By Eamonn O'Coileain
Irish political prisoners suffer a peculiar form of "British justice" - punishment before conviction. Martina Shanahan, for instance, spent 13 months on remand before she reached trial charged with conspiracy to murder Tom King, and conspiracy with persons unknown to murder persons unknown. This is how she described the conditions she suffered in remand in a letter written in Risley prison on August 7, 1988:
"I think any prisoner will tell you that the most traumatic time is coming through reception and the strip search. For someone who has never been in prison, it is especially difficult and there is nobody there to explain anything. When I came in I knew absolutely nothing about Category A [official designation for political prisoners]. I didn't even know I was one until I heard someone say it a few days later! I had been expecting to be put in with other prisoners when I arrived. Nobody told me I was going to be on my own all the time.
"The first day I thought I was just on my own until the next morning came, and when I was brought out on exercise on my own I couldn't figure out what was going on. I find it incredible now that I wasn't informed about my Category A status, I was left to figure it out for myself. I'm sure there's a lot of first timers that come through reception totally terrified, and not knowing what to expect.
"You're just treated as a number and that's it. Before you know what's happening you're being strip searched, it's terrifying. I don't think I can explain properly what it's like in reception. You're made to feel like cattle being appraised for market. They say things like, have you got any false teeth, glass eyes, etc! Run their hands through your hair, look at you naked, look in your mouth, under your feet, everywhere!"
While she was on remand, the light in her cell was never switched off.
When eventually brought to trial, Shanahan was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Three years later, like the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six, she was released by an appeal court.
Martina Anderson and Ella O'Dwyer were remanded for 11 months, also on conspiracy charges before being tried, convicted and given an indefinite sentence.
Because they were Category A remand prisoners, they were held in the otherwise all-male Brixton Prison. During their remand period they endured over 300 strip searches each - the greatest use of strip searching that has been recorded. A further 2500 body searches were conducted during this period. Body searches involved wardens putting hands down their trousers.
During their trial, they were strip searched three times a day on court days, on their Saturday visits and on Sundays as well. h averaged 60 strip searches a month, as opposed to 23 strip searches per month during the rest of their remand.
Anderson and O'Dwyer are currently serving life in these conditions and are suing the governor of Brixton Prison and the secretary of state for the Home Office for assault - the assault being the excessive strip searching they endured. If they receive no justice within the British legal system, they intend to pursue the matter in the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg.
For more information on Irish prisoners of war, write to Australian Aid for Ireland, PO Box 290, Mordialoc Vic 3195.