11 September 1997 Edition
Prisoners issue raised in Longford
A public meeting in Longford on Thursday 28 August on the theme, ``Obstacles for Irish Prisoners in English Jails'' heard from a wide range of speakers.
The meeting, organised by the ``Friends of Patrick Kelly Support Group'', was chaired by Majella McCarron, a human rights campaigner from the Justice Desk of the Irish Missionary Union. She said that she had spent years monitoring conflicts across the world and she thought it was now time that people looked at the conflict here at home in order to help bring it to an end.
Edel Kelly, wife of Longford man Patrick Kelly who is on remand in Belmarsh Jail, in England then told the meeting that her husband has been held in a special Secure Unit (SSU) in Belmarsh for 13 months and has been ill-treated by prison staff on a number of occasions and restricted to closed family and legal visits. Following the announcement by the British government last week of the decatagorisation of prisoners in Belmarsh from ``exceptional high risk'' to ``high risk category A'', she intends visiting her husband next week where she believes they will have, for the first time, an ``open visit''.
Labour Senator Joe Costello, a founder member of the ``Prisoners Rights Organisation'' and who has been on a number of delegations to England to visit the prisoners, said that we must keep on pressurising the British government, not only to have these SSU's closed but because there are a number of these prisoners who are certainly innocent.
Newly elected Sinn Féin TD for Cavan/Monaghan, Caoimhghín O'Caoláin paid tribute to the politicians from other parties who visited the republican prisoners at a time when the British would not allow Sinn Féin representatives to do so. He said that on his visit over to England a couple of weeks ago, he had met with the prisoners in a small annex room adjacent to their SSU's. He said he was very impressed with the high spirits of all the prisoners, including Patrick Kelly. O'Caoláin said that he felt the new British minister responsible for prisons, Jack Straw, was of new thinking and that he now had an opportunity to make significant changes to the regime.
The final speaker of the night was Councillor Peter Kelly, Fianna Fail. He called on all the people of Longford to support both Edel Kelly, her family and her campaign to have her husband repatriated to a jail in Ireland.
The meeting, organised by the ``Friends of Patrick Kelly Support Group'', was chaired by Majella McCarron, a human rights campaigner from the Justice Desk of the Irish Missionary Union. She said that she had spent years monitoring conflicts across the world and she thought it was now time that people looked at the conflict here at home in order to help bring it to an end.
Edel Kelly, wife of Longford man Patrick Kelly who is on remand in Belmarsh Jail, in England then told the meeting that her husband has been held in a special Secure Unit (SSU) in Belmarsh for 13 months and has been ill-treated by prison staff on a number of occasions and restricted to closed family and legal visits. Following the announcement by the British government last week of the decatagorisation of prisoners in Belmarsh from ``exceptional high risk'' to ``high risk category A'', she intends visiting her husband next week where she believes they will have, for the first time, an ``open visit''.
Labour Senator Joe Costello, a founder member of the ``Prisoners Rights Organisation'' and who has been on a number of delegations to England to visit the prisoners, said that we must keep on pressurising the British government, not only to have these SSU's closed but because there are a number of these prisoners who are certainly innocent.
Newly elected Sinn Féin TD for Cavan/Monaghan, Caoimhghín O'Caoláin paid tribute to the politicians from other parties who visited the republican prisoners at a time when the British would not allow Sinn Féin representatives to do so. He said that on his visit over to England a couple of weeks ago, he had met with the prisoners in a small annex room adjacent to their SSU's. He said he was very impressed with the high spirits of all the prisoners, including Patrick Kelly. O'Caoláin said that he felt the new British minister responsible for prisons, Jack Straw, was of new thinking and that he now had an opportunity to make significant changes to the regime.
The final speaker of the night was Councillor Peter Kelly, Fianna Fail. He called on all the people of Longford to support both Edel Kelly, her family and her campaign to have her husband repatriated to a jail in Ireland.