Councillors hope adding historic prison to protected sites list will secure its future

City councillors have voted to add the old Cork Prison to the Register of Protected Structures, in a blow to plans to demolish it and build a new prison in its place.

The decision followed a special meeting of Cork City Council last night, called after a motion from Sinn Féin councillor Kenneth Collins, which secured the backing of 22 of the local authority’s 31 members.

At the council meeting, Fianna Fáil councillors voted in favour of adding the former prison to the register, despite justice minister and Fianna Fáil TD Jim O’Callaghan calling for it to be demolished.

The Irish Prison Service has said that a tender for the works on the old Cork Prison will be issued later this year, which will inform the decision on whether to proceed with demolishing the building.

Long-term plans envisage a new prison on the site with capacity for 230 male and 100 female prisoners. However, the decision expected before the end of the year relates only to the proposed demolition works.

Council chief executive Valerie O’Sullivan confirmed that adding buildings to the register was a function of the council.

However, it will take about six months to do so, she said. The council must first notify relevant bodies — in this case the Government — have a public consultation period, and then put it to councillors for a vote.

Ms O’Sullivan said that in 2012, the then heritage minister wrote to the city council making recommendations for 752 structures around the city to be included in the Record of Protected Structures, as part of a National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.

“Among these structures was the subject structure, the [former] Cork Prison on Rathmore Rd, Cork City, and its prison walls and gatehouse… this recommendation continues to apply,” she said.

Fianna Fáil’s Colm Kelleher, the only councillor from his party to sign the letter calling for the meeting, said that councillors should fight for the building given its historical significance, adding that his own great grand uncle spent time there in 1920.

Green Party councillor Oliver Moran welcomed the motion and criticised plans to demolish the site without stating what will replace it, adding that there are already plans for tendering.

He said: 

“I don’t know what effect this will have, as the way the department is operating in this proposal is particularly disappointing.”

People Before Profit-Solidarity councillor Brian McCarthy said he supported preserving the prison’s heritage, but also wanted alternatives to custody instead of the expansion of prison spaces.

Fine Gael’s Shane O’Callaghan welcomed the cross-party support for the motion: “We’re all on the same side, we all appreciate our history, and I commend everybody for standing up for the culture and history of Cork.”

Independent Ireland’s Noel O’Flynn said a museum should be established there instead of another prison.

Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gould said Kilmainham Goal in Dublin was set for demolition and ordinary people stopped this process, restored the prison, and discovered lots about its history as they looked into it. Similar information about the Old Cork Prison was dug up by podcaster and historian Eolan Ryng and Dee Moore.

“We owe it to those who fought and died for Ireland to preserve this site — together, we will do everything in our power,” she said.

Lord Mayor Damian Boylan said that seeing Mr Ryng’s presentation “really struck home for me”.

“I wear that chain, the chain of MacSwiney and MacCurtain,” 

he said, referring to former lord mayors and revolutionaries who were imprisoned at the site.

Mr Boylan said he always tells children on school visits that the chain is heavy in two ways, in terms of the metal it is made of and the weight of the history behind it. He said this history left him no choice but to vote in favour of the motion.

Mr Collins said he was delighted by the cross-party support of the motion, congratulating Mr Ryng for his work on publicising the building’s history.

He said: “This is a win for Cork city, it’s a win for heritage, and it’s a win for the Glen — hopefully the minister will listen now to what the people of Cork city are saying and decide to put a museum there.”