[article] Republicans running Portlaoise Prison

mike65

Sounds like a bit of a holliday camp judging by the rte news reports.

The Prison Officers Association has called on the Minister for Justice to intervene to stop dissident republican groups carrying out military parades in Portlaoise Prison.

The Association says murals have been painted on the walls, a dirty protest has been underway at the prison for two weeks, and subversive prisoners can order in steak and other food from outside the jail.

Prison officers also say visitors to republican inmates do not have to be searched by the drugs dog while others including prison officers do.

However, the Director of the Prison Service says the inmates are only allowed order in food from outside approximately three times a year and they are not throwing wild parties in the jail.

Brian Purcell also says the policy of not searching republican inmates' visitors with the drug dog is for confidential operational reasons but will change.

The concessions granted to members of the INLA, the Continuity IRA and the Real IRA in Portlaoise Prison are the focus of discontent at the Prison Officers Association conference today.

The Association says prison officers have had to work in appalling conditions since seven subversive inmates began a dirty protest at the jail two and a half weeks ago.

They also say the subversive inmates can order in steak and other food from outside the jail, which is then cooked for them.

Earlier, the Prison Service revealed it cannot put criminals into vacant cells on landings in Portlaoise Prison occupied by dissident republican prisoners due to security reasons.

The Prison Officers' Association has been critical that in spite of overcrowding elsewhere, 48 Continuity IRA, Real IRA and INLA inmates are accommodated on four landings with over 120 cells.

Subversive groupings have to be kept on different landings and factions have to be separated.

The association said some of the cells are used to store clothes and physical education equipment.

But Prison Service Director Brian Purcell rejected the suggestion that subversive inmates are using spare cells as 'walk-in wardrobes'.

He said republican prisoners have always been treated differently and have to be viewed through a particular operational and security lens.

Pretty outrageous stuff.

CSC

Republican prisoners don't see themselves as ordinary criminals and like to think of themselves as POWs.

slippy wicket

These criminals are only taking advantage of the namby-pamby PC nonsense that has flowed like a river of sewage from this government and the so-called FF politicos who are so afraid of rocking the Nordy boat that they will put up with any amount of BS.

A straw filled sack and rats should be their only comfort.

CSC

If the government take a hardline against dissident republican prisoners it could potentially be counter productive and the prisoners could gain a lot of sympathy from people who don't support their organisation e.g Bobby Sands.

Driseog

Don't usually agree with Kevin Myres but he wrote a good article on the state of Irish prisons not so long ago. Should we really surprised about anything that goes on inside prisons anymore considering its another one of our many state systems thats rotten to the core.
Whats a Nordy boat? Something the Vikings travelled in?

walrusgumble

slippy wicket wrote: »

These criminals are only taking advantage of the namby-pamby PC nonsense that has flowed like a river of sewage from this government and the so-called FF politicos who are so afraid of rocking the Nordy boat that they will put up with any amount of BS.

A straw filled sack and rats should be their only comfort.

and fine gael did a fine job dealing with the north (with reasonaby huge exception during 1992-1996 - and gareth fitzgerald himself) trying to court unionist and thatcher opinion in the 1970's-1980's:rolleyes: what was that they did - we wont "talk to terrorists":rolleyes: jesus they had conservatives rolling in the halls in westminister. for the record i share the opinion of post 4

your nordy reference is pretty offending, ignorant and ill considerate.

Sleepy

CSC, I doubt that the continuity nutcases would get support if they tried hunger strikes. With their recent return to violence in the north they'd most likely find themselves being let die...

lostexpectation

you get to leave holiday camps after two weeks

Diogenes

Anybody else seeing that bit from Goodfellas?

These people are common criminals who feel above their station.

tallus

I think the worst thing the prison service could have done was to segregate these prisoners. At least if they were housed with non paramilitary prisoners it might have prevented this fiasco.

Tarzan007

So this the biggest thing you have to complain about regarding prisons in Ireland - when the biggest criminals in the country who have almost bankrupted us, the banks, politicians receiving BRIBES in brown paper bags ( though they call them ' political donations ' of course ) etc are walking around scot free getting huge payoffs and state pensions when the jails should be packed with them.

And then some worry about Republicans eating steak in Portlaoise ?? It's no wonder the country is bankjaxed is it :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

dvpower

CSC wrote: »

Republican prisoners don't see themselves as ordinary criminals and like to think of themselves as POWs.

Can we borrow guantanamo bay when the americans are finished with it?

dvpower

CSC wrote: »

If the government take a hardline against dissident republican prisoners it could potentially be counter productive and the prisoners could gain a lot of sympathy from people who don't support their organisation e.g Bobby Sands.

Times have change completly from the eighties. Then, there was a large minority supporting republican prisoners and no peace process or agreement. Now, there is a wide concensus and no large appetite in any community for pandering to dissidents. Time to treat them like any other prisoners. God knows, we need the cell space.

slippy wicket

People have got used to peace and I dont think that the people at large will stand for any return to violence, no matter what a tiny minority of whack-jobs might want.

Just to broaden this out a little bit, do the same conditions apply at castlerea.

I suppose the prison service has just got used to pandering to the needs of so-called "republicans" and "nationalists" . I really despise the way language has been b@stardised re such words. I see myself if anything as more of a nationalist and republican than these people, but in their eyes I would be nothing more than a west brit prod.

Liam Byrne

There's a MASSIVE difference between steak and a hunger strike.

Give 'em what everyone else is getting.....actually, now that many decent people seem to have to queue for food, drop the standard of that down too.....

Otherwise this PC crap combined with the recession will be a great way to ensure you get fed properly......I can almost see the next psycho "dissident" republican recruitment campaign....

"tired of queing for food ? sign up, shoot a few Brits, get jailed and eat steak for life".......and laugh the next time you hear that the Brit soldiers are ordering pizza.....

Who says "crime doesn't pay", eh ? :mad:

Or, to borrow one from Orwell [his wording for the analogy is appropriate even without replacing the words].....

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others"

Driseog

Sure castlerea is a holiday camp for all, there's no discrimination there. Those boys have been ordering chinese from the local take away for years. And just last week a few boys that were out on day release helped themselves to a few vauluables from the local community. Thief, pervert, republican, they're all equal in castlerea.

slippy wicket

Ah bless their black hearts. These crims of whatever hue are creatures of a bygone era . Totally without any present of future, they should go the way of the dodo.

Bottle_of_Smoke

Listen, there's just no way the average joe has any clue how to run a prison. If they're doing this in portlaoise there's probably good reason for it. No one here knows what threats they're operating prisons under.

Unless portlaoise prison officers are posting here, our opinions are about as relevant as those we have on theories of molecular workings of nuclear reactions.

Sleepy

Well, if the threat is one of a hunger strike, I say let them strike.