Dublin H-block

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A recent article in the Provisional Sinn Fein weekly An Phoblacht reports on the mobilisation of police and troops in Southern Ireland against the Republican prisoners escaped from Long Kesh. MASSIVE collaboration by Free, State gardai and army personnel was put into operation on the border on Sunday on the direct instructions of Coalition premier Garret FitzGerald and Minister for Justice Michael Noonan, in an effort to recapture any of the H-Block escapees moving south.

All available members of the Garda Special Task Force, backed up by uniformed gardai and Free State soldiers from the 27th, 28th and 29th Battalions at Dundalk, Finner and Monaghan were deployed along the border from Sunday evening. Traffic moving southwards was stopped and searched and a number of houses near the border were searched. The operation has been continuing into the week.

Hunted down

Northern direct-ruler James Prior told a press conference on Monday:

•'These men will be on the run, they will be hunted down whether they are in the north of the island or the south of the island, and we shall be doing all we can, in cooperation with the Republic of Ireland, to see that they are captured."

In Dublin, two out of the three establishment newspapers were quick to back up the official collaboration, which ran totally counter to the popular admiration around the twenty-six counties for the IRA's latest spectacular exploit.

On Monday, the Irish Times editorialised 'sadly' over the break-out:

"Are some of them foolish enough to think that they will be more welcome on this side of the border than on the northern side? If so, they will discover their mistake the hard way.

•The escapers are not heroes or myth-makers: they put at outside the restrictions of the 1965 Extradition Act and Free State Constitution.

Six of the eight IRA prisoners who broke out of Crumlin Road Jail in June 1931 are currently serving ten year sentences in Portlaoise Jail. They were recaptured in the South and charged with the escape under the Criminal Law (Jurisdiction) Act.

The first successful use of that Act was also against an IRA escaped prisoner, Gerry Tuite, who made a dramatic escape from Brixton Prison in London in December 1981. He was arrested in the Free State in the following year and is also serving ten years in Portiaoise.

In a statement congratulating the prisoners on their escape, Dublin Sian Fein commented:

"Despite media attempts to put this escape in the context of causing more violence in our society, it should be seen for what it is - another blow against Britain's continued armed presence in our country _ in fact a blow against violence.

Extraditing

We condemn the twenty-six county government for their unashamed collaboration in sealing the border and their certain intention of extraditing any of the escapees who might cross to the South.

We view this collaboration as merely doing Britain's dirty work and feel that the Dublin government would reflect public opinion better by using its influence to secure a British withdrawal rather than maintaining their presence Ireland."

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moves against break-out as 'non-political' and therefore