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Three Republican Socialist Prisoners of War, John (Sonny) Glennon, John Kennaway, and Christopher McWilliams, had been held in solitary confinement in Maghaberry prison since their participation in an INLA action undertaken within Long Kesh to remove Loyalist death squad leader Billy Wright from active command of the LVF. After a protracted period of frustrating unresponsiveness by the Northern Ireland Office to concerns raised by the Irish Republican Socialist Party about the safety of the three men in the unsegregated Maghaberry, the IRSP made known that failure to transfer the three men back to the relative safety of the INLA POW wing in Long Kesh would result in the undertaking of a hunger strike by the RSPOWs.
When this fact was impressed upon the NIO, they reached an agreement with the IRSP, which was to have resulted in the INLA volunteers being transferred back to Long Kesh on March 16, 1998. Subsequently, however, the NIO undertook the transfer of the men back to the Republican Socialist wing of H-block 3, on the morning of Wednesday March 11th. Immediately following the transfer, 'Sources' within the NIO and/or Prison staff leaked the news of the transfer to the media. The Irish Republican Socialist Party and their supporters internationally maintained their part of the original agreement reached with the NIO to not make public any word of the agreement. In that the NIO/Prison staff have failed to abide by this themselves, however, leaking the information to the media almost immediately, we consider this aspect of the agreement to have been voided by the NIO's own actions, and are therefore able to share the background behind the transfer which occurred yesterday. Peter Urban, North American Coordinator of the IRSP's support group, the Irish Republican Socialist Committees commented on the transfer: "This is the third major victory to have been won by Republican Socialist Prisoners of War in the past several years. First, our comrades imprisoned in Portlaoise Gaol in the 26-county statelet won parity of treatment with other republican prisoners after a hunger strike lasting less than a month. Then the RSPOWs imprisoned in England were all repatriated to Ireland after only about ten days of participation in a blanket/dirty protest. Now, our comrades in the prisons of the occupied six counties have won transfer back to the Republican Socialist wing in H3 in Long Kesh. While we are overjoyed knowing they will be far less at risk in the company of their comrades, we also recognize that Britain's action regarding the RSPOWs is born of their desire to ensure that the Irish Republican Socialist Movement not be given any opportunity to gain broader recognition through media exposure." |