LONG KESH CONCENTRATION CAMP : Martin Corey Interned British Occupied Ireland

During the seventies, former bishop of Derry Edward Daly experienced Bloody Sunday close up, where the British shot dead 14 unarmed protesters on Bloody Sunday protesting internment, he gave them their last rites. He visited both loyalist and republican prisoners in the infamous Long Kesh Concentration Camp – later renamed by the disgraced British as the Maze.

In 1976, paramilitary prisoners had their ‘political’ status removed and were treated as criminals which sparked the blanket protests and political prisoners refused to wear jail uniforms, which  later escalated into hunger strikes. Below is an an extract from Bishop Daly's book, describing the foul conditions at Long Kesh Concentration Camp, where current political internee Martin Corey, has spent most of his adult life.  He is 63 now, having spent 22 years as a political prisoner of conscience in British hellholes, 19 years in Long Kesh, seperate from the  most recent, being 3 years in Maghaberry without trial. He is still interned more than 40 years later, in British Occupied Ireland despite a Peace Process without due process.

IN MARCH 1978, the prisoners ‘on the blanket’ escalated their protest by refusing to clean out their cells, wash or go to the toilet. They smeared the walls and ceilings of their cells with their own excrement and the floors streamed with urine. The lasting memory of visits to Long Kesh during that protest was the horrendous stench. The cells were industrially cleaned by the prison authorities with power hoses from time to time and prisoners were moved to other cells. I have no idea how people lived or worked in those conditions. During my visits there to the wings, I was violently ill on several occasions. The revolting and foul smell seemed to permeate everything I wore, even days after the visit. Items of outer clothing, even after dry cleaning, were virtually unusable subsequently.

In 1980, after four years of unsuccessful protests appealing for special status, a status that would recognise them as political prisoners, prisoners of war rather than criminals, rumours began to circulate that a hunger strike was imminent.

Individually and jointly, Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich and I made several lengthy visits to the H-Blocks in Long Kesh Prison in the spring and summer months of 1980, meeting virtually all the protesting prisoners individually in their cells. These visits usually lasted from early morning until late in the evening. We also met with the prison authorities and visited some Loyalist prisoners, including some of their better-known leaders.

‘It was a parallel universe’

Those lengthy visits to Long Kesh are etched forever in my memory. Spending seven or eight hours at a time going around cells visiting young men in those conditions was unforgettable. It was a parallel universe. There were usually two men in each cell. Their hair was matted and they had long unkempt beards. They were thin and haggard and their eyes were sunken. They wore long blankets. There was no furniture in the cells. The stench was intense and allpervasive. I simply do not know how people retained their sanity after spending such a long time in that environment. Yet I always found the prisoners in high spirits and imbued with a steely determination. Only a few of them talked about a hunger strike.

However, Cardinal Ó Fiaich and I were both convinced that if they embarked upon that course, they would see it through. We also believed that if these men were to embark on their threatened hunger strike, it could have disastrous consequences for the community as a whole. We decided to approach the British Government jointly on behalf of the prisoners. We believed that they had a legitimate and arguable case and that both the Government and prisoners and society generally in the North would benefit from a less stringent and degrading prison regime. We reached this conclusion on the basis that were it not for the political circumstances that these young people found themselves in, most of them would never
have seen the inside of a prison. Most of them came from stable family backgrounds.

We also believed that these protests were undertaken on the prisoners’ own initiative, rather than on bidding or orders from any group outside the prison. Equally, we believed that the protest in the prison was perceived by the prisoners as their continuing contribution to the struggle going on outside the prison.

The issue was further complicated by the fact that a sustained paramilitary campaign was going on contemporaneously throughout the North. In the course of that campaign, many prison officers were murdered. Those who perpetrated these murders claimed that they were acting in support of the prisoners on protest. There was intense anger and hatred between the prisoners and prison staff. There were many allegations of assault. Intimate body searches were frequently carried out, often in a brutal and demeaning manner. There are few dignified methods where intimate strip searches are concerned. The searcher and the searched are dehumanised. Long Kesh was a loathsome, hateful place as well as a powder keg as the 1970s moved to the 1980s.

