The disclosure that people on bail on suspicion of other offences committed some 30,000 crimes inevitably raises public disquiet, especially when those include prime suspects of 15 different murders. The statistics would seem to suggest that there is something seriously amiss with our system of bail.

ONE of the country’s longest serving and most outspoken prison governors, John Lonergan, last night marked his retirement, warning that he first raised overcrowding issues at the jail 25 years ago.

One of the country’s longest serving prison governors, John Lonergan, is to retire from Mountjoy next month, it was confirmed today.

THE head of the prison service has flatly rejected claims by the resigning governor of the women’s prison that her views and communication over the jail were ignored.

RELATIONS between the country’s 11,600 rank and file gardaí and the Government have soured considerably after the Justice Minister refused to attend their annual conference.

The Dáil is to hold a debate tonight on the state of Irish prisons in the wake of the resignation of the governor of the Women's prison in Mountjoy.

PRISON boss Brian Purcell has hit back at claims from a prison governor her job had been made “completely impossible” by the Prison Service.

KATHLEEN McMAHON, who quit as a prison governor, has not said anything that so many others deeply concerned with prisoner welfare and the effectiveness of our prison system have not said many times before.

The Government was pressed today to carry out an urgent review of the country’s only women’s prison after its governor resigned citing overcrowding.

The governor of Ireland's only women's prison has resigned saying her position became "completely impossible".

A CHIEF prison officer claimed yesterday that the voice on a mobile phone confiscated from Catherine Nevin was that of sitting Fine Gael councillor Dr Bill Tormey.

Catherine Nevin was today acquitted of possessing a mobile phone at the Dochas centre, in Mountjoy prison, nearly two years ago.