Lord Mayor backs calls to redevelop Cork's old prison site
A general view of the recently decommissioned Cork prison in Cork city, Republic of Ireland. Filming of a new movie entitled "MAZE", documenting the 1983 prison breakout of IRA prisoners from the Maze Prison is under way.
RENEWED calls have been made to redevelop Cork’s old prison site on Rathmore Rd, which has lain idle for seven years.
Volunteer coordinator of Cork Penny Dinners, Caitríona Twomey, has in recent days called for a complete overhaul of the vacant building to enable it to be used for emergency accommodation.
“I believe there are a number of things that could happen with the former prison, one being a total revamp and emergency housing put in place for our homeless families, for our individuals – our rough sleepers who are sleeping in fields and alleyways on streets and in doorways,” Ms Twomey said, speaking on the Neil Prendeville show on Cork's RedFM.
Ms Twomey, who first made the call to redevelop the old prison on Virgin Media News last week, acknowledged that a major investment would be needed to ensure any future use was fit for purpose.
She suggested that an alternative use for a reimagining of the site could be the development of a treatment facility with step-down housing.
Speaking to , the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Kieran McCarthy, said he would welcome a redevelopment of the old prison.
“I think taking down the building and actually putting in modular social and affordable homes and working with the Department of Justice and local people, local public reps, I think there’s something there.
Mr McCarthy said such a project would require “an enormous amount of thinking and imagination” but that redeveloping the site along the lines of what has been suggested “is not beyond the realms of possibility”.
The prison closed in 2016 following the construction of new prison facilities on a site opposite and it has remained vacant since.
In May last year, the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee was told by Irish Prison Service director general Caron McCaffrey that demolishing the existing building would cost “several million euro”.
“It remains decommissioned but obviously it is a site that could potentially be used in the future by the Prison Service,” she said.
Mr McCarthy said he was informed that a letter has been sent to the Department of Justice regarding the future of the old prison site and said he would be following up on this.
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