo leadership claim they have consistently done – most recently with Stormontgate? To have done so would have been to act fundamentally against their own interests. It just wouldn’t make sense.” (5) Professor Paul Bew noted that “those whom Sinn Féin named as securocrats gave every sign of being inconvenienced by the Stormontgate affair. It was their job, after all, to deliver the institutions of the Good Friday agreement and to keep Mr Adams locked into the peace process. In that sense, there has been, for many years now, a profound commonality of interest between the British security establishment and Mr Adams.” (6)
This is not to say that the securocrats are nothing but “a conspiracy theory that belonged in an airport thriller rather than the real world” as some think. (7) Such elements of the British security forces exist, “but they are not in the driving seat of British security policy. Those running the show know that there is more than one way to skin a cat. They are the type of people whom the Provisional leadership was meeting behind the backs of its membership and whose overriding objective was to ensure that Provisional objectives were never secured.” (8) For example, when Chief Constable Hugh Orde alleged in December 2004 that the Provisional movement carried out the Northern Bank robbery, Martin McGuinness told a press conference that there was a political agenda by the government and “securocrats” to try to “criminalise and marginalise” his party and stop the peace process. (9) But it is not the agenda he would have us believe. “It is an agenda of bringing Sinn Fein more closely into the structure of the state. Had there have been any chance of a deal being stuck, Orde would have been under tremendous pressure to go no further than his under reported statement that a republican group was responsible for the Northern Bank heist, without specifying which.” (10) Similarly, the Provisional movement accused senior NIO official permanent secretary Pilling of running a nest of securocrats. Pilling had in fact ensured during the 1998 Belfast Agreement negotiations that prisoners would not be released in exchange for decommissioning as a means to facilitate the peace process and the Provisional’s transition into British institutions. Far from the British establishment “considering the process to be a threat to its rule in the North” or the securocrats “attempting to engineer political isolation and demonisation” of the Provisional leadership (11), we find British diplomat David Goodall claiming that everything was going almost according to plan and former MI6 director Michael Oatley expressing public admiration for the Provisional leadership. (12)
The Provisional movement also frequently allege that there is a conspiracy between the media and the securocrats, with journalists becoming a willing participant in the so-called ‘dirty war’ by spreading “misinformation” to attack Sinn Fein and the Peace Process. When the so-called ‘Stake Knife’ affair broke out in May 2003, the Provisional leadership denied everything and blamed the collusion of securocrats and ‘journocrats’. “All of these stories are coming from nameless and faceless securocrats in British intelligence” said Martin McGuinness. (13) The peace process has indeed corrupted journalism, but not in the manner alleged by McGuinness. Quite the opposite in fact. The media has been accused by award-winning journalist Ed Moloney of covering up truth to protect the peace process and being reluctant to report events unhelpful to the peace process. (14) For example, when in October 2000 the Provisional shot dead Joe O Connor in Ballymurphy, their involvement in the murder was mostly brushed under the carpet by the media. Reporters and editors sympathetic to Sinn Fein’s strategy branded journalists who asked awkward questions (such as Ed Moloney or Suzanne Breen) “JAPPS – Journalists Against the Peace Process”. It would be more accurate to say that the peace process has in fact produced Journalists Against Journalism.
The securocrat conspiracy theory may be flawed, but it brings two political benefits for the Provisional movement. First it allows to present itself nationally and internationally as a perpetual victim; which is electorally advantageous. Secondly, it allows to shift the blame for deadlocks in the peace process away from itself to ‘securocrats’, ‘malevolent blanketeers’, ‘japps’ and other ‘enemies of the peace process’. But the cost has been that crying securocrat wolf too often has ultimately undermined the credibility of the Provisional movement. Every time the Provisional leadership cries out ‘securocrat’, only the faithful believe.

NOTES(1) Roy Greenslade, The securocrats’ revenge, The Guardian, 9 October 2002. One of the only mainstream articles taking the ‘securocrat’ conspiracy theory seriously. (2) Nicholas Watt and Rosie Cowan, Special branch blamed for leaks that damage Sinn Fein, The Guardian 23 April 2002(3) Jonathan Freedland, The strange collusion between Downing Street and Sinn Fein, The Guardian, 21 December 2005 (4) Henry McDonald, 20 Years of treachery, The Observer, 18 December 2006(5) Ed Moloney, Was there a Stormontgate? The Belfast Telegraph, 21 December 2005(6) Paul Bew, Shadowy alliance haunts Stormontgate, The Yorkshire Post, 22 December 2005(7) Jonathan Freedland, op.cit.(8) Anthony McIntyre, SF – Securocrat Fantasists,/(9) Mathew Tempest, IRA blamed for £22m Belfast bank raid, The Guardian 7 January 2005(10) Anthony McIntyre, op.cit.(11) Adam O’Toole, ‘Stakeknife’ turns out to have blunt British blade, An Phoblacht/Republican News, 22 May 2003(12) David Goodall, Actually it’s all working out almost exactly to plan, Parliamentary Brief, May/June 1998, and Michael Oatley, Forget the weapons and learn to trust Sinn Fein, Sunday Times, 31 October 1999(13) Tom Happold and agencies, Adams: Scappaticci innocent until proven guilty, The Guardian, 16 May 2003(14) Henry McDonald, Reporters ‘covered up truth’ about IRA to help peace, The Obs

