Distrust tempers prisoners' peace hopes

NO, no, no. The black-clad prison officer explained politely but very firmly that photographs could not be taken on Crown property and that included Belmarsh prison in south London, where we were standing.

The man in black was impervious to argument, so Galway West TD Eamon O Cuiv had to stand on a traffic island outside the prison area - clearly not part of the Crown's property portfolio - to have his picture taken for the newspapers. The prison, which looks more like a factory, loomed in the background.

The mood was tense at Belmarsh: some two miles away, at Canary Wharf, the devastation wrought by the IRA could still be seen. Prison staff in blue overalls instructed us to "pop" our bonnet and open the boot of the car as we went in.

The men searching the car wore knee pads for protection as they knelt on the ground to look underneath the vehicle. Bags were unzipped and the contents pummelled and poked.

There was a special building where visitors could check in, have a cup of coffee and store their belongings before entering the prison proper. Ironically, it was opened last month by Jill Morrell, who campaigned so long and hard for the release of the Beirut hostage John McCarthy.

O Cuiv was in Belmarsh to visit five republican prisoners serving a total of 127 years (including one doing life, which usually means 25 years). Their names are Paul "Dingus" Magee, Liam McCotter, Danny McNamee, Liam O Duibhir and Peter Sherry. Following an attempted escape from Whitemoor Prison, Cambridgeshire, in 1994, the five were transferred to Belmarsh.

It was a dramatic moment for a visit to these men. Just as Eamon O Cuiv was being searched on his way in - and then searched a second time - John Major and John Bruton were announcing their plan for all-party negotiations by June 10th.

By all accounts, the republican prisoners played a significant part in bringing about the first IRA ceasefire, so what were their views about the Bruton-Major package? O Cuiv said later that, although anxious for a restoration of peace, they were deeply sceptical about the promises and undertakings of the British government.

Since the ceasefire, their own conditions had not improved; in fact they had worsened, O Cuiv reported. They spend most of their time under artificial light and are allowed only "closed visits", where there is a glass panel between the prisoner and his visitor.

They have, in fact, refused to accept closed visits and Magee has gone on a "dirty protest", with the result, according to O Cuiv, that he spends 23 hours out of 24 locked up. He has not seen his family for over a year.

But their interest in politics is unabated. The one-hour meeting with the Fianna Fail TD was a "huge debate" on the peace process. The prisoners were "happy enough" with what was proposed by Major and Bruton but simply did not accept the British government's bona fides. They felt they had been let down so often on the small issues that they did not expect Britain to move on the big ones.

Solicitor Gareth Peirce represents four of the men. She says they and other republican prisoners are being subjected to a "very sterile regime designed to be oppressive; designed to control personality and psychology with an exaggerated emphasis on security".

She claims the Belmarsh group is being kept under "quite extraordinarily harsh" conditions at the prison and blames the Home Secretary, Michael Howard, who she says is pursuing a "personal agenda" that is in conflict with the peace process.

A spokeswoman for the Prison Service responded: "The emphasis in special secure units is squarely on security. However, all exceptional risk category A prisoners, including Irish terrorists, have access to a varied regime, which includes gym, education, work, television and hobbies".

DURING a two-day period, O Cuiv visited all the prisons, from Durham to south London, where the 23 republican prisoners are serving their sentences for offences ranging from conspiracy to cause explosions, to murder and attempted murder. (Journalists are not allowed to visit prisoners in their professional capacity.)

The first port of call was Frankland, outside Durham where 69-year-old Joe McKenney is serving a 16-year sentence for conspiracy. A farmer from Co Down, McKenney was once a civil servant with the Irish Department of Agriculture. He is now a "senior citizen" at Frankland, where his fellow-inmates include about 100 "lifers".

McKenney has served 10 years of his sentence. He was recommended for parole last November but the Home Secretary refused to release him. No reason was given and McKenney is reported as saying that if the IRA is depending on 69-year-olds, things must be bad.

On to Full Sutton prison, about IS miles east of York. Inmates here reportedly include the serial killer Dennis Nielsen, but it is the republicans O Cuiv has come to see, principally Michael O'Brien from Dublin, with whom he has been in correspondence.

Visitors check in here at a Portakabin. The woman prison officer rang the main gate to announce that "the Irish gentleman" was on his way. As the TD entered the main building, another officer, married to an Irish woman, greeted him with the words "Cead mile failte".

The regime here is more relaxed than Belmarsh. O Cuiv spent 90 minutes talking to O'Brien, a former Sinn Fein organiser. "He has a very good idea of the political scene on the ground throughout Ireland".

AGAIN the story is one of a desire to see the cease-fire reinstated, combined with a deep scepticism and almost despair about the British government's intentions which reached a high - or low - point when Mr Major "side-stepped" the main thrust of the Mitchell report with his proposal for Northern Ireland elections.

O Cuiv also talked to John Kinsella, who he believes was wrongfully convicted of possessing explosives. Kinsella, who has a background in petty crime, was asked to store a hold-all but says he thought it was the proceeds of a burglary, not Semtex. "He was Just an innocent dupe," says O Cuiv.

Next morning it's the turn of Whitemoor Prison in Cambridgeshire. Dense fog makes it an ideal day for a break-out, or a break-in. The prison officers are nervous: "We're on an alert at the moment, sir, because of what's happening, so if you see anything suspicious would you report it to a member of the staff?"

The group here includes Brendan Dowd, a Kerry man in his late 40s, who has served 20 years of a life sentence for attempted murder. O Cuiv said the prisoners were "very politically aware" and followed every twist and turn of events on radio and television.

O Cuiv says undermining the confidence of politicised republicans like Dowd in the prospect of change has had a detrimental effect. "It certainly has hardened their view that the British government will never take a reasonable attitude towards Ireland".

He said the onus was on "politicians of all shades and beliefs" to prove that politics works and can bring about change. His visit at least showed there is considerable debate going on within the republican movement and that the process of politicisation, which produced the likes of Gerry Adams, is also at work inside English prisons.

One prison O Cuiv did not visit, was Lincoln. His grandfather, Eamon de Valera, escaped from there during the War of Independence but there are no republicans there now.