Call for old Cork prison to be preserved as heritage site

The Stop Cork Prison Expansion Campaign said the site in the Glen should be put used as a visitor attraction rather than becoming another prison. File picture: Larry Cummins

Campaigners have called for the old Cork prison to be preserved as a heritage site rather than demolished to make way for two new prisons.

The appeal comes as the prison's history is being highlighted during Heritage Week with a talk at the site on Sunday and the publication of a 40-page booklet charting its story from Famine times through the 1916 Rising up to to its closure a century later.

A spokesperson for the Stop Cork Prison Expansion Campaign said: “Focusing on the prison’s history now is particularly relevant and timely… because the Government plans to demolish it and to build two new prisons in its place and across the road from the existing prison, which was built in 2016.” 

While the Government has consistently maintained the development is an extension of the existing prison rather than a new facility, plans to provide accommodation for 230 men and 100 women have prompted campaigners and opposition politicians to argue it goes far beyond a simple expansion.

The group said “there will be considerable noise and air pollution, ground shaking, vibration and heavy vehicle traffic to follow, if the planned site demolition and prison building are allowed to proceed”.

Cork City Gaol and Spike Island are major visitor attractions, while Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin frequently ranks among the top tourist sites in Ireland. 

The community group said the site in the Glen should be put to similar use rather than becoming another prison.

The group’s Ruby Walsh said: “The prison needs to be seen as an important part of Cork’s social, military, Republican, carceral history, and heritage and given due attention.” 

A talk by podcaster, historian, and former Sinn Féin councillor Eolan Ryng will take place outside the prison at noon on Sunday, August 23,  as part of Heritage Week, and a booklet published by Mr Ryng ahead of the talk looks at some of the history of the site.

Mr Ryng told the Irish Examiner that he found many interesting stories and famous names who had been imprisoned there when researching, adding that the booklet was the product of one month of research and an academic historian would be able to uncover even more.

Prior to its opening as a civilian prison in 1972 after decades of use as a military detention facility, Mr Ryng said: “It was acknowledged as a historical site and it used to open to the public every Easter for a commemoration.

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“When it was turned into a civil prison, that history fell from public memory. We’re trying to revive that, because Kilmainham was in a situation in the 1960s when it had fallen into disrepair and an ordinary group of volunteers put it back together.” 

Cork city councillors approved a motion in July opposing the Department of Justice’s plans.

Independent councillor and historian Kieran McCarthy said he thought an examination of the building should be conducted “especially as this week is Heritage Week and the theme is heritage at risk".

He added that he was not in favour of “creating a super prison” there.