Old Cork prison should be used for historic value

A Fine Gael councillor has said the old Cork prison should not be demolished due to its history, as the current facility hit a new record for overcrowding on Thursday, with 94 people currently sleeping on the floor according to most recent figures.

There were 390 people incarcerated in Cork prison on yesterday, down from 393 on Thursday, which was a new record. The prison has a capacity of 296, meaning 97 people in the facility did not have a bed on Thursday and 94 on Friday.

Fine Gael councillor Shane O’Callaghan said he foresaw issues with the Government plan to demolish the old Cork Prison and build a new one on the site alongside the current facility by 2031: “I don’t think it’s a realistic plan.

“The old Cork prison is a historic building that’s been there since 1806. It would have been where a lot of Irish patriots were imprisoned and executed, people like Thomas Kent.

“I don’t think there’s any need to have a second prison in Cork — if they’re serious about getting to grips with record numbers, they should resurrect Michael McDowell’s plan for a very large new prison … a place like Thornton Hall.”

The proposed new facility would have space for 230 male and 100 female inmates, but nationally, the Irish Prison Service is short around 850 beds, and Mr O’Callaghan said: “330 is only scraping the surface.

“I understand it’s convenient because the Department of Justice already owns that land, but they could perhaps transfer that to some other department like the department of heritage and get some sort of museum there.”