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Email: info@searcs-web.com
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Email: info@searcs-web.com |
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Martina Shanahan was born and educated in Dublin where she became a civil servant. While
on holiday in England in August, 1987 she was arrested with Finbar Cullen and John McCann
under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and detained for seven days during which time there
was extensive media reports linking the three to the IRA. At Winchester Crown Court in September, 1987 they were charged with Conspiracy with persons unknown to murder the Secretary
of State for Northern Ireland. Shanahan was
remanded in solitary confinement in the Risley Remand Centre, the only
female Category A remand prisoner in England. On February 4th, 1988 the 'Winchester Three'
were further charged with 'conspiring with persons unknown to murder persons unknown'. The Winchester Three were
sentenced to twenty-five years in prison on each charge in spite of the IRA's statement
that they were not members of that organisation, a fact confirmed by the Irish Gardaí. After her conviction Shanahan was imprisoned in appalling conditions in Durham High Security Prison. The charges against the Winchester Three were dropped on Appeal and they were acquitted in 1990. These extracts are from letters which Martina Shanahan wrote while in Risely Remand Centre and were first published in a pamphlet Waiting for Justice (1988).© 13th October, '87 As regards conditions here, I am being kept in isolation. They have even gone as far as to forbid me to look out of my window! As far as exercise goes, some days I get it, some days I don't. The longest period I have went without exercise is seven days. Exercise consists of walking up and down a small yard. If it rains I don't get any. There really should be other facilities in case of rain. Over the last four days I have been allowed out into the corridor to watch TV for approx. two hours a day. Again this is alone. Other than that I see no one but prison officers and officials. My light is left on all night. It is dimmed around 10pm, if you could call it dimmed, as it is still bright - I can read by it no problem. I am indeed being strip-searched. I get strip-searched before I leave here for court and on my return from court. The strip-search involves taking all my clothes off and stepping behind a curtain. A prison officer then looks in, I have to raise my hands above my head, to turn, wriggle my toes and open my mouth. Believe me there are no words to explain the horror of that experience. You cannot imagine what it's like. It is the most embarrassing, degrading and humiliating experience one could imagine. The mere thought of it is enough to set my heart hammering. As I am sure you will agree it is all very unnecessary. The only purpose it serves is of humiliating me. When I leave here for court I am handcuffed to a police woman. On arrival there I am locked in a cell. When I am let out of the cell to go to court I am also handcuffed. If by chance I get a visit there it is always supervised by at least two or three police officers and the visitors are of course searched. After court I am also handcuffed and then I have to endure yet another strip-search. How on earth can it be said that strip-searching is carried out for security reasons? 26th November '87 Conditions have not improved. Exercise is still not on a regular basis. My light is still left on all night. Complaints I have made to the governor and to the doctor about the light and the fact that I'm suffering from constant headaches have been a waste of time. I have been told that it's their policy for Cat.A prisoners, yet my two co-accused are also Cat.A and their light is not left on. There is some difference in John and Finbar's conditions from mine. They actually get to see and talk to the other prisoners on their landing and swap books, puzzles, etc, with them. When I go out for exercise all the landings are cleared of all prisoners, the same when I go on a visit. I am totally isolated. 7th January '88 I was up on court on Monday and when I was leaving here on Sunday I was strip-searched as usual but not asked to take my pants off. When I came back on Monday it was the usual routine of having to take all my clothes off and getting into a shabby toweling dressing-gown prior to being strip-searched. After standing around like that for 20 minutes and having to hold onto the dressing-gown as there were no loops on it so it couldn't be tied, I was handed back my pants to put on and I had to step inside the curtain and take the dressing-gown off. Then I went through the ordeal of doing a twirl, opening my mouth, etc, and after putting the dressing-gown back on I had to take off my pants again and shake them out. Never before has the feeling of humiliation been as strong as it was when I had to stand facing the wall waving my pants about. As well as that, being strip-searched with my pants on does nothing to relieve the trauma of the experience. The price I had to pay for the 'privilege' of having them on, ie, waving them about, made me feel even more dirty and abused than before. Look at the facts! I'd been standing around - with nothing on - only a dressing-gown - for 20 minutes. My underwear had already been searched and yet I had to go through the added torture of shaking my knickers about! It's impossible to put down on paper what it really feels like to be strip-searched. It's a very traumatic experience and the feeling of being violated gets worse every time it happens. © Searc's Web Guide 1997-2008 |
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