Prison officers and management disagree about the number of gangs operating in the prison system. Staff claim there are 30 in Mountjoy alone, while the prison service says the number is 10 across all facilities.

Jack McCarron’s audacity last Sunday has re-opened the debate about the great Croke Park Gaelic football goals. 

After a decade of suffering, Galway football supporters are beginning to believe again.

Corofin have won all the main prizes in club football. Their focus now is on breaking new ground. The club has never managed five successive Galway SFC titles. 

The possibility of the HSE running prison healthcare services instead of the Irish Prison Service (IPS) is currently under discussion, the UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) has heard.

The possibility of the HSE running prison healthcare services instead of the Irish Prison Service (IPS) is currently under discussion, the UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) has heard.

The prison service is denying that a prison officer whistleblower made a protected disclosure about the misuse of public funds despite the head of the service writing to the officer to apologise for his treatment following the disclosure.

Michael Clifford looks at one prison officer’s complaints, which were upheld by retired judge William Early, and the prison service’s response.

The number of fine defaulters being jailed has halved in the first three months of this year, according to official figures.

More than 2,000 fewer people were sent to prison last year compared to 2015, a drop of 12%.

Three out of every four prisoners has a drug problem; one in seven are on methadone treatment; 30 are “psychotic” and waiting to be transferred to psychiatric hospitals at any time; and dozens would immediately become homeless if they were released.

A new prison working rules system that officials said would save the State almost €300m over the past decade by replacing overtime has cut costs by just €8m.

Assaults on prison staff have cost the State almost €30m since 2008. However, the ratio of assaults by prisoners on Irish Prison Service (IPS) members is reportedly relatively low.

Prison Service boss Michael Donnellan has rejected criticisms from prison officers that violent inmates were being rewarded by special gardens and luxuries like fish tanks.

The long-awaited introduction of a new system for payment of court fines in stages will “dramatically reduce” the number of people being sent to jail, the head of the Irish prison system has said.

Prison officers and their families suffer “severe” consequences if they do not conform to unprofessional behaviour of colleagues, including actions that display a hatred towards women and people in general.

The director general of the Irish Prison Service has said that the long-awaited introduction of an installment system to pay court fines will have a “huge impact” on the numbers being sent to jail.

“Cork Prison is the worst jail in the system. It’s inhumane.”

The most expensive prison ever built in the State, at a cost of €35m, will open in Cork this December. Construction is to finish by the end of next month.

Children are being used to smuggle drugs into prison by “packing” them internally — and are sometimes forced to do so by gangs, prison authorities have revealed.

The supply of drugs into prisons “seriously undermines” the ability of inmates to kick the habit, the country’s largest voluntary drug and homeless organisation has said.

Prison officers have called for tougher sanctions for inmates who attack staff after a fresh incident in which a convicted murderer tried to choke an officer in Portlaoise Prison.

The man who heads up Irish jails said yesterday that “a humane prison service is about trying to take people who are broken and build them back up again”.

Prison chiefs ‘provocative’ by showing gardaí how system works

A prisoner who is so disruptive prison officers have to wear riot gear to deal with him has been given a PlayStation and a fish tank in a bid to pacify him, a prison officers’ conference has heard.

Providing a prisoner who had carried out 150 attacks on staff with cake and minerals on his birthday and €65 for “a party” was described as outrageous by the president of the Prison Officers’ Association.

Prison officers are to be given anti-stab vests, incapacitant sprays and extendable batons in response to the serious stabbing of a prison officer in a high-profile escape last February.

This time last year, the champions of the black card were out in force. With good reason, too. Goals and points were being scored at a rate of knots. It was hailed as the answer to Gaelic football’s ills when in truth it was only a plaster.

KEVIN Crawford, of traditional music group, Lunasa, is one of the main men behind the recent musical evolution of the legendary Kilfenora Céilí Band. Crawford, a flute player and producer, was born in Birmingham, UK, lived in Clare for a period, but now bases himself in New York.

The body representing the country’s prison officers has expressed its disappointment at the Irish Prison Service’s decision to conduct an internal report into Derek Brockwell’s escape from Tallaght Hospital.

Escaped convict Derek Brockwell was in a serious condition in a Belfast hospital last night after being injured when confronted by police. PSNI used a Taser stun gun to incapacitate him with reports suggesting he had injured himself with a knife, though it is unknown whether it was deliberate.

The organiser of a major conference on the care of children has said the care system has been "dumbed down" and those working with children are not properly resourced or valued.

FR Pat O’Donnell wouldn’t be in the habit of giving tips but this one he was full sure of.

Galway 4-17 Tipperary 4-12

Galway football sensation, Shane Walsh, is hoping for revenge against Mayo in the Connacht final, after they ruined his championship debut last year.