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Portlaoise Prison ( ga, Príosún Phort Laoise) is a maximum security
prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...
in
Portlaoise Portlaoise ( ), or Port Laoise (), is the county town of County Laois, Ireland. It is located in the South Midlands in the province of Leinster. The 2016 census shows that the town's population increased by 9.5% to 22,050, which was well above t ...
,
County Laois County Laois ( ; gle, Contae Laoise) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a med ...
,
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
. Until 1929 it was called the Maryborough Gaol. It should not be confused with the
Midlands Prison The Midlands Prison () is a medium security prison in Portlaoise, County Laois. It receives prisoners who are aged 17 years and over. It has a bed capacity of 870 and its daily average number of inmates resident in 2009 was 512. History The ...
, which is a newer, medium security prison directly beside it; or with Dunamaise Arts Centre, which was the original Maryborough Gaol built . Portlaoise Prison was built in the 1830s, making it one of the oldest still operating today in the Irish prison system. It is the prison in which people convicted of membership of the
Provisional Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reu ...
(IRA) and other illegal paramilitary and designated terrorist organisations are usually detained. A number of IRA and
dissident republican Dissident republicans, renegade republicans, anti-Agreement republicans or anti-ceasefire republicans ( ga, poblachtach easaontach) are Irish republicans who do not support the current peace agreements in Northern Ireland. The agreements follow ...
prisoners are housed in "E Block". Anyone charged under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act must be sent to the prison because of its unique security measures. Soldiers from the
Irish Army The Irish Army, known simply as the Army ( ga, an tArm), is the land component of the Defence Forces of Ireland.The Defence Forces are made up of the Permanent Defence Forces – the standing branches – and the Reserve Defence Forces. The A ...
patrol Portlaoise Prison on a permanent basis.


Security

Soldiers guard the prison 24 hours a day. The security features include a detachment consisting of approximately platoon strength, armed with rifles and anti-aircraft machine guns, who patrol the prison complex. An air exclusion zone operates over the entire complex. The perimeter consists of high walls, cameras and sensors. The prison has a capacity for 399 prisoners, but because of the security sensitive nature of its inmates, it operates below this capacity and its daily average number of resident inmates was only 119 in 2009. There have been various high-profile attempts to spring prisoners from inside the walls. In 1902, the infamous criminal James Lynchehaun, who was in prison for the attempted murder of Agnes McDonnell, escaped unaided over the walls and made his way to America. The method of escape is well documented in the book, ''The Playboy and the Yellow Lady'' and made headlines worldwide. In 1974, nineteen Republican prisoners escaped in one daylight escape. On Friday 29 December 1974 Provisional IRA prisoners held several prison officers hostage and caused considerable destruction to their wing in a protest for better living conditions inside the jail. Irish Army soldiers were used to regain control and the hostages were freed, all of them unharmed. In 1975, during an attempted escape, Tom Smith of the IRA's Dublin Brigade was shot dead by the Irish
Defence Forces The phrase Defence Force(s) (or Defense Force(s) in US English - see spelling differences) is in the title of the armed forces of certain countries and territories. Defence forces *Ambazonia Defence Forces *Artsakh Defence Army *Australian Defence ...
. The prisoners had blasted their way through a door in the recreation area into the prison yard. As the prisoners entered the yard, Irish soldiers opened fire on the inmates, shooting Smith in the head. In November 1985, an IRA mass breakout failed when a bomb, which had been assembled within the prison itself, failed to detonate at the prison gates.


