FROM BELMARSH TO BELFAST
Bernadette Devlin McAliskey civil rights activist, witness to Bloody Sunday, leading spokesperson for Smash H-Block campaign in 1980-81 and former MP for mid-Ulster spoke at a Glasgow meeting on 14th June 2012 entitled From Belfast to Belmarsh which called for the end to internment and detention without trial, freedom for Marian Price, defence of civil liberties and to fight Islamophobia.
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DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL SUPPORTS MARIAN PRICE
On Monday, July 2nd, Dublin City Council passed a motion demanding the immediate release of Marian Price on humanitarian grounds.
The motion, submitted by éirígí councillor Louise Minihan and independent councillor Cieran Perry on behalf of the Free Marian Price Dublin Committee, passed almost unanimously. Only Cllr Paul McAuliffe of Fianna Fáil voted against the motion.
All town, city and county councils in the Twenty-Six Counties will now receive an official copy of the motion highlighting Marian’s case. Official letters from Dublin City Council will also be sent to Owen Patterson, David Ford, Martian Mc Guinness, Peter Robinson and Eamon Gilmore requesting an explanation for the continued incarceration of Marian Price and demanding her immediate release.
The text of the motion passed by Dublin City Council reads:
‘That Dublin City Council calls for the release of Marian Price on health and humanitarian grounds and requests an explanation for the incarceration of Marian Price from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minister for Justice in Northern Ireland and First and Deputy First Ministers in Northern Ireland.”
A protest outside City Hall, which was organised by the Free Marian Price Dublin Committee to coincide with the tabling of the motion, was attended by up to forty people.
The following is the text of the speech made by éirígí’s Louise Minihan, when proposing the motion in Dublin City Council:
“As we sit in the comfort of this chamber tonight, a sick frail woman is in hospital, under arrest after enduring solitary confinement for over a year, with 9 months of it spent in an all male prison.
“This woman has committed no crime and has been convicted of no charge. Marian Price is in gaol on the whim of a British Secretary of state, and is being interned without trial.
“Marian Price is a 58-year-old mother. The question here is not whether you agree with Marian’s political beliefs or with the aims of the organisation she is a member of. The question is will you stand up against human rights abuses committed in this country by the British Government.
“Marian’s case is a gross miscarriage of justice and as severe a violation of a person’s human rights that has ever been discussed by this council.
“Fourteen months ago Marian was arrested for her part in a 1916 commemoration in Derry. Marian appeared before a court and was released on bail. However the British secretary of state disagreed with this decision and stepped in and had her arrested and committed to prison. Since then all charges against Marian has been dropped.
“For the next 9 months Marian was held in complete isolation on a wing in an all male prison. This we must remember was without crime or trial.
“Due to the deterioration of Marian’s health, she was transferred to a so called medical facility at Hydebank Prison were she continued to be held in complete isolation, unable to get the proper medical care she needed.
“Expert medical opinion has recommended her immediate release, along with a number of prominent civil and human rights campaigners such as Monsignor Raymond Murray, who is running the Free Marian Price Campaign, Bernadette McAliskey and Eamonn McCann, TDs, trade unionists and academics including Maureen O Sullivan, Thomas Pringle, Éamon Ó Cuív, Frank Keoghan, and actress Margaretta D’Arcy, Juan Mendez, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, the SDLP and many, many more.
“As I said, this case is not about whether you agree with Marian or not. It is about, whether you are willing to stand up against human rights abuses. Internment under any other name is still internment. Internment was wrong in the 70s and it is still wrong today.
“This council has a great record for standing up for people’s civil and human rights around the world. This motion allows us to send a clear message on behalf of the people of Dublin that human rights abuses will not be tolerated anywhere on this island, and that the elected representatives of the people of Dublin will stand up against any infringement of the civil and human rights of Irish Citizens.
“I am asking councillors to support this motion in calling for the release of Marian Price on humanitarian grounds.”
http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest070712_2.html
(also see PRICE DEMONSTRATION SHOWS GROWING ANGER AT THE RETURN OF INTERNMENT at:- Price Demonstration Shows Growing Anger At The Return Of Internment