Edward Daly and Cardinal Ó Fiaich would later meet with the British government in an attempt to negotiate an end to the 1981 hunger strikes, in which ten prisoners died. He writes that the strikes worsened community divisions, and intensified violence, concluding: “I hope there will never again be a hunger strike in Ireland.”

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SS SECRET BRIT STATE Vs MARIAN PRICE

The human suffering in British Occupied Ireland, by elderly political internees like Marian Price and Martin Corey, is markedly similar to the political internment, introduced forty years ago by the British, which escalated from crisis to disaster, culminating in the deaths of 10 Irish hunger strikers.

Over the past two years, the nefarious work of the Tory Government, in conjunction with their secret services with gestapo like powers, have dismantled the Irish Peace Process into No Due Process, without any legal redress to British injustice in Ireland. This is a simple, provable, glaringly obvious truth, yet, the thought-control mainstream media, manage to somehow turn reality on its head, and make a virtue out of something vile and unspeakably villainous, as fascist political internment without trial, creating the injustices and conditions for endless British war again.

Protest on the street is illegal, with protesters charged for daring to highlight the matter, with another Hunger Strike, appearing to be the only recourse, to peacefully protest this obvious British injustice. Marian Price who already was on hunger strike for 200 days, is extremely ill as a result of force feeding, is now close to 60 and Peter Corey is an old age pensioner, so death is far more likely, rather than justice once again, from the heartless barbarity of British Occupied Ireland.

British imperialism has created a human tsunami of suffering all over the world, with Ireland being its first colony. The simple facts are, that Britain has started 28,000 barbaric and genocidal wars, invading and occupying their colonies worldwide.The British have murdered more than 100 million innocent people worldwide in their colonies, and in Ireland alone, they have disappeared more than 7 million people. 

Unlike Germany making amends after Hitler, or making any effort to mitigate this suffering, they continue to exploit the massive misery they create, for political advantage, in their neo-colonial Commonwealth. Wherever they have been, be it India, Pakistan, the middle-east, etc., they have left a legacy of division and exploitation.


Their tactic of making an example of enforced human suffering,  to cow the natives, continues with Marian Price and Martin Corey, straight out of their centuries old invasions of British armies laying siege to cities, with enforced starvation, then hanging numerous locals from high scaffolds, as an example, to strike fear into the natives.

The facts are, they cannot make charges in open court against either Marian or Martin, because there simply is no evidence of wrong doing. Their real agenda being, to make an example of what happens to anyone in Ireland, who dares challenge British occupation or injustice.The British have always been the invading terrorists, not those who bravely resist their invasions and occupation. The Marian Price report below testifies to the above conclusion.








Rights Watch (UK)

(Formerly British Irish Rights Watch)

Mission: Promoting human rights and holding governments to account, drawing upon the lessons learned from the conflict in Northern Ireland.





Expertise and Achievements: Since 1990 we have provided support and services to anyone whose human rights were violated as a result of conflict. Our interventions have reflected our range of expertise, from the right to a fair trial to the government’s positive obligation to protect life. We have a long record of working closely with NGOs and government authorities to share that expertise. And we have received wide recognition, as the first winner of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s Human Rights Prize in 2009 alongside other honours.

Post (9): 25 03 13: The Continued Imprisonment of Marian Price
Easter 2013 marks two years since the imprisonment in Northern Ireland of former IRA hunger
striker, Marian Price. Her situation remains controversial.

Introduction: Continued concerns regarding the trial and imprisonment of Marian Price

It will be two years since Marian Price was returned to prison in Northern Ireland following a political
rally on Easter Day 2011. Her position in the criminal justice process and her position in the prison
system raise concerns which, on this anniversary, we address below


Marian Price and the Criminal Justice System

Marian Price was released from prison on licence following the grant of a Royal Prerogative of Mercy in 1980. She was released on compassionate grounds due to ill health in part exacerbated through being force fed in prison and then contracting tuberculosis and anorexia. Following a political rally in Derry/Londonderry on Easter Day 2011 held in support of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, a dissident republican political organisation, Marian Price was arrested in relation to activities in support of the Real IRA, a proscribed organisation and later in relation to the shooting of two British soldiers at the Masserene Barracks in 2009. These charges were later dropped against her. She still faces prosecution a serious terrorists offences but at this point her criminal trial cannot proceed because Marian Price is unfit to stand trial.

