Letter from Gerry Hanratty O.C., Portlaoise Republican
Kenrick Jackson (kenrick@online.no)
Fri, 09 Apr 1999 08:20:48 +0200
>Delivered-To: ireland_list-og@email.rutgers.edu
>From: Chuckyrla@aol.com
>Date: Thu, 8 Apr 1999 19:39:21 EDT
>Subject: Letter from Gerry Hanratty O.C., Portlaoise Republican Prisoners
>To: IRL32-JOURNAL@gmu.edu, ireland_list@email.rutgers.edu,
irl-usa@egroups.com,
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>Mike Duffy, head of the Writing Campaign for the Irish POWs asked me to
>forward this information:
>Carol A. Kowalko
>***************
>The following was sent by Gerry Hanratty, O.C., Republican Prisoners,
>Portlaoise Prison:
>At the top of the letter Gerry hand wrote: "This letter was stopped from
>being sent out of Portlaoise Prison by the Dept. of Justice on the 24th of
>February."
>
>Republican Prisoners,
>Portlaoise Prison
>February 1999
>
>The Republican Prisoners, Portlaoise Prison would like to take this
>opportunity to inform you of the current situation regarding the lack of
>prisoner releases in the 26-County State under the terms of the Good Friday
>Agreement.
>
>In our Opinion, the Irish government is following a deliberate agenda which
>in effect has stopped prisoner releases. This is in spite of Bertie Ahern's
>promise that the issue of prisoner releases would be 'imaginatively and
>generously' addressed. Republican prisoners have played, and continue to
>play, an influential role in influencing opinion on the peace process within
>the broad Republican community. Recently released prisoners have been very
>active in galvanising support for the peace process. In fact, many of the
>principal architects of Sinn Fein's peace strategy are former prisoners.
>
>Whatever the agenda behind the Irish government's reluctance to finally
>release all Republican prisoners in this jurisdiction, the fact remains that
>there is a growing perception among our constituency that the Government is
>exhibiting a degree of bad faith on this issue. This perception undermines
>our confidence in the Irish government's handling of prisoner releases.
>
>The primary motivation of Republican prisoners is not to obtain release from
>prison but to see an end to British interference in the internal affairs of
>the Irish nation, the end of partition and the establishment of a national
>democracy. We support our leadership's political analysis of how best to
>move forward in achieving our vision of a democratic, non-sectarian,
>pluralist Ireland. We hope that the Irish government will continue to work
>positively towards implementing the Good Friday Agreement. In April we will
>be one year into the Agreement and in July we will be two years into the
>cease-fire. Despite this it is the Irish government, not the British, who
now
>hold the longest serving Republican prisoners in history. This situation
>gives dissidents and anti-Agreement elements within our constituency another
>telling propaganda weapon against Republican supporters of the Agreement.
>
>When we perceive the Irish government attempting to use Republican prisoners
>as political leverage in negotiations with Sinn Fein we are disheartened on
>two counts. First, that the Irish government would be back on their word to
>be 'imaginative and generous' regarding the release of prisoners and second,
>that they would so little understand Republican psychology as to imagine our
>leadership would allow us to be used as bargaining chips or that we would
>countenance such a tactic ourselves. Why are Irish prisoners convicted of
>"conspiracy" in prison years longer than British soldiers convicted of
>murder? How can we have confidence that parity of esteem can be upheld in a
>Six-County population of one and a half million when neither
>government seems willing to uphold it within a combined prison population of
>a few hundred?
>
>Paragraph 3 on Prisoners in the Agreement states, "Both Governments will
>complete a review process within a fixed time frame and set prospective
>release dates for all qualifying prisoners...
>
>In terms of the Good Friday Agreement a qualifying prisoner is defined as
>someone:
>....Who is convicted of an offence which occurred prior to April 10th 1998.
>...Who is affiliated to an organisation on total cecession.
>...There are 25 political prisoners affiliated to the IRA in Portlaoise
>prison who fill such criteria
>
>For the above defined political prisoners, both governments committed
>themselves to ".....put in place mechanisms to provide for an accelerated
>programme for the release of prisoners, including transferred prisoners,
>convicted of scheduled offences in Northern Ireland or, in the case of those
>sentenced outside Northern Ireland, similar offences (referred to hereafter
>as qualifying prisoners). Any such arrangements will protect the rights of
>individual prisoners under national and international law."
>
>On October 10th, 1998 our Officer Commanding, Gerry Hanratty, asked specific
>questions of the Governor of Portlaoise Prison which were forwarded by the
>Governor to the Department for Justice.
>
>The questions were:
>....Who are considered by the Dublin government to be qualifying prisoners
>under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement?
>....Which of these qualifying prisoners have had their sentences reviewed?
>....When are their release dates?
>
>We have yet to receive a reply to these questions.
>
>At this point we refer you to our two page document (enclosed) supplied to
>the Irish Department of Justice on 03/02/1999 detailing specifically in
legal
>terms how they are the only party empowered to release political prisoners
in
>their jurisdiction.
>We would greatly appreciate it if you would contact the people we list below
>on the issues we have raised in this letter. We thank you for your time and
>interest. Please contact us if you need any clarification or updated
>information.
>
>Is mise le meas,
>Gerry Hanratty
>O.C., Republican Prisoners, Portlaoise Prison
>
>CONTACT:
>John O'Donaghue, T.D.
>Minister for Justice
>72-76 St. Stephen's Green
>Dublin 2.
