Pregnant girlfriend leads to prison storeroom lockout
The lock was put in place after the Irish Examiner revealed the girlfriend of one of the IRA inmates was pregnant.
While the prisoners don’t have conjugal rights, security sources said the storeroom was not covered by the CCTV cameras at the prison.
Other prison sources told the Irish Examiner there was little supervision during visiting times for inmates in the Grove facility of Roscommon’s Castlerea prison.
Prison sources yesterday said the new padlock had been installed in the visiting unit in the past two days.
The visiting unit is a separate block in the Grove, a low-security area of Castlerea made up of seven chalet-type houses where up to 40 inmates can be accommodated.
Apart from the Provisional IRA prisoners, INLA members Dessie O’Hare and Declan Duffy, are also held in the Grove.
While the Prison Service said visiting times were supervised and monitored by CCTV, insiders painted a different picture.
They said there was little supervision of visits to IRA inmates and a part of the block, the storeroom, was not monitored at any time during visits, either by officers or cameras.
Senior management at the prison met this week to discuss the reports in the Irish Examiner.
Following this meeting, the new lock was placed on the door.
Several different sources have confirmed the girlfriend of IRA inmate Walter Nagle is pregnant.
Nagle, serving five years, has received no temporary leave since his conviction at the end of 2002.
Insiders say the Provisional IRA prisoners, including those jailed in connection with the killing of Garda Jerry McCabe and four from Cork convicted of firearms offences in 2002, have a huge say in the running of the Grove.
Fine Gael’s Jim O’Keeffe has questioned whether Justice Minister Michael McDowell stands by his assertion that the IRA inmates are being held on substantially the same terms as other prisoners.
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