Following Marian Price’s arrest the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland determined that the
licence on which she was originally released from prison in Northern Ireland should be revoked
meaning that she could be sent back to prison on the basis that she had breached the terms of the licence that had followed the grant of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy. In this circumstance the imprisonment of Marian Price becomes a matter for the Northern Ireland Parole Board because, even after this prolonged period of time Marian Price remained on licence and in the same position as many other prisoners released on licence. She is not subject to the same terms of the agreement applying to prisoners released following the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.

Her criminal trial, which has been challenged on the basis that Marian Price has no case to answer, has been set back because of her fitness to participate due to her deteriorating health condition. A further factor maybe the evidence held by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland allegedly implicating her in terrorist activities. This secret evidence against her is subject to a special form of testing within the criminal justice system and may not be accessible to the defence lawyers representing her. In addition, when her case does come to trial, it will be heard by a judge sitting without a jury because of the provisions applicable in Northern Ireland to terrorist related offences. These latter two points are of concern when the fair trails rights of the accused are at stake.

Marian Price and the Conditions of her Imprisonment

When she first appeared before the criminal court Marian Price was granted bail. She was
immediately returned to prison on the decision of the Secretary of the State because she was
subject to a licence. She was further bailed by a criminal court following the death of her sister
earlier this year. She remained subject to remand pending trial because of the existence of the
licence and the powers of the Secretary of State who has responsibility for those prisoners on licence in Northern Ireland.


Two aspects of this situation are problematic:.

First, the terms of the licence maybe known and would usually mean return to prison to complete
the original sentence if a further criminal act is committed. However, the licence applying to Marian Price was drafted following the grant of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy the terms of which are not known because that document has been lost. Papers made available from the Cabinet Office and held at the National Archives and the reports of the parliamentary journal of record, Hansard, reveal that Marian Price was released on compassionate grounds. However, the exact terms of her conditional release are not known and therefore the Parole Commissioners for Northern Ireland who now have power in relation to her application for release pending trial have to make decision in the absence of the original evidential documents.

Second, the Parole Commissioners for Northern Ireland have themselves stated that they are not independent from the government in that they appointed by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and can be dismissed by him. They are therefore part of the executive arm of the state and not the judicial arm of the state. Further, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland partially devolved criminal justice powers to the Northern Ireland following the Hillsborough Agreement 2010. The Northern Ireland Assembly through its power sharing executive has appointed a Minister for Justice who has discretionary powers available to him to release prisoners on compassionate grounds if he is satisfied that exceptional circumstances exist.

Marian Price within the Northern Ireland prison estate:

Marian Price was originally detained in an all-male prison because there was no facility available in Northern Ireland to house a separated female prisoner, under the terms agreed between the government and the dissident republican movement and the dissident Loyalist movement.

She was later moved to a mixed prison facility but was again subject to isolation through her own
choosing as she refuses to be classified as a remand prisoner or as an Ordinary Decent Criminal
(ODC) in Northern Ireland prison service terms. Her mental and physical health have declined
steadily, exacerbated by her malignant tuberculosis contracted during her previous period of
imprisonment when she was subjected to a prolonged regime of force feeding as she undertook a
hunger strike in support of her claim to be imprisoned in a facility in Northern Ireland.

Last year she moved into a civilian hospital where she remains. The conditions of her detention in a civilian hospital are not satisfactory. Her health care is subject to a prison regime for which there is s no protocol in place within either the Northern Ireland Prison Service or the Northern Ireland Criminal Justice Inspectorate. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has recently commented that health care came be a form of torture in certain cases.1

Conclusion: RW(UK) call for the release of Marian Price on compassionate grounds

See http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=44286 and http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/
Pages/CarerBecomesATorturer.aspx

1

If there is evidence against Marian Price for a terrorist related offence it has yet to be presented by the state to its judiciary. Marian Price has once against become a symbol in Northern Ireland of its troublesome and violent past from which the many wish to move on from. She is once again becoming a possible martyr and it was always politically naïve of the British state to think that this would not be so. Her name is writ large on walls in Belfast and in the Derry/Londonderry. She symbolises the past but is very much in the present.

