- Portlaoise Prison
Portlaoise Prison is a maximum security
prison located inPortlaoise , Co.Laois ,Ireland . It should not be confused with theMidlands Prison , which is a newer, medium security prison situated directly beside it.The prison was built in the 1830s, making it one of the oldest in the Irish prison system -- it still operates to this day. It is noted as the prison in which people convicted of membership of the
Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and other illegal paramilitary organisations are usually detained.Security
The prison has a capacity for 203 prisoners, but because of the security sensitive nature of its inmates, it operates below this capacity. A large number of well armed
Irish Defence Forces soldiers guard the prison 24 hours a day, making it one of the most secure prisons in Europe.Fact|date=May 2007The security features include a detachment of a hundred and twenty troops, armed with rifles and anti-aircraft machine guns, who patrol the perimeter, the rooftops and man the watch towers. An air exclusion zone operates over the entire complex. The perimeter consists of high walls, cameras, sensors and acres of tank traps.
Through the years there have been various high profile attempts to spring prisoners from inside the walls. In 1974 nineteen prisoners escaped in one day-light escape.
In November 1985 an IRA mass breakout failed when the bomb, which had been assembled within the prison itself, failed to detonate at the prison gates. [
The Times , 25 November 1985; pg 2 col A]Controversy
In May 2007, an inmate named John Daly, who was serving 9 years for Armed Robbery called an RTÉ radio show called
liveline . [ [http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2007/05/02/story31727.asp Irish Examiner - Criminal calls RTÉ’s Liveline from prison cell - May 02, 2007] ] He called in to defend himself againstSunday World crime journalist Paul Williams who was speaking on the radio show at the time. Daly was on air for a few minutes before Prison Guards took the phone off him and ended the conversation.This phone call resulted in a major clampdown in all Irish Prisons and over 1,300 pieces of contraband being confiscated. Items confiscated in the cell by cell searches included numerous mobile phones, plasma televisions and even a
budgie .John Daly received many death threats from fellow inmates after calling the show and as a result was transferred to other prisons twice before his release in October 2007. A few weeks after he was released, he was murdered in Finglas after a night out.
Notable inmates
*
Angelo Fusco
*Dessie O'Hare
*John Gilligan
*Michael McKevitt
*Paul Magee References
External links
* [http://www.irishprisons.ie/prisons-portlaoise.htm Irish Prison Service: Portlaoise Prison]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
