Roof-top protest ends at prison

A safety review of the prison was announced this week

A rooftop protest at the high-security Maghaberry prison in Northern Ireland has ended.

Prison staff removed one of three inmates, who had broken through the ceiling of one of the wings and climbed onto the roof, at about 0400 BST on Sunday.

Four hours later, the other two prisoners climbed down voluntarily.

Hopes of an end to the demonstration were raised on Saturday when the first of the prisoners, who are demanding segregation, returned to his cell.

The protest had been ongoing since Thursday.

Prison Service Director General Peter Russell praised management and staff at Maghaberry for helping to bring the protest to an end.

Safety review

Visits to the two areas where the protests took place were cancelled on Saturday, but visits to all other parts of the prison continued as normal.

All visits to the jail returned to normal on Sunday.

Three prisoners climbed on to the roof of Bush House in Maghaberry Prison near Lisburn and another prisoner climbed on to the roof of Roe House on Thursday night.

Roe House was the scene in June of a roof-top protest involving eight loyalists, dissident republican and non-paramilitary inmates in the jail. It ended peacefully after the protesters spent one night on the roofs.

Earlier this week, Secretary of State Paul Murphy announced a safety review at the prison, following the protests and attacks on prison officers' homes.

The consultation is to be led by John Steele, who was head of the Northern Ireland Prison Service from 1987 to 1992, and a former head of security policy for the Northern Ireland Office.

Mr Steele was inside the jail when the protest started.

Tensions have increased at the jail in recent weeks with dissident republican prisoners staging dirty protests to demand segregation from loyalist inmates.

A Northern Ireland Office spokesman said none of the prisoners was involved in the dirty protest being staged at the jail by dissident republicans.