Civil society has protested against the grounds for the imprisonment of Marian Price, the conditions of her imprisonment and the reliance by the British state on secret evidence and closed judicial proceedings. Representations have been made to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the Minister for Justice for Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Criminal Justice Inspectorate in addition to the Parole Commissioners for Northern Ireland.

Marian Price has been visited by NGOs from Northern Ireland including from Rights Watch (UK), the Committee on the Administration of Justice and the Pat Finucane Centre. Representations have also been made to the European Committee on the Prevention of Torture, the International Committee of the Rd Cross and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, whose doctors were critical of her care in prison which facilitated her transfer to a civilian hospital. NGOs are not permitted to observe the proceedings of the Parole Commissioners. A further legal device would be to apply for a writ of habeas corpus.

If Marian Price is to be released on compassionate grounds by the Parole Commissioners for
Northern Ireland it should be without delay; the Minister of Justice for Northern Ireland could
exercise his discretionary powers to have her released because of the exceptional circumstances of the case. Finally, the Northern Ireland Court Service could accommodate her trial in hospital if she is fit to take part in the proceedings. In 2011 dissident republican Brendan Lillis was released by the Parole Commissioners for Northern Ireland because he was found to be too unfit to stand trial. 2 We continue to press for the release of Marian Price and she be afforded the right to a fair trial and not treated as a political pawn in a state of execptionalism.

Christopher Stanley is Legal Officer with Rights Watch(UK)


British Irish Rights Watch


British Irish RIGHTS WATCH (BIRW) is an independent non-governmental organisation that has been monitoring the human rights dimension of the conflict, and the peace process, in Northern Ireland since 1990. Our vision is of a Northern Ireland in which respect for human rights is integral to all its institutions and experienced by all who live there. Our mission is to secure respect for human rights in Northern Ireland and to disseminate the human rights lessons learned from the Northern Ireland conflict in order to promote peace, reconciliation and the prevention of conflict. BIRW’s services are available, free of charge, to anyone whose human rights have been violated because of the conflict, regardless of religious, political or community affiliations. BIRW take no position on the eventual constitutional outcome of the conflict.