Controversy

During the 1970s and 1980s the prison was noted for the harsh treatment meted out towards prisoners. In 1977 a number of prisoners went on hunger strike demanding a public enquiry into conditions in the prison. In 1946 Sean McCaughey refused to wear prison clothes and spent nearly five years naked except for a blanket in protest against harsh conditions. He commenced a hunger strike on 19 April 1946. After 10 days, he stopped taking water and died on 11 May, the twenty-third day of his protest. An inquest was held in the prison at which the prison doctor admitted that during his four and a half years of imprisonment that McCaughey had never been allowed out in the fresh air or sunlight and that "he would not treat his dog the way Seán McCaughey had been treated in Portlaoise." In 1984 the Assistant General Secretary of the Prison Officers Association, Tom Hoare strongly criticised conditions within the prison stating that staff were forced by senior management in the prison to use excessive force against prisoners. He also criticised the then Governor of Portlaoise Prison, William Reilly, and the Minister of Justice Michael Noonan stating "I accuse the minister of negligence in this area. I accuse the management of Portlaoise Prison of being indifferent to complaints. I would hate to be a prisoner making a complaint". At the Prison Officers Association 1984 conference a delegate from Portlaoise Prison, Larry O'Neill, told the conference: "If
Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
wanted generals today he would find plenty of them in Portlaoise. After the war the Nazis said many of them were doing their duty and that is what the management in Portlaoise are saying today". Conditions within the prison improved after the death of Governor Reilly and the appointment of John Lonergan as Governor of the prison. In May 2007, an inmate named John Daly, who was serving 9 years for armed robbery, called the RTÉ radio show ''
Liveline ''Liveline'' is an Irish radio interview and phone-in chat show broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 each weekday afternoon between 13.45 and 15.00. The programme, which is currently presented by Joe Duffy and known for its slogan "Talk to Joe", seeks the ...
'' from inside the prison. He called in to defend himself against ''
Sunday World The ''Sunday World'' is an Irish newspaper published by Independent News & Media. It is the second largest selling "popular" newspaper in the Republic of Ireland, and is also sold in Northern Ireland where a modified edition with more stories r ...
'' crime journalist Paul Williams who was speaking on the radio show at the time. Daly was on air for a few minutes before prison guards took the phone from him and ended the conversation. This phone call resulted in a major clampdown in all Irish prisons and over 1,300 pieces of contraband being confiscated. Items confiscated in the cell-by-cell searches included numerous mobile phones, plasma televisions and even a budgie which was smuggled into the prison by a visitor who hid the bird internally in her vagina. John Daly received many death threats from fellow inmates after calling the show and as a result was transferred to other prisons twice before his release in October 2007. A few weeks after his release, he was murdered in
Finglas Finglas (; ) is a northwestern outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It lies close to Junction 5 of the M50 motorway, and the N2 road. Nearby suburbs include Glasnevin and Ballymun; Dublin Airport is to the north. Finglas lies mainly in the posta ...
after a night out..


Notable inmates

* Angelo Fusco *
Martin Ferris Martin Ferris (born 28 March 1952) is a former Irish Sinn Féin politician and former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 2002 to 2020. Early and personal life Ferris was born in Strand Stre ...
* Dessie O'Hare * John Gilligan * Sean McCaughey * Richard Goss (Irish Republican) *
George Plant George Plant (5 January 1904 – 5 March 1942) was a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) who was executed by the Irish Government in 1942. Early life, IRA service, arrest and prison George Plant was born into a Church of Ireland farming ...
* Michael McKevitt * Paul Magee *
Dominic McGlinchey Dominic "Mad Dog" McGlinchey (1954 – 10 February 1994) was an Irish republican paramilitary leader, who moved from the Provisional IRA to become head of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) paramilitary group in the early 1980s. McGlin ...
* James "Jim" McCann * Thomas Murphy * James Lynchehaun (escaped successfully 6 September 1902) * Gerry “The Monk” Hutch


See also

*
Prisons in Ireland Prisons in Ireland are one of the main forms of punishment, rehabilitation, or both for the commission of an indictable offense and other offenses. Authority In 1925, shortly after the establishment of the Irish Free State, Minister for Ju ...
*
Midlands Prison The Midlands Prison () is a medium security prison in Portlaoise, County Laois. It receives prisoners who are aged 17 years and over. It has a bed capacity of 870 and its daily average number of inmates resident in 2009 was 512. History The ...


References


External links


Irish Prison Service
{{Coord, 53.038, N, 7.287, W, scale:1000, display=title 1830 establishments in Ireland Buildings and structures in Portlaoise Prisons in the Republic of Ireland