Irish Hunger Strikes Ended

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The hunger strike by Provisional Republican prisoners at Portlaoise jail in the South of Ireland ended in its seventh week.

Fourteen men had till then been refusing food, among them Daithi O'Connell, former IRA Chief of Staff, and Kevin Malion, former member of the IRA Army Counch.

The condition of the men was quite serious-how serious no-one knows for sure, since the Fine GaelLabour coalition government in the South refused throughout to release any information, and consistently prevented anyone from visiting the prisoners.

The hunger strike was in protest at the barbaric conditions prevailing in Portlaoise jail.

In particular, the prisoners were demanding an end to "strip searches" a method of prison control which involves stripping a prisoner, examining his genitals and probing his anus in an effort to discover explosives!

If a prisoner resists, he is punished with solitary confinement. This means being locked barefoot in a cell which has no furniture at all during the day, and only a mattress at hight.

Visitors to the jail have also before prisoners can be seen.

All in all, a clear pattern is emerging of vindictive and constant humiliations aimed at destroying Provisional morale within the prison.

The Free State government, in addition, refused even to discuss the hunger strike, and prevented independent visitors from inspecsanditinne in tha iail British soldier in freland The government also managed to silence the Irish press by threatening them with a law passed last autumn, which effectively states that any criticism of the government's "security policy" is IRA propaganda.

Yet despite the government's repressive measures, the hunger strikers won substantial support.

Three weeks ago, 2,000 people marched on Portlaoise Jall; a fortnight later 5,000 marched in Dublin; and in the North, on Easter Sunday, some 40,000 took part in demonstrations to commemorate the 1916 uprising, and in support of republican prisoners.

It is not clear as we go to press whether any concessions were granted to brine the hunger strikes to an end.

But what was required to win the full demands was a mobilisation of the Irish working class in support of the prisoners.

Yet the Provisional leaders consistently refused to do this, and instead contented themselves with appeals to a non-existent liberal middle-class to "pressurise" the Southern government into granting their demands.

Indeed, Ruairi O' Bradaigh, Secretary of Provisional Sinn Fein, recently stated that they do not want any conflict with the government, but merely want better conditions in the jails!

While absolutely supporting the prisoners' demands for an end to inhuman conditions in Portlaoise, socialists in Irefand must agitate for the immediate release of all political prisoners-North and South; and for an end to Labour Party participation in a coalition government intent on eradicating the Provisionals from Irish political life.

The questions raised by the action of the Portlaoise prisoners cannot be divorced from the struggle to rid Ireland of imperialist domination.

O'Bradaigh's remarks that Sinn Fein does not want a conflict with the Irish government cannot get round the objective fact that even a minimal improvement in prison conditions demands sharp conflict with the Free State regime.

The task in Ireland is not to shirk the issues raised by the Portlaoise hunger strike, but is to draw the correct political conclusions, and to proceed to a mobilisation of the Irish working class in order to defeat imperialism and its allies-both North and TROTSKY of Marxism £1.75 plus Writings on Britain (3 vol:

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been strip-searched, and have often been obliged to wait several hours