Mountjoy Prison - History

History

Mountjoy was designed by the British military engineering officer, Captain Joshua Jebb, Royal Engineers and opened in 1850, based on the design of London's Pentonville Prison also designed by Jebb. Originally intended as the first stop for men sentenced to transportation, they would spend a period in separate confinement before being transferred to Spike Island and transported from there to Van Diemen's Land.

A total of 46 prisoners (including one woman, Annie Walsh) were executed within the walls of the prison, prior to the abolition of capital punishment. Executions were done by hanging, after which the bodies of the dead were taken down from the gallows and buried within the prison grounds in unmarked graves. The list of prisoners executed at Mountjoy Prison includes:

• Kevin Barry
• Patrick Moran
• Frank Flood
• Thomas Whelan
• Thomas Traynor
• Patrick Doyle
• Thomas Bryan
• Bernard Ryan
• Edmond Foley
• Patrick Maher.

Annie Walsh from Limerick, who was found guilty of murdering her husband was the only woman to be hanged by the Irish Free State. She was executed in Mountjoy prison on 5 August 1925.

The final execution in the Republic of Ireland, that of Michael Manning, took place in Mountjoy Prison on 20 April 1954.

Some Irish leaders involved with the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War were held there. On May 14, 1921, an IRA team led by Paddy Daly and Emmet Dalton mounted an attempt to rescue Sean McEoin from the prison. They used a captured armoured car to gain access to Mountjoy, but were discovered and had to shoot their way out.

The Fenian poet, author of the popular song "Rising of the Moon", John Keegan 'Leo' Casey was imprisoned here during the 1860s; subsequently in the 20th century playwright and IRA activist Brendan Behan was also gaoled within.

On 31 October 1973, it was the scene of a spectacular escape by helicopter by three Provisional Irish Republican Army prisoners, including Seamus Twomey and J.B O'Hagan.