Deasy urges Government not to demolish Mountjoy

The Government has been urged to rethink its decision to demolish Mountjoy Prison because of the facility's 150-year historical and cultural significance.

Fine Gael's spokesman on justice, Mr John Deasy, visited the prison last week and believes if it is demolished Ireland will lose a "priceless" link to its past.

"It's very clear that it shouldn't be used as a jail anymore but I don't think that means we have to knock it down. It dates back over 150 years to the time when inmates were held there before being transported out to Van Diemen's Land. Apart from that it has a central role in the period of history which gave rise to the foundation of this State.

"I think if members of the Cabinet went on a tour of the place they might reconsider. The plan to knock it has been tied into the ongoing issue of prison officer overtime. I think that's wrong. Kilmainham jail has been preserved and developed and nobody would even dream of suggesting that that should be knocked down".

Mr Deasy said a section of the jail could be preserved and some of the site still sold to raise funds for a replacement jail. Between 1865 and June 1866, over 60 Fenians convicted of treason felony passed through Mountjoy. They included O'Donovan Rossa and John O'Leary.

In 1910 Jim Larkin was also sent to Mountjoy on a trumped-up charge of attempting to defraud dock workers in Cork, and during the 1913 lockout, scores of trade unionists, including James Connolly, were jailed there.

Following the 1916 Rising, Mountjoy acted as a clearing house for republican prisoners on their way to jail in England. Kevin Barry was among those executed there, and during the Civil War, Mountjoy held 300 republican prisoners, including Seán MacBride.