Taoiseach rejects Red Cross request to visit Irish prisons

RED CROSS officials who approached the Government with a request to inspect conditions in Irish prisons were told they should be looking at the plight of Irish prisoners held in British prisons instead.

The Cosgrave Government told the Red Cross it risked loss of public support in Ireland if it persisted in raising questions about Irish prisons without showing similar concern for the situation across the water.

The exchanges followed a request by the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva to the previous Lynch-led Government in late 1972 to be allowed investigate complaints from “internees and members of their families concerning conditions of detention.”