Mother of jailed bin protest deputy joins march

THE elderly mother of jailed deputy Joe Higgins last night joined a march to protest against the one month sentence handed down to her son and party colleague Clare Daly.

Ellen Higgins, 85, travelled from Kerry with other members of the family to visit her son and take part in the protest. Crowds gathered at the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square for the march to Mountjoy Jail, where both politicians are being held.

Mrs Higgins spoke of her pride in her son. "I'll not give out to my son. Why should I? He's standing up for what he believes in," she said. Mrs Higgins described the sentence as too long.

She visited him in prison yesterday as officials eased normal restrictions that only allow a maximum of two visits per week.

Deputy Higgins and Fingal County Councillor Clare Daly, the two leading members of the Socialist Party, were imprisoned on Friday for contempt of court after refusing to abide by a High Court ruling promising not to get involved in blocking waste collection lorries.

Others involved in the protest, which began on September 10, also face jail terms if they continue their blockades. Three lorries, in Kinsealy, Santry and Swords, which had been blocked by residents were "liberated" yesterday after gardaí warned people of the High Court order.

A 45-minute protest was held outside the lorry depot in Swords. A council spokeswoman said about 20 people blocked the gates but that by 8.30am the lorries were able to get out.

Mick Barry of the Socialist Party said gardaí took the names and addresses of the protestors. No arrests were reported.

Fingal council claims 90% of the waste backlog has now been collected and there has been a large increase in the numbers tagging their rubbish since last week.

The Socialist Party's sister organisations in Europe and the United States plan to hold protests against the jailing of Mr Higgins and Ms Daly outside Irish embassies. Mr Barry said protests will be held in every major European capital, in the US, Nigeria and Brazil.

Ms Daly, the mother of a three-year-old, is being kept in Mountjoy women's prison while Mr Higgins is being held in the training unit, in a cell of his own.

The regime in the training unit is relatively relaxed compared to the main blocks in Mountjoy. Those prisoners near the end of their sentence are housed in the unit as are former addicts coming off the detoxification programme.

Labour's Joe Costello, who visited both politicians, said Mr Higgins was in good spirits he hopes to lose a stone while in prison but believes the sentence was too harsh.

Ms Daly was also not expecting to be jailed for so long, said Mr Costello. "She was a little bit perturbed about how she was going to deal with the situation of having a young child and is going to make arrangements in that respect," he said.

Mr Higgins' sister Mary Lee has revealed her family's anger at accusations from some politicians and commentators that her brother was dishonest and was using the bin charge issue to further his political aims.