Indymedia Ireland 41 Year Anniversary Internment Ireland

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International - Event Notice Thursday August 09 2012 04:00 AM 41 Year Anniversary Ongoing British Torture Internment  international | rights and freedoms | event notice  Thursday August 09, 2012 01:50 by BrianClarkeNUJ - AllVoices  Peace Process Without Due Process Forty one years ago in the early hours of the 9th August 1971 British soldiers introduced internment without trial, by kicking in the doors of hundreds of Irish homes at 4.A.M in the morning. Internment torture has been used by the British Government in British Occupied Ireland, in every decade since the creation of their sectarian based scum state, to suppress any form of genuine political opposition. Internment since the creation of British Occupied Ireland has happened in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and today as another Irish woman called Marian Price is dying, while many other republican suspects are imprisoned without trial. Despite the spin of a peace process the reality is a police state without due process ran on injustice, sponsored sectarianism and British bigotry. Maria Price of Justice ? These 'techniques' although now outlawed, following Britain's conviction at the International Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg, have been exported and used by Britain's allies throughout the world.The techniques were again used on Marian Price while held in solitary confinement last year. Marian was previously force fed and she is now dying from pneumonia and in considerable pain as a direct result of British torture. In Ireland in 1971 there was deliberate and careful use of modern torture techniques, not merely to get information but to perfect the system of Sensory Deprivation for use against civilians. The author, an ex-internee himself spent two years researching the book following his release from Crumlin Road jail where he had been held without charge or trial. In the newer edition he was able to name the torturers and those responsible. No member of the British Army or the Royal Ulster Constabulary has ever been convicted of torture or brutality to prisoners, although the Government was been forced to pay out over $5 million in compensation to torture victims. This is an account of the next eight days. It is taken from the victims' own words, in their statements to the Association for Legal Justice and from private interviews. First Joe Clarke, then aged 19, single, motor mechanic: "After being hooded I was led to the helicopter and I was thrown bodily into the helicopter. During this exercise my hands and wrists were hurt due to the others handcuffed to me not being pushed equally. (Before being led off to the helicopter, I understand that one of the hooded men, now known to be F. McGuigan, collapsed when the hood was first applied.) On being put into the copter, the handcuffs were removed and were applied to the back of the hood to tighten it around the head. The helicopter took off and a journey which I would estimate to have taken about an hour began. The helicopter than landed at a destination unknown to me and we were taken from the copter and led into a building and eventually into a room where I was made to stand in a search position against a wall. My position was the same as for other men – fully stretched, hands as far apart as humanly possible and feet as far from the wall as possible. Back rigid and head held up. Not allowed to relax any of the joints at all. If any relaxation of limbs – arms, elbow joints, legs, knee joints – someone came along and grabbed the limb in a rough manner and put it back into position again. After being against the wall for a few hours. I was taken away and brought, I was told, to a doctor. Sometime during this period I was taken out of this room, put into a helicopter and flown away. I was always handcuffed and hooded. When the 'copter landed I was put into a lorry, driven a short distance, transferred to a jeep, five-minute journey, put into another 'copter, taken for half-hour journey. End of journey put into a police van, driven short distance, five-ten minutes, beaten about the face and body, transferred to other vehicle. Holding my face, asked why, said that I did not want to be beaten again. Assured that I wouldn't be. Brought into a building, hood removed, shown detention form. Hood replaced, return journey as before The build-up to this collapse was frequent numbing of the hands which when it happened I closed my fist only to find that my hands were beaten against the wall until I opened my fingers again and put my hands back into position. On the other occasion I tried to rest by leaning my head against the wall but the response to this was my head was 'banged' on the wall and shaken about until I resumed my position. All the time there was the constant whirring noise like a helicopter blades going around. From the sound of this noise I would say that it was played into the room where I was because on the occasions that I was taken from this room even outside the door of the room the noise was noticeably vague almost to be inaudible. As I have said, I collapsed completely after that long period of time. I was brought round and carried out into the main room again and made resume my position as before against the wall. There then followed a series of collapses – I could not say how many times I collapsed. Initially my hands and legs were beaten whenever this happened and the insides of my feet were kicked until my ankles were swollen to almost twice their normal size. After a number of these collapsings I was then made sit on the floor, with my knees up to my chest, my head between my knees and my arms folded around my knees. In this position I was swayed backwards and forwards in order I presume to bring my circulation back. Whenever this was done I was put against the wall again in the original position. The noise was insistent, driving mental resistance to its utmost. I thought that I was going mad. This noise was the only noise one heard save the groans of the other people lined up against the wall. All the time that I was against this wall I got bread and water once and water alone on two other occasions. This was fed to me by the hood being lifted to my nose and bread and water was fed into my mouth in this way. I should emphasize that I was fed, I did not feed myself. The cup of water was put to my mouth and the