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Irish Prisoners Refuse Food

Volume 103: debated on Thursday 7 March 1918

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7.

asked the Chief Secretary if there are any prisoners in Ireland on hunger strike; if they are being forcibly fed; and if he will state the condition of their health?

Some prisoners in Irish gaols are refusing to take food. None are being forcibly fed. The health of the men concerned is necessarily in a precarious state.

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that there is one man in Mount-joy Gaol who has been eleven days without food, and is the right hon. Gentleman aware of the disastrous results in Ireland if we should have another Thomas Ashe tragedy?

Persons who refuse to take their food will have to take the consequences.

Is it not a fact that the Government entered into an undertaking at the time of the Thomas Ashe tragedy that these men should nut be treated on the old system as common criminals, and is it not a fact that that engagement with these men has been broken?

Does the same law apply to prisoners in this country as they are applying to political prisoners in Ireland?