The British Prison Service has refused to grant compassionate leave to the republican prisoner, Ella O'Dwyer, for a visit to her critically ill father in Co Tipperary.
Yesterday the prison service indicated O'Dwyer, who is in Maghaberry Prison near Belfast, was too high a security risk to leave the jurisdiction of Northern Ireland.
O'Dwyer was sentenced in 1986 to life imprisonment for conspiracy to cause explosions in Britain, and was transferred from prison in Britain to Maghaberry Prison in 1994.
She has appealed to the British Home Office on a number of occasions in recent weeks to be allowed her visit her father. The Prison Service said yesterday it had no further comment to make on her application.
