Eighty-year-old artist and anti-war activist Margaretta D’Arcy has described the prison system in the 26 Counties as “inhumane” following her release from prison in Limerick. Ms D’Arcy, who was serving a second prison sentence over her opposition to the US military use of Shannon Airport, said she was locked up for 23 hours a day and forced to defecate in the same cell where she ate. The Galway pensioner, who is receiving cancer treatment, had not eaten for some days after being taken into custody last Wednesday as a hunger protest in solidarity with victims of war around the world. Another political prisoner at the women’s section of Limerick Prison, republican Ursula Ni Shionnan, this week described the jail as “a dungeon”. Ms D’Arcy called on Minister for Justice Francis Fitzgerald to close it down. “The women are treated as inferior citizens,” she said. “Contrary to what everyone says, the sensory deprivation is that we are just cooped up in a tiny little area. Limerick [Prison] was never meant to be for women.”
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 23:01:14 +0000
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