A threatened hunger strike by anti-water charges protesters jailed for breaching a court injunction appears to have been abandoned.
The three men, who are objecting to having been transferred from the Mountjoy Prison campus in Dublin's north inner city to Wheatfield Prison in west Dublin, said at the weekend they had been refusing food since being moved last Friday.
The men had pledged to begin refusing fluids from Monday morning if they were not sent back to the Training Unit on the Mountjoy campus.
However, well placed sources said Derek Byrne, Paul Moore and Damien O'Neill had taken full meals in prison on Monday. They had breakfast in the morning, followed by lunch just after midday and a cooked tea in the evening, before being locked in their cells for the night.
A statement issued on behalf of Mr Byrne, of Streamville Road, Donaghmede, Co Dublin, on Sunday said all three were on their third day of hunger strike at that time. The statement was said to have been dictated by Mr Byrne to a relative on a prison visit on Sunday.
Mr Byrne called for Taoiseach Enda Kenny to resign and said he and his fellow jailed protesters were “disgusted that 27 TDs are heading abroad for St Patrick’s Day to promote Ireland”.
Mr Byrne’s partner Siobhán Walsh said on Monday she was “worried sick” about the men being on hunger strike. However, Ms Walsh believed Mr Byrne would persist with his plans unless his “political” transfer to Wheatfield was reversed.
“Derek is a very strong-minded person and if he decides to do something then that’s what he will do,” she said.
Ms Walsh was speaking before it emerged the men were taking meals.
Supporters angry
The transfer of the three men angered their supporters, who had organised a protest march to Mountjoy Prison on Saturday demanding their release. The march went ahead as planned, despite the men being in Wheatfield across the city.
Sources said the men had attended training facilities in Wheatfield on Monday.
Mr O'Neill, of Greenwood Park in Coolock, Co Dublin and Mr Moore, of Mount Olive Grove in Kilbarrack, Co Dublin, were jailed last Thursday for 56 days by Mr Justice Paul Gilligan in the High Court for refusing to give an undertaking to remain at least 20 metres away from construction workers installing water meters.
Mr Byrne was jailed for 28 days for the same reason. His sentence was shorter because the other two men had previously been before the courts.
Bernadette Hughes, of McKelvey Avenue, Finglas, Co Dublin, was jailed for 28 days last week for the same reason and is serving her sentence at the Dóchas Centre on the Mountjoy Campus.
Michael Batty of Edenmore Avenue, Coolock, Co Dublin, had a 28-day sentence imposed. However, a stay was put on his imprisonment after the court heard he was in Lanzarote in Spain as he needs to be in a dry and sunny climate due to chronic asthma.
