A stand-off was in progress at Portlaoise Prison early this morning as Republican inmates refused to return to their cells at lock-up time.
A garda∅ spokesman said prisoners from the €2 wing were staging a peaceful protest after an inmate was refused temporary leave to visit a sick child. He dismissed claims that riot police had been dispatched to the prison.
Wardens were negotiating with the demonstrators and hoped to defuse the situation within hours.
Ms Marion Price, from the Republican Prisoners Welfare Association, said the action started early in the evening when word was passed around that the inmate was being refused temporary leave.
The prisoner, jailed for three years for "Republican political offences", has a baby in hospital and was angered by the decision because he is due to be released in two months, she told the PA news agency.
Ms Price, a member of the 32 County Sovereignty Committee said: "They refused to return to their cells this evening at lock down time and it appears that the incident is becoming very serious."