Prisoners to be segregated at Maghaberry

The British government conceded the move after a series of attacks on dissident republican prisoners, a “dirty protest” by five Real IRA prisoners and a threatened hunger-strike.
A pistol was allegedly brandished by loyalists during an attack on a republican inmate last month and there were rooftop protests at the forced integration of loyalists and republicans in the jail.
The prison authorities said the decision was not a return to the system of segregation used in the now-closed Maze prison, in which political prisoners had greater freedoms than those in Maghaberry.
The move has been widely welcomed by Northern Ireland’s political parties and given a qualified welcome by the prisoners’ representatives on the outside who said, however, that it should be implemented immediately.
The policy change comes after a report by John Steele, a former head of the security department at the Northern Ireland Office. He and two prison chaplains drew up the report after speaking to prisoners and other interested parties.
His report concluded that “separation of paramilitary prisoners is necessary in the interests of safety. We reached this view after much soul searching and on the basis that the government will never again concede complete control of the wings to prisoners as happened at the Maze.”
There are 650 prisoners in Maghaberry. Loyalists and republicans will be “separated from the ordinary inmates and from each other,” according to the report.
Sinn Fein prison spokesperson Michael Browne said that that segregation was “a question of commonsense. There is no logic in trying to force politically hostile prisoners to live together in prison.”
Meanwhile, a man has appeared in court on a string of paramilitary charges, one of which is understood to be linked to the 1998 Omagh bombing in which 29 people and two unborn twin babies died.
Detectives are looking into whether there are links between Sean Hoey and Omagh. Hoey, an unemployed electrician from Jonesborough, Co. Armagh, was charged with possessing an explosive device – a timer power unit.
He faced a further 14 charges including membership of the Real IRA, the group which claimed responsibility for Omagh, and conspiring to cause an explosion in Lisburn, Co. Antrim, three months before the attack. He denies all charges.
The police investigation against Hoey centers on the wiring of some of the seven or eight similar bombs that the Real IRA planted around the time of Omagh. Police have found a hair in the wiring of one of the unexploded bombs and are investigating whether it matches Hoey’s DNA.
Bomb experts said that the same person made all the Real IRA bombs at that time and that the wiring was the same on all of them, a kind of “signature.” It is believed that whoever made the bomb did not intend to kill anyone.
Three warnings were given before the bomb exploded, but they were confusing and police inadvertently herded shoppers towards the Omagh bomb instead of away from it.
Hoey’s uncle, Colm Murphy, was convicted of helping to plan the Omagh attack and received a 14-year prison sentence at Dublin’s special Criminal Court. Hoey is the first person to be charged in Northern Ireland in connection with the bombing.
He appeared in the dock at Craigavon magistrates’ court on Saturday surrounded by nine armed police officers. He spoke only twice, to confirm his name and that he understood the charges, and was remanded in custody.
Meanwhile, despite the relatively quiet marching season this year, there has been sustained sectarian intimidation against Catholics in the Deerpark area of North Belfast. Several families have left their homes.
The new North Belfast leader of the UDA is intent on “ethnic cleansing” Catholics out of the area, according to police sources. The man has already been convicted of intimidation, extortion and UDA membership.
The 33-year-old, known locally as “Bonzer” took over as leader of the UDA in North Belfast when Andree Shoukri, nicknamed “The Egyptian” was jailed for possessing a gun.