23 April 1998 Edition
Back issue: Epidemic feared in H-Block
In a bid to have ended the concentration camp treatment in H-Block, Long Kesh, more than 350 POWs ``on the blanket'' have been forced to go on a ``dirt strike''.
By now there must be few people in Ireland unaware of the situation-and that at any moment an epidemic may break out. Where are the voices of liberal compassion now?
In a statment on behalf of Comhairle Chuige Uladh its O.C.P., Marta Bean Mhic Ghill Aolain, writes,
In H-Block, are the British trying to surpass their own record from the days of O'Donovan Rossa, when over 20 fenians died or went insane within two years when imprisoned in similarly brutal conditions? The prison authorities at the time calmly denied there was anything amiss, even as these men came out in coffins, and the editorial in a leading newspaper at the time said, ``O'Donovan Rossa is simply being treated for what he is, that is, a common criminal.''
We are witnessing the greatest prison struggle of all time here in Ireland today, carried out by naked prisoners of war in the face of the most skillful and most totalitarian British propaganda machine ever seen. This current protest for recognition as prisoners of war is without parallel anywhere else in the world today.
By now there must be few people in Ireland unaware of the situation-and that at any moment an epidemic may break out. Where are the voices of liberal compassion now?
In a statment on behalf of Comhairle Chuige Uladh its O.C.P., Marta Bean Mhic Ghill Aolain, writes,
In H-Block, are the British trying to surpass their own record from the days of O'Donovan Rossa, when over 20 fenians died or went insane within two years when imprisoned in similarly brutal conditions? The prison authorities at the time calmly denied there was anything amiss, even as these men came out in coffins, and the editorial in a leading newspaper at the time said, ``O'Donovan Rossa is simply being treated for what he is, that is, a common criminal.''
We are witnessing the greatest prison struggle of all time here in Ireland today, carried out by naked prisoners of war in the face of the most skillful and most totalitarian British propaganda machine ever seen. This current protest for recognition as prisoners of war is without parallel anywhere else in the world today.