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UK: Irish deaths in custody

01 March 2002

On 23 March, 31-year old Irish remand prisoner Patrick Maloney was found hanging in his cell. He was the fifth Irishman found hanged in Brixton prison in three years. Yvonne McNamara of the Brent Irish Advisory Service stated, "Irish nationals are not just being discriminated against in British jails, they are dying." A conference on "Justice and the Irish Community", held on 12 April, discussed the spate of deaths at Brixton and allegations that Irish prisoners were being harassed by prison officers who had served in the security services in Northern Ireland. At the inquest into the March 2001 death of Michael Barry, evidence was heard that alarm bells at the jail were sabotaged by Brixton prison staff. At the conference, Fr. Gerry McFlynn, of the Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas, expressed his cncern that Irish people convicted of crimes in Britain are increasingly being deported to Ireland, even if they have lived in Britain for decades. Among the instances cited by Fr. McFlynn were a man who had left Ireland at two years old, a man with a wife and family in Birmingham and a man with grandchildren in England, all of whom were deported.

Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas; Inquest; Irish World 19.4.02.