Two prisoners have been convicted for their roles in the 1997 Mountjoy Prison siege in which prison officers were held hostage, threatened with strangulation and had blood-filled syringes held to their throats.
Eamonn Seery (34) of Coultry Road, Ballymun, Dublin, was jailed for two years and Edward Ferncombe (27) of Harelawn Drive, Clondalkin, Dublin, for three years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Judge Dominic Lynch told them prison officers had a difficult job to carry out "even before the terror and horror these men were subjected to over a period of 52 hours". He said these were serious offences with disastrous effects on the prison officers and causing depression among their families and friends.
The judge said he had considered that the men had pleaded guilty and were making efforts at rehabilitation. He realised they were locked up for 23 hours a day and had suffered under a strict regime, but he had to consider that both had previously been convicted of serious crimes.
He also recognised they had had this hanging over their heads for some time and that Seery's involvement was not as great as Ferncombe's.
The court heard both men were locked up and handcuffed in Portlaoise Prison. Ferncombe had alleged to an Eastern Health Board psychiatrist, Dr Brian McCaffrey, that this was done on the instigation of the Prison Officers' Association, which had threatened to strike otherwise.
The men had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to falsely imprisoning a prison officer in January 1997.
Their sentences for this offence will run consecutive to their current sentences.
Seery is serving an eight-year sentence imposed in 1993 for grievous bodily harm at the time of the siege and was due for release on August 27th.
He had enjoyed only 11 weeks liberty from prison since 1984. Ferncombe was serving a nineyear sentence for manslaughter.
Det Insp Hubert Collins said Seery had 10 previous convictions. He was jailed in 1984 for four years for having firearms with intent to commit a felony.
He was released in 1986 but went into custody eight weeks later in Manchester on an armed robbery charge and received a 10year sentence.
Three weeks after his release from that sentence he committed the grievous bodily harm offence for which he was serving a sentence at the time of the siege.
Judge Lynch was told five prison officers were held hostage for 52 hours by six prisoners when their planned peaceful rooftop protest went wrong because they met a solid concrete ceiling after boring through a false ceiling in the Separation Unit.
Det Insp Collins agreed with Mr Michael O'Higgins, defending, that the evidence showed Seery was the most stable of the offending prisoners and did not assault or threaten to assault any officer.
Det Insp Collins also agreed with Mr Brendan Grogan SC that his client, Ferncombe, had also been mentioned as next in line after Seery of the least violent prisoners.
Evidence in the cases was heard last July when the court heard that during the siege two prison officers were tied back-to-back on a chair with a rope made of shoelaces around their necks.
Det Insp Collins told Mr Desmond Dockery, prosecuting, this rope was connected to a door and a radiator and if the door was opened the hostages could have been strangled or at least seriously injured. Prisoners used a syringe filled with infected blood, a makeshift syringe filled with a bloodlike substance, iron bars and a knife. Det Insp Collins said the prisoners had wanted to get on to the roof of the recreation area to highlight conditions in the prison, alleged ill-treatment by some prison officers, and a demand for transfers. One wanted to protest his innocence.
The siege ended following much negotiation involving prison staff, gardai and officials from the Department of Justice.
Mr O'Higgins said Seery had studied in prison and had achieved a higher diploma in psychology and criminology as well as GCEs in English, maths, English literature and modern history.
He had also started an Open University course in social sciences and had achieved certificates in computer literacy and information technology.
Mr O'Higgins said Seery was held now under a stricter regime than many of the most subversive prisoners. He was surrounded in the court precincts by members of a riot-squad in dark clothes and helmets.
Dr McCaffrey said Ferncombe was held in Portlaoise Prison in "surreal circumstances". He was locked up and handcuffed for 23 hours a day, which was "pure punishment". During professional visits by him, Ferncombe was surrounded by four or five prison officers in full riot gear, but he (witness) detected no aggression from him.
Ferncombe alleged to him that he was being treated this way on the instructions of the Prison Officers' Association, which had threatened to go on strike if he was not held handcuffed.
A report on a similar situation at Grantham Hospital in England in 1979 showed that there was a grave danger to civil rights in such circumstances.
Dr McCaffrey said if Fern combe was to be rehabilitated a new approach to him was necessary. He was now institutionalised and there were concerns for how he would fare outside prison.
Ferncombe had said he liked prison. Unless there were changes in the way he was dealt with in custody he would leave prison much worse off than when he entered. Ferncombe was never violent as a child, but was always hyper and disruptive at school, where teachers found him impossible.
Dr McCaffrey said he diagnosed Ferncombe as suffering from a disorder now known as attention deficiency hyperactivity disorder. This could be managed if treated.
Ferncombe told him he had intended taking part in the planned rooftop protest because he was devastated when his expected Christmas Day leave in 1996 was suddenly cancelled.
He became high on a cocktail of cocaine and heroin, which were freely available in prison and which he consumed two or three times a day. Mr Grogan said this was a case where the system had let his client down.
Ferncombe had expressed regret for the effect the siege had on the hostages and their families.
Det Insp Collins told Mr Dockery that two of the siege victims were still on sick leave; one had returned to work in late June, though he does not deal directly with prisoners any more; and two had resigned completely.