We propose as a protest against the treatment of certain prisoners to vote against this particular Estimate. There are four or five prisoners about whom the Minister will not change his attitude of mind. Time after time we have pointed out to him the necessity of treating certain types of prisoners differently from others. Certain political prisoners should be treated in a different way on a different basis. The motives of these men must be taken into consideration and they must be treated as men of honour, and not degraded to the position of prisoners who deliberately set out to commit crime.
There are at present four or five men of this type in jail. There is George Mooney, who is in solitary confinement. His condition has shocked people who have seen him lately, as did the condition of Aidan Sweeney, who was recently released from jail, having served his sentence; his health has been considerably undermined. George Mooney refuses to associate with the ordinary criminals at work and otherwise. As a result he has been continually in solitary confinement for the last eighteen months. His case is a particularly hard one, because he fell into a trap which had been laid for him by a certain police officer who handed him a gun, explosives, and some other things, I understand. Then other policemen got hold of this chap. It was the case of an agent-provocateur. Under these circumstances I think the Minister should change his attitude to prisoners of this sort, in order to prevent people of this type from being treated as they are being treated.
We may not agree with their point of view, but we certainly should not have traps laid for them by agents-provocateur. Such a man should be treated differently. Under these circumstances we can have nothing but censure for the treatment of prisoners of this kind.
Another case is that of Seán McGuinness, who escaped from prison several years ago. He was originally condemned to a period of imprisonment as far back as 1925 by a person with a very pro-British point of view, a judge who is no longer on the Bench. He is in prison now, having been captured after several years and he is in solitary confinement serving a period of eighteen months.
The case of Seán Hogan is somewhat different. His case was not, I admit, a clear one, but there was considerable evidence to show that it was not altogether his fault and that what happened, happened under certain circumstances during the war. An amnesty has been given in all cases. This man has been in bad health for a long time and that is admitted by the prison authorities, and he should receive special consideration. He has not received the ordinary visits which prisoners receive. There is undoubtedly an idea, and it is based on good evidence, to show that he is not being treated as a man in delicate health should be treated.
Again there is the case of Con Healy. That case was discussed in this House last year, when very severe comment was made on the attitude of the Minister. As was pointed out by Deputy Gerald Boland during the debate, he had been on the run for a considerable time. He could not have been a criminal, because for a long period he was sheltered by the people of his own neighbourhood. He had their goodwill, which would be impossible in the case of an ordinary criminal. He was a man of high standing and a great record during the war for freedom, and he was a man whom the police authorities had threatened to shoot at sight. The result was that when he came up against the police he defended himself because he expected to be shot at.
The next case is that of George Gilmore, one of those people who is always seized and put into prison whenever the Government think about it. A considerable time before he was arrested he had a tussle with a policeman. Whether the policeman hit him or whether he hit the policeman is a matter which has yet to be settled and a matter into which we need not go now. It is an extraordinary thing that although this offence occurred some eleven months ago and there were ample opportunities of arresting him and ample opportunities on the part of the policeman with whom he had the struggle for charging him, the policeman refused to charge him and admitted that they had struggled together for two hours.
It was not until eleven months afterwards that the Government took it into their heads to arrest George Gilmore. These are the cases which move us to protest against the treatment of prisoners. On another debate of this kind, I quoted the late Dr. George Sigerson to show how necessary it is in a civilised State that political prisoners should be treated on an entirely different basis from criminal prisoners, but apparently that has had no effect on the Minister or his Department. They continue the same treatment towards these prisoners, thus maintaining a remnant of the ugly spirit that was in this country five or six years ago.
Turning to other matters, I would like to point out to the Minister that on the evidence of certain prisoners who have been in the Bridewell, its condition is dirty and the blankets there are verminous. I do not care who the criminal is——
