Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My original question inquired as to whether the Tánaiste had raised this matter with the relevant authorities. From his reply, I take it he intends to do so at some point in the future. Tomorrow will be the 100th day of the hunger strike. The Tánaiste is correct in stating that prisoners are being force-fed. This new element has brought the reality of what is happening to many people. As a result of our own history and the experience of the suffragettes, Irish trade unionists and Irish republican prisoners, we are aware of the effects of force-feeding. Essentially, this process involves strapping the person to a chair, forcing a tube down his or her throat and then holding his or her nose. I spoke to one prisoner, Mr. Gerry Kelly, MLA, who underwent this procedure and I am aware that what those who are subjected to it are forced to endure is absolutely horrifying. Michael Gaughan, an Irish hunger striker in the 1970s, was force-fed by the authorities in Britain and ended up dying of pneumonia. Thomas Ashe, another hunger striker who was subjected to this procedure in 1917, died as a result of the fact that material entered his lungs.

The UN has condemned force-feeding on humanitarian grounds. This matter needs to be raised at some level, perhaps even at the UN. Everyone agrees that the Guantanamo Bay facility should be closed. I am concerned by that fact that as a result of their utter despair, the prisoners there felt they had no option but to go on hunger strike.

Some 66 of the prisoners have been cleared by the President Obama regime, but there appears to be no mechanism for their release. Many have been there for 11 years and believe that their only options are to leave dead in a box or to take this approach of forcing a change.

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