Wall Photos

Republican Martin Corey From Lurgan, Co. Armagh was sentenced to Life Imprisonme…See more

by: Rsf Longford Westmeath

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The growth of secret ’evidence’ and the case of Marian Price

Daniel Holder is Deputy Director of the CAJ

There were two significant reminders last week about the creeping use of secret ‘evidence.’ The first was the continued imprisonment of Marian McGlinchey (née Price) despite her three co-accused walking free when a judge threw out charges against all four. Marian Price was technically speaking already ‘out on bail’ in relation to these charges (which the Prosecution Service may now seek to resurrect). Her continued imprisonment relates not to a decision by a Court, but a separate procedure involving a government Minister and a Commission which can rely on secret evidence.

The second reminder was the UK Coalition Government’s inclusion of an ominously titled ‘Justice and Security Bill’ within the list of laws it announced it would introduce in the next Parliamentary session. The Bill would allow government Ministers to instruct ‘CMPs’ – Closed Material Procedures (i.e. secret evidence) be used in civil court processes. Our local circumstances were not for once the impetus for such a dramatic change (although as it could include the likes of ‘Troubles’ Inquests, it would have serious repercussions here). The move is in response to MI5/6 involvement in ‘war on terror’ practices such as ‘extraordinary rendition’ (i.e. the kidnap, torture and unlawful detention of persons) being increasingly challenged in Court, and in particular the compensation settlements being paid to Guantanamo Bay detainees. The Government argues it needs CMPs in order to allow secret trials to protect ‘national security. ’ They also conveniently reduce the potential to hold the Security Services accountable for malpractice or human rights abuses in which they are implicated.

There is general outrage from human rights groups over the proposals. Amidst this, we should not lose sight of the fact that secret evidence procedures already exist– many piloted and specific to this jurisdiction. Persons who have their fair employment discrimination claims blocked by a ‘national security certificate’ issued by the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) can only have their claims heard in a ‘special tribunal’ involving secret evidence – which predates its better known counterpart tribunal for persons subject to ‘Control Orders.’ CAJhas asked under the Freedom of Information Act how many certificates have been issued and how often the ‘special tribunal’ has convened – only to be told that the NIO ‘did not record’ such information. Should you be subject to such processes, you can expect that both you, your lawyer, and the public will be excluded from your court hearing. Secret ‘evidence’, usually based on security force intelligence data, is then presented against you, which you cannot challenge. A ‘Special Advocate’ is appointed to represent you but cannot discuss the secret ‘evidence’ with you. At best, you and your representatives are given a ‘gist’ of what is being alleged.

Similar procedures also apply for recalling to prison persons with conflict-related convictions who were released under the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. Such releases were ‘under licence,’ conditional on no re-involvement in paramilitary activity. The question which arises is how the conclusion is reached that someone has returned to such activity. The decision is not on the basis of a fresh conviction for a similar serious offence proved beyond reasonable doubt in a competent court, but rather a variation of the above CMPprocess involving the NIO, Secretary of State and a Commission, which can rely on secret ‘evidence’ in a closed ‘Special Advocate’ procedure. Marian Price was released long before the 1998 Agreement, having been convicted of bombing the Old Bailey in 1973, but issued with a royal pardon in 1980. A similar process exists under the Life Sentences (Northern Ireland) Order 2001 whereby the NIO Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, can provide the Parole Commissioners with evidence and invite them to make a recommendation to return an individual to prison. Such decisions can also be based on secret ‘evidence,’ including intelligence data, and do not require a conviction or even a charge. At worst, therefore, the process could be used selectively against ex-prisoners engaged in political activity outside the mainstream, rather than just against those genuinely involved in unlawful activity.

