Cross-party delegation find joy in small act of solidarity

It was like the opening scenes from Reservoir Dogs at Mountjoy Prison yesterday, as five men in suits arrived to meet a character called Joe and find out why things had gone so badly wrong.

The cross-party delegation of TDs included Mr Green (John Gormley), Mr Pink (Labour's Tommy Broughan) and Nice Guy Tony (Gregory).

Gang (of 22) members Finian McGrath and Sean Crowe (Sinn Féin) completed the numbers. But although, a bit like in the film, certain differences emerged between the parties - mainly on the issue of bin charges - the similarities ended there, and the meeting passed off peacefully.

The TDs spent 40 minutes with their jailed colleague, Joe Higgins, in Mountjoy's training unit and found him "as well as can be expected".

He had been following the news on radio, "especially Morning Ireland", and reading a lot, but he was also using his sentence to lose weight in the gym.

His treatment by prison officials was "relaxed", said Mr Gregory.

"They know he's not public enemy No 1."

While the politicians were inside, another visitor to the training unit carried in what looked like an apple tart.

There was no such luck for Mr Higgins. John Gormley brought him a book of "inquiries into the Algerian massacres, with a foreword by Noam Chomsky".

It was a heavy tome, the Green TD confirmed, adding that while he disagreed with the socialist deputy's stance on bin charges, he was visiting to express solidarity.

The group paid a separate visit to Ms Daly and asked her, at the request of a radio reporter, if she had any comment to make about the difficulties of her constituency rival G.V. Wright, who narrowly beat her to a seat in last year's general election.

The visitors emerged after 20 minutes to report that Ms Daly had "more on her mind than G.V. Wright", but that she, too, was in good spirits and passing the time with reading and exercise.

All five TDs criticised the sentences imposed on the pair. Mr Gregory suggested that, at the least, Mr Higgins should be allowed out to attend sittings of the Dáil when it resumes next week.

There was a precedent in the case of Liam Lawlor for allowing a jailed TD to speak in a debate about him, but the five were unsure whether the rules would allow them to exploit this opening.

There seemed no prospect of the sentences ending early, they agreed.

Opposite the women's prison, an exercise promotion for the Irish Heart Foundation suggested pedestrian routes to the GPO, the Botanic Gardens and elsewhere. The slogan on the sign read: "Time to Walk?"