Republican POW denied release to attend father’s funeral

national | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Wednesday January 18, 2012 19:55 by RSF - Republican Sinn Fein

Political Status Now!

Stormont 'Justice Department' deneying a Republican prisoner compassionate parole to attend his father’s funeral exposed the inhumanity of the British Prison service when dealing with Republican prisoners.

The POW Department, Republican Sinn Féin, said in a statement on January 18 that the decision of the Stormont Justice Department to deny a Republican prisoner compassionate parole to attend his father’s funeral exposed the inhumanity of the British Prison service when dealing with Republican prisoners.

Spokesperson Josephine Hayden continued: “Damien McKenna of Lurgan applied for compassionate parole to attend his father’s funeral in Lurgan on January 19 and was refused on the grounds that he is a protesting prisoner. Damien, along with his comrades in Maghaberry prison, is engaged in a protest against strip-searching and in defence of the historic right of Republican prisoners to political status.

“Once more the real face of British rule in Ireland shows itself. Britain and their hirelings have learned nothing over the course of centuries of occupation. Thirty-one years after the brutality of the H-Blocks and the hunger strikes of 1981 yet another group of Irish Republican prisoners are being brutalised by a prison system designed to break the spirit of resistance. Irish history teaches us it will have the opposite effect and will instead galvanise the spirits of the POWs in their struggle for a free Ireland.

“Our thoughts and sympathies are with Damien McKenna and his family in their sad loss.”