Calls for the country's main high-security prison to be turned into a museum

Sarah Slater

Councillors in Laois are calling for Portlaoise Prison, which has housed some of the country’s most high-profile prisoners, to be turned into a museum.

The primary high-security facility, which has a capacity for 75 prisoners, now houses only five inmates since last year, and they will not be replaced.

Discussions are ongoing about its future and the potential closure of the prison's IRA wing, now known as E-Wing, as the threat from inmates is considered small.

Independent councillor Aisling Moran explained that local representatives have been informed that it would be “cheaper to build a new prison” than to “refurbish the building”.

Cllr Moran continued: “There have been rumblings that the wing may even be demolished or left derelict but this is a real opportunity to turn the facility into a museum which I’m sure would be a success as a tourist attraction.

“There is so much history attached to it and I’m sure in time it could be compared to the success of Kilmainham Gaol in attracting visitors.” Cllr Moran said it remains to be seen if the Laois County Council and the Irish Prison Service view it that way.

Some of the most well-known prisoners include Dessie O’Hare aka Border Fox who kidnapped the late dentist John O’Grady, drug gangs involving John Gilligan, the Kinihans, Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch, former leader of the Real IRA Thomas 'Slab' Murphy along with several leaders of the Real IRA, former Sinn Féin councillor Jonathan Dowdall.

Prisoners sentenced in the Special Criminal Court have been committed to Portlaoise Prison. Since 1973, all subversive or IRA prisoners have been accommodated in Portlaoise following their transfer from the Curragh Prison.

This followed the escape of three high profile IRA prisoners, JB O’Hagan, Seamus Twomey and Kevin Mallon, who had spectacularly escaped from Mountjoy by helicopter on October 31st, 1973.

The move to Portlaoise was made as a measure to contain IRA activity and segregate IRA members from other prisoners.

Other significant incidents over the years in E-Wing include the escape of 19 prisoners on August 18th, 1974, when a number of prisoners overpowered the staff and took their uniforms and made their escape disguised as prison officers. The group used explosives to blow open the gates.

In December of the same year Republican prisoners took over the E-Wing and took 26 prison officers hostage.

Nine years later, in 1983, then chief officer of Portlaoise, Brian Stack, was shot outside the National Boxing Arena in Dublin and subsequently died of his injuries 18 months later. In 2013, the IRA finally admitted to the killing.

An IRA mass breakout failed in 1985 when a bomb, which had been assembled within the prison itself, failed to detonate at the prison gates.

In the incident, then chief officer Patrick Powell faced down an armed prisoner who aimed a gun at his head and fired in an attempt to murder him. The gun failed to discharge and the escape attempt failed.

Her independent colleague Tommy Mulligan brought forward a motion on the matter at a recent meeting of Laois County Council.

In his notice of motion at the meeting, Cllr Mulligan proposed: that Laois County Council engage with Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan to explore the potential of repurposing the E-Wing in Portlaoise Prison into a tourist or cultural attraction.

Cllr Mulligan said that the reason he highlighted the matter was because of an Irish Prison Service carrying out a feasibility study to ascertain as to whether the wing could be upgraded to a facility acceptable by current standards.

“So according to that feasibility study, it looks like it’s going to be too costly an operation, and it looks like it’s going to be too expensive, and as a result of being too expensive, there is a real risk of that wing either being left derelict or being demolished,” he explained.

Cllr Mulligan added that he is trying to “get a conversation going, as it’s highly likely that this could disappear without us having any input. A conversation around the opportunity of possibly establishing a tourist centre or a museum in that prison wing.”

Independent councillor Caroline Dwane-Stanley, also supported Cllr Mulligan’s motion.

She said: “I think what would be interesting to find out is what the department will come back with in terms of what their plans are to do with it.

“I heard Minister O’Callaghan recently talk about the need for extra prison spaces and that our prisons are overcrowded”.

A spokesperson for the Irish Prison Service said that they “do not comment on security or operational matters”. The Department of Justice declined to comment on the future of E-Wing.

The prison was built in the 1830s and during the War of Independence between 1919 and 1921 it served as a detention for Irish Republican prisoners.