FREE MARIAN PRICE

Marian Price Suffered Enough

Aisling Gallagher argues that we must stand up against the human rights abuses committed against Marian Price by the British state.

Since her re-internment in May 2011 as a result of “secret evidence” that neither she nor her lawyers have been allowed access to, Marian Price’s health has steadily worsened. In June 2012 this resulted in her being moved from Maghaberry prison to a hospital in Belfast as a result of ongoing health issues. Price’s case has drawn worldwide condemnation, with calls for her release coming from across the globe. Predictably, and as has always been the case with the mistreatment of Irish Republican prisoners, the British press remains largely silent around the issue.

Marian Price came to the fore of the Republican movement in the 1970s as one of the well-known “Price Sisters”. Along with her sister, Dolours, she was part of a team of bombers; Price was arrested and imprisoned for two life terms for her part in the 1973 bombings of London, in which one person died and over 200 were injured. While in prison, she joined a hunger strike in 1975, demanding to serve her sentence in the Six Counties. The hunger strike lasted for over 200 days, during which time the prisoners were force-fed for 167 days, in a practice that is widely recognised as inhumane. Speaking in an interview afterwards, Price said of her ordeal:

“Four male prison officers tie you into the chair so tightly with sheets you can’t struggle. You clench your teeth to try to keep your mouth closed but they push a metal spring device around your jaw to prise it open. They force a wooden clamp with a hole in the middle into your mouth. Then, they insert a big rubber tube down that. They hold your head back. You can’t move. They throw whatever they like into the food mixer – orange juice, soup, or cartons of cream if they want to beef up the calories. They take jugs of this gruel from the food mixer and pour it into a funnel attached to the tube. The force-feeding takes 15 minutes but it feels like forever. You’re in control of nothing. You’re terrified the food will go down the wrong way and you won’t be able to let them know because you can’t speak or move. You’re frightened you’ll choke to death.”

It is clear from this statement, given more than thirty years ago, that Marian Price had already suffered enough. She was born and raised in a Belfast where she and her community were third class citizens; where prejudice meant her family and neighbours were never likely to attain a steady job with a decent wage; where gerrymandering strove to stop them gaining political representation; where they lived under the constant threat of Loyalist violence, and then after 1969, under unremitting cruelty at the hands of the British Army. Driven to violent struggle by the repressive British regime, Price spent what were ostensibly the best years of her life in British jails. Once freed, she maintained her commitment to the Republican cause, calling the Good Friday agreement “something I never went to jail for”.

And so, in 2011, when Marian Price was re-interned on trumped up accusations in Maghaberry Prison, some people surely – if naively – thought that it would be a matter of weeks before she was freed again; that a British judiciary system that could provide no evidence as to the reason for her detainment would have learned from their intransigence around Bloody Sunday, collusion and shoot-to-kill, from their mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan, from their errors in over thirty years of occupation in the Six Counties, and over 800 years of oppression of Ireland as a whole, from their arrogance in so much of their far-reaching and recent history; many must have thought that the public outcry would be enough that this woman, who had already experienced torture at the hands of the British state, would not have to suffer anymore.

Anyone who believed that has been, predictably, proved wrong. Britain, for all her false claims to proud small nationhood, still harks after the glory days of her Empire; never has this been clearer than in the last insufferable 18 months. She still desires the position she once held as sovereign of three-quarters of the world – this is evident in the Unionist desperation to cling to the clearly-defunct United Kingdom but it is also obvious in the treatment of Marian Price. She is a symbol of her community, a community that the British ruling elite spent years trying and failing to silence into submission. Marian Price would not be silent, and for her lack of compliance, she must pay the price owed to the British state.

Marian Price has suffered enough. We may not have agreed with her tactics, but we must defend her human rights. Britain has never been a bastion of human rights and fairness; however, the intransigence of the British state is nothing new.

In this last year, the Left in Britain has been excellent at highlighting the human rights abuses carried out on Palestinian prisoners by the Israeli authorities. We should link this to the struggle of political prisoners in Ireland as well as Bradley Manning, Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners fighting against imperialism. It is the duty of the Left to fight oppression in all its forms. Marian Price is now in hospital, being treated for severe depression as a result of her internment. Her oppression is one that we should have been louder in standing against.

Like Marian Price, we must not be silent anymore; we must refuse to be silent. Marian Price has suffered enough; it’s time we put a stop to it.

Aisling Gallagher, Marian Price, Ireland, British Politics, #FreeMarianPrice, #freemarianprice, #MarianPrice, Marian Price, free marian price, 

Free Marian Price March Today Dublin

Dublin March to Free Marian Price

A March is being organized in Dublin on Sat. 15th September at 2 p.m. Starting at the Garden of Remembrance, to O'Connell Bridge and back to the GPO, where we will have prominent speakers and some music.
Join with us and call for Freedom for Marian Price agus support human rights for all political prisoners. 

Mórshiúl i mBaile Átha Cliath chun Marian Price a shaoradh

Tá mórshiúl á eagrú, oscailte don phobal, i mBaile Átha Cliath ar an Satharn, 15 Meán Fómhair ar 2 p.m. ag an nGáirdin Cuimhneacháin, síos go Droichead Uí Chonaill, agus ag leanúint go Ardoifig an Phoist, áit a mbeidh cainteoirí aitheanta agus ceol.
Bí ann agus tacaigh le saoirse do Mharian Price agus do Chearta Daonna gach príosúnach polaitiúil.

