Vindictive Screws Condemned for Lily Punishment

national | rights, freedoms and repression | press release Sunday April 13, 2008 15:22 by Richard Walsh - Republican Sinn Féin

RSF & RPAG have condemned the screws in Maghaberry for penalising the Irish people for honouring Irish dead.

VINDICTIVE SCREWS CONDEMNED FOR LILY PUNISHMENT

A spokesperson for Republican Sinn Féin and the Republican Prisoners' Action Group has condemned the vindictive actions of the prison authorities within the Six Occupied Counties for punishing Republican PoWs for wearing the Easter Lily.

“Republican prisoners in Maghaberry, who sought to honour Ireland's Patriot Dead by wearing an Easter Lily on Easter Sunday, are currently being kept in solitary confinement for a period of five days each,” said Richard Walsh. “Two or three prisoners are being punished at any one time, and once they have been released back into the segregated population another group of prisoners are made to commence the same punishment.

“It remains the case that prison staff and Loyalist prisoners are permitted to wear the British Imperial Poppy, which has been stained by the blood of countless people who sought their country's freedom. And yet anyone who dares honour Ireland's heroic martyrs is punished under Prison Rules. The Easter Lily was created in 1925 by Cumann na mBan to honour those who had died for Ireland, and to raise funds for Republican prisoners and other Republican purposes.”