BY FRANK FORRESTAL
CHICAGO - Matt Morrison, an ex-Irish Republican Army volunteer now fighting deportation from the United States, spoke about his defense case April 30 before 50 people here at the Irish American Heritage Center. Irish Northern Aid and the Irish American Student Organization sponsored the event.

Morrison has recently spoken before 60 people at Illinois State University in Normal, 25 people at Loyola University in Chicago, and to students at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

For the past 10 years, Morrison has been living in St. Louis. He is married to a U.S. citizen and has two children. Although his marriage makes Morrison eligible to stay in the United States he has been singled out for deportation under the Terrorism Exclusion Act. This piece of legislation was drawn up in 1990 and used against Irish political activist Joe Doherty, who Washington deported in 1992.

Morrison appealed the deportation order, but was denied, and is now fighting to win political asylum in the United States. He told the meeting that the most important aspect of his case is to view it in the broader context of the "Peace Process" and the recently launched Saoirse (Sear-sha), an international campaign calling for the unconditional release of all Irish political prisoners held in the jails of Britain, Ireland, Europe and the United Sates. Saoirse is the Irish word for freedom.

Part of fight against British rule
Morrison was born in Derry, Northern Ireland. From an early age, he was swept up in the ongoing resistance to British rule, particularly the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement.

In a recent issue of the Irish People, Morrison described some of his experiences. "Hundreds of explosions, gun battles, deaths, house searches, and internment without trial, became a `normal' part of my growing up....

"My house was raided on several occasions-Troops actually took over part of my secondary school so that they could have an observation post from which to watch over `free Derry.' "

In 1975, Morrison was arrested and framed up on charges of attempted murder of a Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officer. Morrison spent 10 years behind bars in the "cages" of Long Kesh, also known as Maze prison. In the early 1980s, Long Kesh was a focal point of resistance by republican prisoners, who after being deprived of political status in 1975, refused to don prison uniforms and clad themselves in blankets. The blanket protests led to hunger strikes in 1980- 81. Ten republican prisoners died during that protest, including Bobby Sands.

Free all political prisoners
"Freeing all the political prisoners," said Morrison, "is vital to the peace process." Imprisonment of the Irish is a central component of British policy, he said. "They have elevated prisons to the highest level of their policy." This is so because British policy is rooted in the denial of the Irish people's right to national self-determination and sovereignty.

Morrison encouraged participants to actively build the May 17 meeting of Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams. Adams's recent high-level visit to the United States, including meeting with President Bill Clinton, was important, Morrison said. "We now have our foot in the door." However, Morrison noted, to date there had been no change in the status of his case or of other Irish prisoners held in the United States. "I have a low opinion of the State Department," he said. "They have always been anti-Irish and pro-British, to the point that they are like an extension of the British foreign ministry."

In addition to Adams's tour, a "Rally for Peace in Ireland" is planned in front of the British Consulate in Chicago from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. May 5. The rally is sponsored by Irish Northern Aid and the Irish American Student Organization. There will be a "Bobby Sands Anniversary" celebration May 7, at the Hot House here.  
 
 
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