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Irish Republican News · March 9, 2012


Marian Price campaign gains momentum


A packed meeting in Belfast on Thursday night heard prominent speakers denounce the continued internment of veteran republican Marian Price.

Organised in connection with International Women’s Day, the meeting was addressed by human rights activists Monsignor Raymond Murray and former Westminster MP Bernadette McAliskey.

Despite an unexpected last-minute change of venue, organisers said the meeting at Conway Mill was “a fantastic success, such was the size of the crowd that attended that people had to stand in the corridor looking in”.

The crowd heard appeals for increased public activism around her case.

Marian is a lifelong republican and was secretary of the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association (IRPWA) at the time of her detention. She has now been interned without cause for nearly a year.

Over the past eleven months her mental and physical health has severely deteriorated until she was recently moved to Hydebank Women’s Prison.

According to the IRPWA, Marian has not been transferred to Hydebank prison but rather the hospital wing there. “She will not be criminalised and will resist all attempts by the British government to treat her as a criminal”, they said.

But there is growing concern for her well-being as result of her isolation.

“Her removal to the hospital wing at Hydebank is the inevitable result of a regime of neglect and isolation she has been forced to endure,” the IRPWA said.

It also rejected a claim by British Direct Ruler Owen Paterson that she is in jail because her licence has been revoked.

“Marian was never released on licence and the British government are fully aware of this. They claim to have mislaid her pardon. This is quite simply an unbelievable excuse for the continuation of her illegal detention.”

Last week, a group of former women prisoners mounted a protest in Belfast before handing a letter into the Six County Justice Ministry.

Former INLA prisoner, Gina McElroy, said: “We know what it’s like to be women in jail but our situation was so much better than Marian Price’s.

“We were young women prisoners freely able to mix with our comrades. She’s a 58-year-old woman with serious health problems who has been held in isolation for almost a year.

“She’s being detained without charge so she doesn’t even have a release date.” McElroy said it was a “disgraceful situation that shames the British government”.

She added: “It’s a clear abuse of human rights. The UN says solitary confinement should rarely be used and never for more than 15 days. If this were happening anywhere else in the world, Britain would condemn it.”

There have been new concerns over Marian Price’s current incarceration at Hydebank. The following report about her plight was provided by the ‘Justice for Marian’ website (http://www.freemarian.co.nr/)



The new regime she has been placed under is worse than she experienced in Maghaberry and would seem to be designed to de-personalise and further criminalise Marian Price.

She is now being held in one of three observation cells at the end of a corridor. The area is screened from the view of other prisoners who call to the centre for medication. There are monitoring cameras in the three cells two of which are locked. She has been told that the one she occupies has had the camera switched off, she has no way of knowing if this is true or not. The area is very restrictive and cramped. There is no unsupervised access to fresh air. The “Health Care Centre” is staffed by a combination of nursing prison officers who carry keys and some agency personnel. It is NOT a hospital wing. We would urge those in a position of influence to visit the prison and look beyond the visiting area.

Marian has a shower in her cell and without going into detail she has no privacy. A constant stream of prison staff enter her cell leaving her feeling like an exhibit at a time when she is feeling extremely unwell.

When I asked for a description of Marian I was told she looks physically drained, she has suffered a dramatic weight loss and is very pale - she looks extremely ill. She is also very agitated and appears to be under extreme pressure. Not surprising really given she has endured ten months of what the experts have clearly defined as torture.

To add to her hardship she is being constantly hounded to become involved in “activities” when she is so clearly unwell that she cannot. A written time-table of inane activities was given to her on Friday the 2nd of March which she considered insulting and calculated. This timetable is designed to dictate how she should spend her day from what time she should get dressed to what time she should read a book (Marian can no longer read books as she is unable to concentrate).It has been suggested to Marian that she can avail of the kitchen facilities to cook when the other prisoners are locked up. Marian’s hands are completely deformed with chronic arthritis, therefore cooking is a strenuous a task not therapy. In what is quite clearly an attempt to humiliate her Marian has been told as a treat she can be brought to the kennels to visit the sniffer dogs used in searches.

A very worrying aspect is the constant hints and suggestions of “interaction” with other prisoners. Family members witnessed this and pointed out to the governor the sensitivities involved. Marian has to constantly repeat that she is a SEGREGATED PRISONER and not a CRIMINAL. It is clear that this treatment is adding to the deterioration in Marian’s health.

It is obvious for all to see that attempts are being made to normalise what is evidently an abnormal situation. No-one appears to be taking account of the fact that Marian has been (and continues to be) held in isolation for 10 months.

I have been told Marian feels like she is “in a zoo” with so many unwanted “visitors”. She is isolated in an environment of constant interruptions which is totally unsettling. People arrive into her cell unannounced and the lack of privacy is degrading. The truth of this charade under the guise of a “health care package” must be exposed for what it is... a contrived public relations exercise to disguise the isolation and torture of a woman in need of urgent medical intervention.


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