bread was put into my mouth. I cannot possibly estimate for what duration I was against this wall and underwent the collapsing experiences and physical torture against this wall, but I would estimate that it must have been at least two full days and nights. During all of the time no sleep was permitted. At the end of the period I must say that I was extremely fatigued both physically and mentally. I was certainly verging on complete mental exhaustion, suffering delusions which were of nightmarish nature. I was taken out of this room – into another room where my hood was removed and I found myself confronted by two plain-clothes RUC SB men, one of whom was standing beside a table and the other was seated behind it. I was told by these men that I had asked to see them. I do not recollect ever having done so. I told them I did not ask for anyone. They then began to interrogate me. These men did not introduce themselves to me, so I do not know who they were. The hood was removed during this entire interview. These men interrogated me for a couple of hours. I should say that at the start of this interview I imagined that I was talking to my brother. At the end of this interview the hood was put back on again and I was put back into the other room and put against the wall. I asked where I was but I was told that I could not be told. As I was against the wall this time I was given a beating: kicked about the legs, a knee was stuck in the base of my spine and the hood was jerked back tight on my face, hurting my neck. I collapsed at the end of this beating. I was also punched in the ribs and in the stomach, as well as being nipped. I was brought round after collapsing and put up against the wall again. The nipping and punching on the arms and ribs commenced. At that I shouted Fuck off', and punched one of my assailants. I was then grabbed by a number of people and I was punched, kicked and kneed all over the body, stomach, ribs and back of my head. The hood was pulled tightly around my neck, nearly suffocating me. I was then put back against the wall. After a short time against it I collapsed. I do not know for how long I was out. The next thing that I clearly remember was sitting in this small room with the same two men as before, who again told me that I sent for them. The hood was taken off for this interview as well. This interview lasted only a very short time, a matter of minutes. I was re-hooded and taken out again into another room where I was beaten continuously for a long number of hours. During the beating I was asked questions concerning the IRA, naming various people, and they also asked me about arms dumps. During all of this time I was standing. Due to the beating – mostly about the body and head, not face – I fell unconscious. When I awakened I was lying on a floor and as I was waking I was being punched. During this period of unconsciousness I had a dream where a friend of mine – my fiancee's brother – bought a scrap-yard. Whenever I awoke and found myself being beaten I began to struggle – I kicked one person and punched another. I was then overcome – my hands were put behind my back and I was handcuffed in this position. There was an attempt to handcuff my ankles. I was then carried down a flight of stairs into a further interrogation – by a different person than previously. The hood was taken off. He told me that I had sent for him. I said that I did not but that I had asked for a priest. He told me that I would get no priest there. After a few questions I was re-hooded and led outside and into another room where I was made, hands still handcuffed behind my back, stand facing a wall with the crown of my head leaning against the wall. As I stood there my arms were pulled further back causing my wrists to be cut and torn. I was left alone in this room un-hooded for a few hours. This same SB Branch man came back in but was very gentle in the course of questioning. He would have questioned me for two to three hours. He then left me again alone in the room – this time for about six hours. He returned when it was morning and told me that I was going back in for a few hours. I asked him where and he said, 'to the jail'. He brought me into a washroom and helped me to shave and have a general clean-up. I was then brought to a doctor. I complained to him of dizziness and pain in my right knee. He bandaged it and gave me an examination. Then I was photographed in the nude both front and rear. I was given my clothes back when I got back to the room. I changed and, after about an hour, I was brought now re-hooded to a Land-Rover and then after a short journey of five to ten minutes was put into a 'copter. After about an hour's flying journey we landed. Taken out. I know now that I was landed at the back of the prison (Girdwood). Marched through a hole in a wall. Across a football pitch and then put into a jeep. Driven to a gate – transferred into another police jeep and driven to the prison reception. I asked in the prison reception, where I was weighed etc., what day it was and he told me Tuesday. I said that it couldn't be since I was in Girdwood on Tuesday but he told me that that was a week ago. After going through the formalities of reception I was put into a cell in the basement where I was kept until the following morning when I was transferred to C wing amongst the other detainees. Whilst in the basement I was given a meal – the first substantial food I received in over a week." It is worth noting that of the twelve men only Clarke physically resisted. After days of ill-treatment and goaded beyond control, he reacted with an attempt, albeit futile, to strike out at his captors and tormentors. Dr. Pearse O'Malley of the Mater Hospital, Belfast, who examined two of the 'guineapigs' while they were recovering in Crumlin jail from their ordeal, has explained[2] how during the intensive sensory deprivation, as the disorientation is prolonged, aggression is likely to manifest itself. In the case of Joe Clarke this took the form of trying to retaliate, but in the case of at least two other men the agression became inverted and they even attempted suicide, by throwing themselves head first at the water-pipes. Related Link: http://irishblog-irelandblog.blogspot.com/ Ballymurphy Internment 1971 Add Your Comments >> printable version with comments    Digg this    del.icio.us    Furl    Reddit    Technorati    Facebook << Back To Newswire

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