Sinn Féin prisoners released from British jails

Dublin, 10 March 1919 - All remaining Sinn Féin members, interned in Britain since last May, have been released and the vast majority have returned to Ireland.

However, a considerable number – including 11 released from Gloucester Prison – have been unable to make the journey back to Ireland owing to ill-health caused by influenza.

Dan McCarthy MP, who has returned from Durham Prison, explained that a doctor had certified that two Sinn Féiners held alongside him – Seamus O’Neill of Tipperary and Michael Fleming from Kerry – would be unfit to travel for a number of days. Both men had influenza, McCarthy said, but were now convalescing. Another man, Art O’Connor MP, was still confined to bed.

Some released prisoners returned on board the RMS Ulster with the body of Sinn Féin MP, Pierce McCan, who died from influenza in custody.

Irish prisoners back in Ireland after their recent release (Images: Irish Independent, 8 & 11 March 1919)

Prisoners’ experiences
Many of the returned prisoners have been recounting for reporters their own prison experience. Arthur Griffith, who had been in Gloucester, remarked that their chief complaint was the lack of air and the fact that they only had two small yards for exercise.

Griffith added, however, that the prisoners enjoyed a ‘first-class prison diet’ in Gloucester and he lauded the care afforded by the prison doctor, Dr Bell, an Irishman and a nephew of the late Professor Tyrell of TCD. Dr Bell, he said, acted promptly when the prisoners became ill and had all those affected by the influenza moved to hospitals outside.

However, conditions were not uniform across all prisons. Tadhg Barry from Cork stated that his experience at Usk in Wales was much worse than that in Gloucester.

Meanwhile, Constance Markievicz, who has spent the last 10 months in Holloway Jail and who devoted much of her time to the study of economics, Irish language and history, has remarked upon the courtesy with which she was treated by most of the prison officials. The exceptions, she indicated, were a few of the younger wardresses, to whom, she added: ‘I had to give a dressing down at the start.’

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]