No official response over Old Cork Prison demolition plans 

The Irish Prison Service and the Department of Justice have both declined to say whether they will respect the old Cork Prison being designated a protected structure or continue with plans to demolish it.

On Monday night, all 31 Cork city councillors agreed a motion to place the former prison building on [url=

https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-41918479.html]Cork City Council’s[/url] register of protected structures, given its historical value.

Many figures in the Irish independence movement were imprisoned there, including former lord mayors Tomás MacCurtain and Terence MacSwiney, as well as a great-grand-uncle of Fianna Fáil councillor Colm Kelleher.

Fianna Fáil councillors were the last to agree to the motion, given it will be a setback to plans by their party colleague, justice minister Jim O’Callaghan. 

A decision is expected in the coming months on whether to demolish the old prison, which is necessary to build a planned new prison in its place, though only the demolition has been proposed so far.

Council chief executive Valerie O’Sullivan confirmed the local authority has the power to add the site to the record of protected structures, and that it will now begin this process, though she said it will take six months. 

No comment 

Asked by The Echo how it intends to proceed with the demolition plans in light of this decision, the Department of Justice did not respond, while the Irish Prison Service said it “has no comment to make at this time”.

Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould said he hoped Mr O’Callaghan had been listening to Monday night’s council meeting. 

He said that when the former home of Irish nationalist The O’Rahilly was demolished in his constituency, weeks after Dublin City Council had voted to put it on the protected structures list, Mr O’Callaghan raised the issue in the Dáil and said it was “hugely regrettable”. 

He said at the time: “We need to go around the country and ask local authorities to identify those properties within their jurisdiction that are of historical importance, so we can preserve our vital revolutionary history.”

Mr Gould said: “Our local authority, Cork City Council, has now identified a property of historical importance.

“We now need him to put his own words into action and preserve our vital revolutionary history. The Irish Prison Service must clarify now that the proposal for demolition is off the table,” he said, adding that he will be raising the issue with Mr O’Callaghan as soon as possible.