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Repatriation of Irish Prisoners

01 May 1991

The release of the Birmingham Six has not only raised the profile of other cases of wrongful imprisonment, but has also given renewed impetus to the long-standing campaign to transfer Irish prisoners, serving sentences in British prisons, back to Ireland. While transfer from Northern Ireland to Britain has always been easy, moves in the other direction have generally been refused, or only conceded after considerable lobbying. In the 1970s two men died on hunger strike while seeking transfer. After a prolonged hunger strike and forced feeding, the Price sisters were eventually transferred to Northern Ireland and were subsequently released. However, three men sentenced with the Price sisters in 1973 are still serving life sentences in Britain. An Appeal Court ruling on 22 March made legal history when the three were given leave to appeal on the grounds that their sentences were wrong in principle. They had been sentenced for conspiracy to cause explosions and for causing two explosions. Of the nine convicted at the original trial, six have been released (five of these were serving life). (Irish News 22.3.91; Guardian 22.3.91; APRN 17.1.91) Another Irish prisoner in Britain, John McComb, who is serving a fixed 17 year sentence, is seeking a judicial review of the Home Office refusal to grant a transfer. The Home Secretary turned down the transfer application on the grounds that, if transferred, McComb would be released earlier in Northern Ireland because the rules on remission are different. McComb's case is that this is an unlawful criterion since transfer decisions are supposed to be about prisoner welfare. (Irish News 26.3.91). The repatriation question also concerns the South of Ireland. The Dublin government, unlike the British, has failed to ratify the European convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Prisoners, mainly because its prisons are already overcrowded and it fears large numbers would be involved. This is challenged by groups campaigning on the issue notably the Dublin-based Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas. (Observer 24.3.91).