The case of Marian Price is particularly striking, as on the same day a Judge released her on bail in May 2011, a government Minister returned her to prison. There are other due process issues in relation to this case, not least the fact she was given a pardon under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy. The NIO claims this document only related to Marian Price’s fixed term and not life sentence for which a licence applied. Her family contest that the pardon related to both, and hence believe that the NIO had no licence to revoke. It would seem a relatively simple matter for the NIO to produce the document to settle the matter. However, apparently the pardon and all copies of it have gone ‘missing.’ Given that it could possibly change a decision as to whether a person is deprived of their liberty, one would think an investigation would have taken place as to how and when the information disappeared. CAJ has been told that the NIO have decided not to investigate this on the grounds that the pardon is ‘not relevant’ to this case. Whilst decisions in ‘special tribunals’ are made on the basis of evidence that defendants cannot see, it is difficult to understand how the NIO reached this conclusion without itself viewing the document.

The dangers of secret ‘evidence’ within the justice system were set out succinctly in the case of Al Rawi, and others v the Security Services. Here, the government tried to argue that legal norms over the years (the ‘common law’) meant that it had a right to hold civil trials in secret, despite no law permitting this. The UK Supreme Court threw this out, with Lord Kerr arguing that the “right to be informed of the case made against you is not merely a feature of the adversarial system of trial, it is an elementary and essential prerequisite of fairness.”

It is this case that has led to the present Justice and Security Bill introducing CMPs. In response, Special Advocates themselves have argued CMPs “represent a departure from the foundational principle of natural justice that all parties are entitled to see and challenge all the evidence relied upon before the court and to combat that evidence by calling evidence of their own.” Put simply, evidence cannot be relied upon if you cannot challenge it.

CAJ expressed concerns about the CMP proposals, given our experience that measures which effectively bypass rule of law standards and establish, in essence, a parallel justice system, lead to human rights abuses which can exacerbate conflict as well as contributing to the growing marginalisation of ‘suspect communities.’ A further problem highlighted above is that secret evidence tends to consist of intelligence data which the Police themselves are often keen to (rightly) point out does not necessarily constitute evidence. However, under the present recall arrangements, ‘intelligence’ can effectively be used as ‘evidence’ to put an ex-prisoner behind bars.

This is of course not the first time that intelligence rather than evidence has been used to imprison; previous policies of mass arrest and internment involved lists of suspects based on ‘intelligence’ data. The lesson needs to be learned that illegitimate state practices outside the standard rule of law do not prevent but rather fuel conflict. Further growth in procedures allowing secret ‘evidence’ would have serious consequences, but in Marian Price’s case, such consequences are already apparent.

Daniel Holder is Deputy Director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice

CAJ wrote a detailed response in January 2012 to the ‘Justice and Security’ Green Paper setting out the organisations concerns about the proposals – this is availablehere

WITH MANY THANKS TO : THE DETAIL.

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PETER HAIN QUITS HIS POST IN SHADOW CABINET !

Tuesday, 15 May 2012

Former Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain has quit front-bench politics.

The veteran Labour MP for Neath said he had stepped down as shadow Welsh Secretary to focus on making plans for a huge dam over the River Severn a reality. The project would create thousands of jobs around Port Talbot, Mr Hain said.

Labour leader Ed Miliband paid tribute to Mr Hain’s work in Northern Ireland, where he was Secretary of State between 2005 and 2007.

Mr Miliband said: “Peter Hain has made an enormous contribution from the front bench over the past 16 years.

“In Government, his ministerial career was extraordinarily diverse, including time in the Foreign Office, the Northern Ireland Office — where he played a crucial role in the Northern Ireland peace process — and at Work and Pensions.”

In a letter to Mr Miliband, Mr Hain said he intended to stay on as an MP and would fight Neath at the next General Election.

WITH MANY THANKS TO : BELFASTTELEGRAPH

Read more: 
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/peter-hain-quits-his-post-in-shadow-cabinet-16158816.html#ixzz1uvgAVDnO

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RELEASE MARIAN PRICE PROTEST – 27th MAY BEECHMOUNT AVENUE BELFAST !

