26 July Prison visit

This afternoon we went on a guided tour of the prison. Being the only English speaking visitors we had a private tour with Robbie as our guide. You can walk around the outer building at no cost, the guided tour takes you inside and costs €6 per person.

Prison kitchen and admin buildings

despair of the inmate

In the maximum security area we were shown the isolation cells and the communal dormitories where the men slept forty to a room in a space intended for 20, side-by-side shackled at the ankles. For the first two years of their sentence all prisoners had to do hard labour for twelve hours a day and were slept in these dormitory cells.

solitary cells

high security

Robbie and David enjoy a joke

Prisoners who infringed prison rules were tried by the judges and could be given solitary confinement or the death penalty. Robbie told us sixty prisoners were executed here and showed us where the guillotine would have been placed in the middle of the yard and all prisoners forced to watch.

Those that survived the first two years were moved from maximum security to the outer prisons, or Class 2 and 3 cells, which were larger and less prisoners per room. They also earned 'lighter duties'.

regular inmate accommodation