A REPUBLICAN prisoner launched a High Court bid yesterday to overturn a ban on the open wearing of Easter lilies within Maghaberry Prison.
Lawyers for Christopher Donaldson, who is being held in a separated regime at the compound near Lisburn, Co Antrim, claimed the prohibition interfered with his already heavily restricted scope for political expression.
Donaldson, a Belfast man serving 12 years for arson, wants to be allowed to wear the lily - a symbol of the Easter Rising - outside his cell for one day in the year.
His barrister, Dessie Hutton, rejected the authorities' fears that relaxing the rules on political emblems could provoke disorder or lead to another Maze Prison-style scenario of paramilitary inmates running wings.
Seeking leave to apply for a full judicial review, Mr Hutton stressed how few prisoners were with Donaldson on the separated wing at Maghaberry's Roe House.
He told the court: "The prospect that a Maze-style paramilitary control could ever occur by virtue of these 17 prisoners is outlandish. And the suggestion that allowing them to wear an Easter lily one day a year could lead to that is even more outlandish."
Mr Hutton accepted the restrictions could be justified for integrated prisoners to prevent trouble, but insisted it discriminated against those who wanted to be held separately.
Mr Justice Waetherup adjourned the case until today.