RELEASE MARIAN PRICE PROTEST – 27th MAY BEECHMOUNT   AVENUE BELFAST – ASSEMBLE BEECHMOUNT AVENUE AT 2.30pm SPEAKERS INCLUDING HER HUSBAND JERRY – http://www.freemarian.co.nr

Speakers including Marian’s husband Jerry

POSTED ON BEHALF OF :   Seosamh O Glacain

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The Justice for Marian Campaign in Belfast will unveil a mural

 

 

 Assemble at the Whiterock Leisure Centre at 3.00pm

All supporters of the Campaign are invited to then proceed to the mural which has been painted by very talented local artists.
Marian was arrested on the same date one year ago and remains interned in isolation. She has been tortured, neglected and denied the most basic human rights. This treatment has ensured that a woman who was in very poor health is now chronically ill.
The event is to highlight Marian’s plight as she enters a second year of internment – an illegal act contrived by the British Secretary of State Owen Paterson and the Northern Ireland Office. They have ‘lost/shredded’ a pardon given to Marian in 1980 when she was close to death.
We call on everyone to come out and help highlight this scandalous situation to ensure that it happens to no-one else. All of us must mark this day by a strong presence and with a united voice shout loudly
FREE MARIAN PRICE!

She has done and would do it for you.

 

POSTED ON BEHALF OF : Lilian Fitzsimons

 

 

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APPEAL FOR ” SPARTANS” TO RALLY TO MARIAN PRICE’S AIDE !

 

 

 

“A Spartan is in trouble and needs our help – what they inflict on one of us they inflict on us all “
Quote from Joe Bell in his impressive letter to the Irish News calling for support for Marian Price.

 

 

 POSTED ON BEHALF OF :  Mandí Uí Dubhthaigh

 

 

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Marian Price needs our support

MARIAN PRICE could be in a British prison in Northern Ireland for the rest of her natural life. Unlike other political prisoners in the North, she has had no trial, no sentence, no release date, nor even a date when the Parole Commission will review her case. Unless the courts intervene, she will only be released by order of Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Owen Paterson.

Twice, Price has been arrested under Northern Ireland’s special security laws and brought before what is known as a Diplock Court, where no jury serves. Twice, a judge has ordered that she be released on bail.

Each time, Paterson overruled the judge and ordered Price back to prison. He said that he was revoking her license (parole). But Price was not actually on license. Convicted of bombings in Britain, she received a full royal pardon (the “Royal Prerogative of Mercy“) when she was freed in 1980 because she appeared to be on the brink of death from severe anorexia nervosa. The anorexia was the result of being force-fed more than 300 times when she was on hunger strike in a British prison.

The Northern Ireland Office now says the pardon “cannot be located”–that it has either been lost or shredded. Price’s lawyer Peter Corrigan recently told an overflow public meeting in Belfast that this is the only time in the history of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy that a pardon has gone missing. Monsignor Raymond Murray, the veteran human rights campaigner, said simply, “You can draw your own conclusions.”

Nevertheless, the Parole Commission sided with the Northern Ireland Office and refused to release Price. Her lawyers will be appealing the decision in court.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Send an e-mail to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Owen Paterson atpatersono@parliament.uk and ask him to free Marian Price immediately.

To learn more about the case and get the latest updates, go to the Free Marian Price website.

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PRICE IS being held in conditions designed to break her body and spirit. She has been in solitary confinement for more than 300 days. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture says solitary confinement for more than 15 days amounts to torture.

She is locked in her cell 21 hours a day. There is a camera in the cell. She has been told that it is switched off, but there is no way to know if that is true.

She has no privacy because prison staff constantly goes in and out of her cell. At night, male prison guards open a peephole and shine a light in her face so she can’t sleep. Marian has told relatives she feels like she is “in a zoo.”

Her husband, Jerry McGlinchey, recently told the WBAI show Radio Free Eireann, “My fear is that Marian will slip into a deep depression that it would take her years to come out of. I believe that is what the government intends.”

He previously said that he is “very, very worried” about her health. She has never recovered from the force-feeding. It caused tuberculosis that had to be treated in 2010, and she was due for a checkup when she was arrested. The anorexia has returned, and she suffers from such severe arthritis that she can’t even open her hand. McGlinchey believes that her health will get steadily worse as long as she is in solitary confinement.

Price is a dedicated Irish republican. She believes that it is necessary to wage an armed struggle to end British rule in Ireland.

But what is at stake is much more than Marian Price or her politics. As the Irish civil rights leader Bernadette Devlin McAlsikey told the Belfast meeting, “From the government’s point of view, this is a clear message that no dissent will be tolerated. You challenge the status quo at your peril.”

We can’t depend on the courts to free Marian Price. Each of us needs to help set her free. In the past month, hundreds of people have come to protest meetings in Derry and Belfast.

There is one very simple thing each of us can do today. We can e-mail Owen Paterson atpatersono@parliament.uk and tell him to free Marian Price immediately. This may be especially important for those of us who don’t live in Ireland. The British government has often proven very vulnerable to international pressure.

POSTED ON BEHALF OF : SocialistWorker.org

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