I asked the Minister to-day a question in reference to two prisoners who are at present on hunger strike in Mountjoy Jail. At the end of the question I asked him what he proposed to do with reference to their future condition. The question I asked was this:—
Whether he is aware that the Visiting Committee or doctor in Mountjoy Jail directed that the doors of the cell of two prisoners, namely, George Mooney and Seán McGuinness, should be left open during certain hours, and that the said doors have been kept closed during these hours by the prison authorities, and that the prisoners in consequence broke their windows for the purpose of ventilation; and further, is the Minister aware that the said prisoners were placed in strait-jackets or muffs or other prison device and that Seán McGuinness has subsequently been spitting blood; and what he proposes to do in the matter.
The Minister's answer was:—
I am aware that the two prisoners mentioned were allowed, as a privilege, to have their cell doors open during the greater part of the day. They abused that privilege by leaving their cells without permission, and forcing their way into cells occupied by other prisoners. The privilege was accordingly withdrawn. I am aware that following the withdrawal of this privilege the prisoners broke the windows of their cells, but the suggestion that this was done by them for the purpose of ventilation is not correct: the ventilation with the cell door closed is quite adequate and is, in fact, the normal ventilation of the cell. I am also aware that following the breaking of the windows the prisoners' hands were secured in muffs so as to make it impossible for them to do further damage. I am not aware that the prisoner McGuinness has subsequently been spitting blood.
In that answer there are some very remarkable omissions. The Minister has entirely omitted any reference to the Visiting Committee or the doctor. He has not suggested that it is not true that the doctor or the committee directed that the cells should be left open. The direction to leave the cells open was for the purpose of airing them. It was not the normal ventilation but special ventilation to deal with prisoners who never left their cells. Such airing was absolutely necessary for at least a few hours every day and it was because of that that it became necessary when that direction was not carried out for the prisoners to break the cell windows. We are not prepared to accept the Minister's statement, which appears very fantastic, that these men went out of their cells and forced their way into other prisoners' cells. If they should happen to go out of their cells there were plenty other ways to prevent them doing that besides depriving them of what was a real necessity for their lives. Their condition of health is extremely bad. The condition of one man who was imprisoned under similar conditions was so bad for a long time afterwards that people were very uneasy about that particular individual. For a long time his condition of health was very serious. These two men are in a serious condition of health and this extra airing of their cells is an absolute necessity for them. Then again, they were put into muffs, which is another form of strait-jacket. The use of muffs in a case like that seems to be altogether out of proportion to the action of the prisoners under the conditions.
This is the position at present: these men are both in delicate health. According to one report, one of the prisoners, Seán McGuinness, was spitting blood subsequently, and it is necessary for me to read an affidavit which we have obtained and upon which we have based our question. This affidavit was made by Patrick Norton. He was a prisoner for a short period and was released at the end of his sentence. He had direct experience of the incidents that occurred in the jail. Patrick Norton says:—
"I was brought to Mountjoy Prison, 25th May, with Hugh Connolly. We were sentenced in connection with selling Easter Lilies.
We were kept in basement cells Saturday and Sunday till Monday morning, when we were taken to the reception. We demanded to be put in the same wing with the political prisoners, in B. 1 Wing, and we were taken there. We demanded that our doors should be left open, like the doors of Mooney and McGuinness are, for a certain number of hours each day.
On Tuesday Hugh Connolly was induced to come out of his cell by a warder, who told him the Governor wanted to speak to him (this Connolly told me when we were released). When outside his cell he was seized by two warders and forcibly dragged to D. 1, where the juvenile criminals are kept.
On this day my door was not open, so I rang the bell. Mooney and McGuinness's doors were also left closed, and they also rang. No warders came, and after some time waiting we decided, on account of the stuffiness of the cells and as a protest against being kept in solitary confinement, to smash the windows of the cells.
Presently I heard a noise in the corridor as of warders rushing along. Then I heard sounds of shouting and struggling in McGuinness's cell, then it was quiet till the noise of struggling came in Mooney's cell, and Mooney shouted: `They are putting me in the strait-jacket.' Then the noise ceased and the warders rushed to my cell. When the door was opened I saw a big crowd of warders, perhaps twenty, the Governor and Chief Warder Sugrue leading them. One of the warders carried what I take to be a strait-jacket. It was leather with straps. I was seized and dragged to A. 1 Wing, and put into a cell, from which the bed, stool and table were removed. These were returned some hours later.
Mooney is looking very ill. He has got no exercise since November, 1929. Even the chapel is used in the attempt to degrade political prisoners. On Sunday I saw Mooney being dragged about by warders in the chapel. Hugh Connolly was dragged from his seat in chapel by two warders and carried to the front, in order to place him among the criminals.
On Corpus Christi day, when the warders came to fetch me to Mass, I asked the chief warder was it his intention to prevent me sitting with the political prisoners in the chapel. He said I would have to sit with my class —the men who were in the wing with me. I said: `If that is the case I will refuse to go to the chapel,' and I went back to my cell. When I was in Mountjoy before, the political prisoners were allowed to sit in the same bench. The priest came to my cell after Mass. I explained why I did not attend the Mass that morning. I said that in the attempt now being made to force political prisoners to associate with criminals, the warders did not hesitate to push us about and create disturbance, which I considered disrespectful in chapel, and as I did not wish a recurrence of this I preferred attending Mass spiritually in my cell. He said he could see my point. He was sorry, and he feared the chapel was to be used in the dispute between both parties. He also said that he had always found the political prisoners behaved themselves properly in the chapel.
I was released on Friday. McGuinness and Mooney are very indignant at the way they are being treated in Mountjoy Prison. A terrible injustice is being done to political prisoners, whose health is being ruined, and who may be forced in the end by desperation to hunger strike as the only means to end it."
Now we have the position mentioned in the end of that affidavit, that these prisoners have gone on hunger strike, and I suggest to the Minister that it is sheer madness for him to continue this line of conduct. The whole matter could be cleared up by treating these prisoners as honourable men and not as ordinary criminals.
