High tension at Portlaoise after protest
Tension at Portlaoise Prison remained high today after a protest by prisoners left four guards and an inmate needing hospital treatment.
Staff in riot gear forcibly returned up to 40 Real IRA prisoners to their cells at Portlaoise Prison, Co Laois, yesterday morning, following an overnight demonstration which started when some of them were refused temporary release.
The Republican Prisoners Welfare Association said the row centred on one particular inmate who wanted to be let out to see his sick child.
Sources said he was Damien Lawless, who is in his early 30s. He was jailed for three years for receiving training in guns at a Real IRA camp in Co Meath in October 1999.
The protest was the first major incident of its kind at Portlaoise since the 1980s, and was described as "serious" by the authorities.
A Prison Service spokesman said: "On Friday night a group of subversive prisoners in Portlaoise staged a protest by refusing to return to their cells.
"The protest was started when the authorities refused to grant some of them temporary release."
He added: "Yesterday morning prison staff specially equipped with control and restraint equipment forcibly moved them back to their cells."
The spokesman confirmed that Justice Minister John O’Donoghue and senior Prison Service staff were kept informed of developments as the incident unfolded.
He said the atmosphere in the prison remained "tense" but added: "This is a high-security prison which is well staffed and there is a permanent army presence at all times, so the site is fully secured."
Marian Price, chairwoman of the Republican Prisoners Welfare Association and a member of the 32 County Sovereignty Committee - the political wing of the Real IRA - attacked the "brutal" manner in which the protest was broken up.
She claimed prisoners had more serious injuries that the prison authorities had reported.
