[Part of a statement released by republican POW's in Ireland]


"Sectarianism, bigotry and hatred of the Irish language and culture is rife in Maghaberry gaol. Republican prisoners incarcerated inside Maghaberry gaol wish to express their total disgust of the apparent hatred of the Irish language shown by officers and governors within this establishment.

This loathing of the Irish language has become more evident in the recent weeks with Republican POWs receiving cards and letters from friends and family throughout the world. These greetings in general are addressed in Gaeilge.

When, we, the POWs receive these letters the Irish is in most cases completely censored. When we complain about this we are told by the landing officers: "nothing to do with us" but when we try to find out who is at fault we hit a brick wall of ignorance.

This wall usually appears in the form of a screw with an extra pip on their shoulder - along with this pip comes an inherited attitude.

The attitude shown by these officers toward anything Irish is astonishing to say the least. It seems these philistines have refused to move with the times.

The Republican prisoners have raised these issues through complaints to officers and petition forms but all we have received are empty promises that they will never happen again but still it continues.

We the Republican POWs deem this use of censorship totally unnecessary and would ask a spokesperson from the NIO and the prison to come forward and explain the reason behind this abhorrent behavior. We also that this hatred of our native tongue is addressed forthwith and that censorship of the Irish language is abolished. Finally we would ask everyone involved in Irish language institutions to voice their disgust and revulsion at this hatred of the Irish language and call for an immediate end to the censorship."

More info at http://www.rsf.ie

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Thought this might be of interest to Irish language lovers throughout the world.