LAST UPDATE | 21 Jul

A GROUP OF seven Irish politicians have travelled to Germany to attend the trial of an Irish man and four other pro-Palestinian activists charged with causing about €1 million worth of damage at the factory of an Israeli-owned defence company.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett and Sinn Féin TD Mairéad Farrell met 32-year-old Dubliner Daniel Tatlow-Devally in prison today ahead of the next session of his trial in Stuttgart on Wednesday.

Speaking to The Journal, Farrell said they had just left the prison in Ulm after a meeting with Tatlow-Devally that was organised by the Irish consulate. 

She described the circumstances of the meeting as “unusual and quite prohibitive” because they were not allowed to discuss the trial. 

She also said it was “deeply concerning to see the conditions in which he’s being kept”, describing how he spends 23 hours a day in a five-by-two-metre cell. 

Still, Farrell said Tatlow-Devally was “in good spirits”. 

“The conditions he’s been held in are really appalling,” Boyd Barrett told The Journal. 

He said the five accused were being “treated as if they’re dangerous criminals or terrorists, which they’re not”.

He hopes that when the delegation returns to Ireland and tells the Dáil about their experience that it might prompt the government to exert “some pressure to demand better treatment”.

Boyd Barrett also said there were almost as many police at the protest outside the prison as there were demonstrators, a crowd of eight or nine people. 

“To me that is excessive,” he said, adding that “the word brutal has been used to describe the treatment of pro-Palestine protesters here.”  

Protesters told the delegation they were prohibited from saying “Free Palestine from the river to the sea”, a chant heard “week in week out in Ireland”. 

The chant refers to the River Jordan and the Meditarranean Sea and is banned in Germany.

The idea that that’s prohibited is “a very worrying sign,” he said. 

People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger, Fine Gael TD Barry Ward, Labour TD Duncan Smith, Social Democrats Senator Patricia Stephenson and Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan are also part of the delegation attending the trial.

The Ulm Five 

Tatlow-Devally is one of the so-called ‘Ulm Five’, a group of activists from Ireland, the UK, Germany and Spain who are on trial in Stuttgart over a break-in at an Elbit Systems facility in the German town of Ulm in September 2025.

German prosecutors allege the group caused around €1 million worth of damage and have charged the defendants under Section 129 of the German Criminal Code, which relates to membership of a criminal organisation.

If convicted, they face prison sentences of up to five years.

Elbit Systems, an Israeli defence company, supplies drones, weapons and targeting systems to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Videos posted online by the Ulm 5 after the break-in showed activists spray-painting slogans on the site and accusing Germany of facilitating Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

The group has repeatedly said it “engaged in an act of civil disobedience against the ongoing genocide in Gaza”.

“There was no threat to anyone at any stage in their protest. They did not conceal their faces and did not run away,” a statement from the group said.

The five have been held in pre-trial detention since their arrests.

Family members of the Ulm 5 have alleged the activists have been subjected to severe restrictions and poor prison conditions while in custody.

They have also alleged their communications have been monitored and claimed some of the defendants have experienced inadequate healthcare and food shortages.

Those allegations have previously been disputed by German prosecutors.

Lawyers for the group have also criticised the conditions under which the trial is being conducted, saying the defendants have been handcuffed when brought into court and that proceedings are taking place in a high-security courtroom more commonly associated with terrorism prosecutions.

With reporting from David Mac Redmond