BY PAMELA HOLMES

DUBLIN, Ireland - Speaking to the first national conference of Saoirse, Sinn Fein vice president Pat Doherty called for protests to greet the anticipated announcement of the release of Pvt. Lee Clegg. Saoirse was set up after the August 1994 cease-fire in Northern Ireland to campaign for the release of all Irish political prisoners.

A member of the British Parachute Regiment, Clegg was sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1990 killing of Karen Reilly at a roadblock in west Belfast. He is the only paratrooper to be convicted for murder in Northern Ireland in 25 years of occupation. Clegg has served less than three years of the sentence in a prison in England, but the Northern Ireland Life Sentence Review Board considered the possibility of releasing him on license when it met on June 6.

Speaking on radio June 5, Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein said, "I have no problem with the release of all the prisoners in prison as a result of this conflict. But I do have a problem with the British government extracting this soldier out from all the rest."

On June 9, Irish prime minister John Bruton warned British prime minister John Major, "London must take account of the detrimental impact on public opinion of an early release for Pvt. Lee Clegg without an early release for Republicans." Later he added, "It would create a sense of one law for members of the security forces and one for everyone else."

The Saoirse group in London charged the British government with applying a double standard to Irish prisoners. Saoirse organized a 30-strong protest outside the Home Office June 6 demanding "the immediate transfer of all Irish political prisoners in England to jails in Ireland, with a view to a program for their swift release." They pointed out that while Clegg is being considered for release after two years, 11 republicans have now served 20 years in English jails.

Saoirse national conference
Saoirse campaigns for "the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners as a step towards building a lasting peace in Ireland," said Bernie Farrell, national chairperson of Saoirse, addressing some 100 people attending the campaign's national conference here June 3. Initially set up by relatives of republican prisoners, ex- prisoners, and supporters, Saoirse now has groups throughout Ireland, as well as in England, Scotland, the United States, and Australia.

Farrell went on to explain, "Republican prisoners alone number some 554 women and men." Of these, 40 are held in the Republic of Ireland; 40 in England, 9 in the United States, 4 in Germany, and 461 in the Six Counties of Northern Ireland, Farrell reported.

Bernie Malone, Labour Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the Republic of Ireland; Patricia McKenna, Green Party MEP in the Republic; and Doherty spoke in the morning session of the Saoirse conference. Invitations to Fianna Fail, a major capitalist party in the South, and to the Social Democratic and Labour Party in Northern Ireland got no response.

Nine months after the Irish Republican Army announced the cease-fire, only 21 prisoners who were being held in the Irish Republic have been freed. The British government has made no move towards release and there has been serious deterioration in conditions for prisoners held in English jails. Doherty gave the example of seven prisoners, three of whom are republicans, held in the Control Unit at Full Sutton prison in England. Contained inside this "prison within a prison," the seven men are watched by 38 guards.

"Where are the peace dividends for my family and others?" asked Mairead Ni hAmhaill in the second session of the conference. Ni hAmhaill described how her father had been imprisoned in the 1940s, her brother in the 1970s, and now her husband is entering his 17th month in prison.

Local campaigning
Diarmaid Fox and Phil McCullough from Belfast described how Saoirse is organizing to build support. The campaign divides Belfast into 12 areas, each with a local committee. Successful public meetings were held to mobilize support and the campaign is now reaching out to bodies ranging from the Gaelic Athletics Association to the Roman Catholic Church.

Fox and McCullough described street actions aimed at winning support from people not already involved. Initially they used "white line pickets," standing on the white lines in the middle of the road with placards about the prisoners. The activists organized actions in areas of the city that had been "out of bounds" prior to the cease-fire because of the extreme segregation of republican and loyalist areas in Belfast.

Campaigners in Cork, in the south of Ireland, reported a "good response in the street." James McBarron told the Militant that 70 people have joined the Saoirse group, including a local Fine Gael member of Parliament. The group holds weekly meetings and leaflets and petitions on the streets every Saturday. They also hold "white line pickets." McBarron described the Saoirse actions as the most sustained street-protest activity since campaigns to oppose Dublin's moves to extradite republicans to the United Kingdom five years ago.

Prisoner involvement
The Saoirse activists spoke of the participation of the prisoners themselves in the campaign in Belfast and Fermanagh. Prisoners are writing to politicians in the Republic of Ireland, in Britain, and throughout Europe, as well as in the United States and Australia. The prisoners also provide statements of their cases for use at public events and make various craft items to assist in fund- raising.

Raymond McCartney, a national leader of Saoirse, said the group has no intention of retreating from what he called "the politics of the street." Since the formation of Saoirse, two major demonstrations have been held in Northern Ireland of 5,000 people in Crossmaglen and Pomeroy. A former prisoner and participant in the prison protests of the early 1980s, McCartney was released just before the cease-fire.

Doherty explained Sinn Fein's approach to plans to mark the August 31 anniversary of the cease-fire. "The core element is national self-determination, ending British jurisdiction," he said. "The release of the prisoners is a major element in this."

Pamela Holmes is a member of the Transport & General

Workers' Union, 1/688 branch in London. Pete Clifford

contributed to this article.  
 
 
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