>Tel (01) 602 8208
>Fax (01) 661 5461
>
>Bertie Ahern, T.D.
>Fianna Fail Head Office
>13 Upper Mount Street
>Dublin 2
>Tel (01) 676-1551
>Fax (01) 678 5690
>*******************************
>SUBMITTED TO DEPT. OF JUSTICE 3/2/99
>
>...It is illogical for the British to demand integrity of sentence in a post
>Good Friday Agreement situation where both governments are committed by
>agreement to accelerated releases.
>...The Irish government signed the agreement which states that the rights of
>prisoners in an accelerated release system would be protected under National
>law.
>...Under the 1960 Offences Against The State Act, the Minister for Justice
>has the power to release under Temporary release.
>...All repatriated prisoners in Portlaoise were informed of the powers that
>the Minister for Justice had, by the British prior to agreeing to be
>repatriated. Therefore the British knew the rules andconsequences prior to
>their agreement to repatriate all prisoners from England.
>...There is NO legal or moral requirement in the European convention which
>states that the Irish government or Minister for Justice must inform or gain
>agreement of the British prior to any prisoner getting Temporary release.
>...The Irish government should declare that the Good Friday Agreement
clauses
>on prisoner releases supersedes all other arrangements.
>...The Irish government signed the Good Friday Agreement... "put in place
>mechanisms, to provide for an accelerated programme for the release of
>prisoners, including transferred prisoners"... The Peace Process by
>definition of Process must maintain momentum of prisoner releases. The
Irish
>government must argue that they as a government have very limited scope to
>provide momentum and their only real avenue on the ground is the release of
>prisoners which they must use.
>...The Irish government must argue that they have the mandate of 95% of the
>people in the 26 counties for the Agreement including prisoner releases in
>this state.
>...If the Irish government maintain the position of holding Irish prisoners
>in Irish jails at the behest of the British or use the British as the excuse
>this will lead to disillusionment and mistrust of the Irish governments
>intentions and ability to act as a sovereign government.
>...The Irish government must know that the British government cannot morally
>argue the continued imprisonment of prisoners in Portlaoise when they
>themselves had no problem releasing the British soldiers who murdered
>Nationalists in the North.
>...Republicans/Republican prisoners have been forced into a position of
>starting a lobbying campaign to secure the release of prisoners in this
>state. Judicial reviews and protest cannot be ruled out.
>...The Irish government have not implemented a programme for release and
>could put into legislation tomorrow morning legislation stating that all
>qualifying prisoners in the 26 counties 90% remission on sentence.
>...The Dept. of Justice and government choose not to do that and choose to
>follow the lead of
>the British in terms of releasing prisoners in the 26 counties who have
>served one third of their sentence.
>...The time lapse if the Irish agree to British criteria states baldly that
>NO IRA prisoners will be released out of Portlaoise until the end of the
>process. That effectively destroys any potential momentum.
>...The convention rules governing remission are those of the administering
>state.
>...The British do not have any legal right or justification to interfere
with
>the management of sentences in the 26 counties.
>...Show us the legal basis for an "International incident".
>...All prisoners repatriated are not serving British sentences. They are
>legally serving Irish sentences on foot of Irish high court warrants.
>...ARTICLE 8 of the Convention on Transferred prisoners states that ... "The
>taking into charge of the sentenced person by the authorities of the
>administering state (Irish state) shall have the effect of suspending the
>enforcement of the sentence in the sentencing state." (Britain)
>...ARTICLE 9 (3) of the same convention states that ..."The enforcement of
>the sentence shall be governed by the law of the administering state (Irish
>state) and that state alone shall be competent to take all appropriate
>decisions."
>...ARTICLE 12 of the same convention states that the Irish government as a
>party to the repatriation agreement and convention have the powers to
>"...grant pardon, amnesty or commutation of the sentence in accordance with
>its Constitution or other laws."
>
>...In a nutshell there is nothing in the convention that states that the
>Irish government must inform or get agreement from the British prior to
>prisoners getting temporary release under the 1960 act.
>..In a nutshell there is nothing to stop the Irish government living up to
>their commitments in the Good Friday Agreement and making legislation for
>remission rates to be upped to facilitate the release of POWs in Portlaoise.
>...In a nutshell there is nothing to tie the Irish government into British
>criteria of two thirds remission in the Irish jurisdiction.
>...In a nutshell the British have nothing to complain about given that they
>themselves agreed to each and every case of repatriation in such terms that
>it was known that the Minister for Justice in Ireland could release on
>temporary release under the 1960 act.
>...POWs repatriated from England did not sign up to be excluded from any
>aspect of Irish legislation.
>...We did not sign up to repatriation in include secret protocols or
>arrangements subsequest to our repatriation.
>...ARTICLE 4 of the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced prisoners deals
>with the "Obligation to furnish information" and states "The sentenced
person
>shall be informed in writin of any action taken by the sentencing state or
>the administrating state"...
>...What POWs did sign up to was: Knowingly to serve Irish sentences on the
>basis of Irish high court warrants and therefore full inclusion of all
>aspects of Irish legislation and knowingly serve sentences in the Republic
of
>Ireland with all the concurrent benefits and disbenefits entailed in serving
>a sentence in this jurisdiction.
>
>END
>
>
Jan Kenrick Glad Jackson
Hovsetervn.96 0768 Oslo, Norway
Tel. +47 22 49 36 17 Mobil 930 67 772
http://home.sol.no/~kenrick/index.html