The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal 1966–1995 and the Search for Peace

by Tim Pat Coogan

After a particularly vicious spell of rioting and conflict in Portlaoise jail under the Fine Gael–Labour coalition government which fell in 1977, the incoming Fianna Fail administration moved along the compromise route and the situation in Portlaoise returned to normality. Inside the jail the Republican prisoners achieved de facto political status. They wore their own clothes, communicated with the authorities through their own elected officers, and were segregated from other prisoners into their own groupings – Provisionals, Officials, INLA, and ‘mavericks’, who had either never belonged to any of the three or had been expelled from them. But in all other respects the prisoners conformed to prison discipline and served out their sentences in a peaceful atmosphere. During the period of tension there were attempts on the Governor’s life, a number of explosions, escapes, and attempted escapes during which a garda and a prisoner lost their lives. Outside the jail there was continuous and increasingly angry agitation on the prisoners’ behalf. Inside the perimeter walls, the normal army presence was greatly increased, as was the number of warders. I once counted sixteen warders on duty on each landing of the prison. This was in addition to a heavy warder presence at every strategic door, gate or assembly place in the jail.