Dissident republican prisoners in the North are threatening to go on hunger strike if their demands to stay segregated from loyalist prisoners are not met.
Seventeen inmates linked to the "Real IRA" and other dissident organisations are engaged in a "dirty protest" in Maghaberry prison, smearing their excrement over cell walls.
The republicans want to be separated from loyalists at the high-security complex near Lisburn, Co Antrim. It is understood the campaign, which has been under way for almost three weeks, is to intensify and spread to Magilligan Prison, Co Derry.
Republicans said tensions erupted into the dirty protest when a prominent dissident republican from Derry was put in a holding cell along with Mo Courtney, an Ulster Defence Association commander and one-time Johnny Adair associate.
The allegation was strenuously denied by Maghaberry managers.
Ms Marian Price, chair of the Irish Republican Prisoners' Welfare Association, said the protesters were determined.She warned: "If one of these young men dies in prison there are going to be consequences and it doesn't bear thinking about".
In 1981, IRA men inside the Maze Prison went on a fast to gain political status. Ten of them died.
A rally planned for west Belfast tomorrow will show how much support there is among republicans on the outside for inmates demanding segregation for what they say are safety reasons.
PA