Republican Sinn Fein has expressed grave concern about the welfare of a republican prisoner in Limerick Jail. Josephine Hayden (51), who has already suffered a heart attack, has just been returned to the prison after treatment in Limerick Regional Hospital.
She was admitted on Tuesday suffering from chest pains, dizziness, shortness of breath and nausea. Republican Sinn Fein said she was living in "deplorable conditions" in the jail and had been told by her cardiologist that her prison environment was detrimental to her health.
The party's prisons spokeswoman, Ms Peig King, said: "Josephine suffered a heart attack in prison last May and after six days in hospital was sent back to jail. Then, in July, she was rushed to hospital again with chest pains and sent back to jail three days later.
"This is the third time she has been taken to hospital, yet she has been returned to prison after 48 hours, a totally insufficient period for rest and recuperation.
"Republican Sinn Fein is calling on the Dublin Minister for Justice to allow an independent medical examination of Josephine Hayden with a view to allowing her release on humanitarian grounds."
Ms King said that if it had not been for Hayden's political beliefs, she would have been released on compassionate parole by now. "The fact that she is a political prisoner who is opposed to the current attempts to erect a Stormonttype assembly in the Six Counties has meant that she is being doubly victimised by the Dublin administration," she added.