Page 2 - Kilkenny Jail 22 November 1921

Kilkenny Jail Kilkenny jail escape Kilkenny

Jail Photographer
On the night of 22 November 1921, under the courthouse on modern were approved by the Grand Jury in The jail continued in use into the early twentieth century. As the tunnel was at a depth of approximately twelve feet,
forty-three prisoners escaped from day Parliament Street, then known 1842, initially these were based on a By November 1921, the War of Independence had been it had to be shored up to prevent any possible collapse.
Kilkenny jail. This was not the first as Coalmarket. By 1801, the city design by a Cork architect Charles underway for almost two years although an end was in The men had access to candles which they used in the
In his testimony to the bureau of military history Edward
time that prisoners had escaped Grand Jury had decided to build a Frederick Anderson. However, it sight, with a ceasefire in operation since 11 July and tunnel so that they could see what they were doing old
Balfe records that he had the use of a camera inside
from the city or county jail, but it new jail, albeit away from the centre was not until the late 1840s that any Treaty negotiations starting in early October. In spite bed boards were used as props and the men worked in
the prison. Some of these photographs are now in
was certainly the most audacious of the city. William Robertson would work began on the new jail and a of these negotiations, there were still hundreds of IRA shifts over a period of weeks to gradually inch forward to
private collections with nine of them owned by the
of jail breaks and the largest. It is eventually be awarded the contract. new tender sought with new plans prisoners in jails all across Ireland and Kilkenny jail was no their escape point. The exit of the tunnel was excavated
Brennan family in Waterford who have gratefully given
also one that lives on to this day There are many of Robertson’s submitted. The winning design was exception to this. The average number of prisoners in the at a forty-five-degree angle to make egress easier and
permission for them to be used here. Balfe records that
in folklore, family history, and the buildings still extant in the city, by William Deane Butler and by 1852 jail was thirty and this number naturally varied over item about eighteen inches were left to prevent the entrance
‘the want of a dark room made the work of developing
written record. The escapees were with his best-known work being the the new jail was ‘rapidly approaching as sentences were completed and new prisoners were collapsing due to passing traffic until it was time to make Group of thirteen prisoners, identities unknown, photograph is
films very difficult’. A quite ingenious solution was
all political prisoners during the War remodelling of Kilkenny Castle circa completion’. The principal alterations admitted. Descriptions of life for the prisoners in the jail is their escape. On the evening, or night, of 22 November courtesy of the descendants of Thomas Brennan.
devised by the prisoners to overcome this difficulty.
of Independence and due to a slew 1826. In total it is thought that he to the jail involved the addition of scarce and somewhat contradictory. William McNamara 1921, the prisoners made their daring escape. When
A pane of window glass was cut with some scissors
of recent arrivals from Spike Island, worked on at least eighty buildings three new multi-storey wings, two was one of the few prisoners who commented on the living the time arrived, a warder was invited to a cell to play
under water, probably to magnify the glass slightly, and
came from all over Ireland. At the in the city. When completed in of which were over basement, conditions of the prisoners. He stated that, ‘Conditions in draughts, this was not uncommon, he was then gagged
thus make it easier to work on. This was then framed
time of the escape, the county jail 1807, his jail on Stephen Street was to Robertson’s original design. Kilkenny were very bad. The military guards there were and tied up and the stage was set for the prisoners to
with an old piece of a bedboard and this allowed for
was at the top of Gaol Road, on described as having ‘nine yards, These wings were to the front of a bad lot and gave us a tough time’. The commandant of break free. Priority was given to those serving the longest
the film to be developed, most likely with materials
Stephen Street, close to the modern forty-eight separate cells, six day- the building, with the two largest the prisoners was Martin Kealy paints a slightly different sentences and those who remained under a sentence
that the prisoners had to hand. Balfe further describes
fire station. While nothing remains of rooms and six work rooms with a projecting at slight angles with the picture. After several meetings with the governor of the of death. This included thirteen of the recent arrivals
a ‘souvenir’ given to the prisoner’s chaplain, Rev. P.
jail today, its history can be traced, marshalsea’. Forming a large square third being considerably smaller and prison the rules and regulations were modified to suit the from Spike Island. The precise number of prisoners that
Holland on his transfer to Ballyfoyle. This is a large
and the surviving plans show what in plan, it was by all accounts a radiating centrally from the old jail. It needs of the inmates who also had their own rules which escaped that night is recorded as twenty-seven or twenty-
sheet of white paper, roughly between A3 and A2 in
the jail looked like. The oral evidence large, secure, imposing edifice, and was from one of these wings that the were, ‘generally complied with’. Kealy’s evidence also eight in the testimonies of Kealy and Balfe, while those of
size, consisting of head and shoulders shots of twenty-
from the bureau of military history, in is shown as such on the unpublished escape occurred on 22 November shows how lax security in the jail had become. Items were Fraher and Brennan record forty-three or forty-four. The
eight prisoners with Fr Delahunty centred at the top. The
combination with the surviving maps five-foot town plan of 1842. From 1921. A radial design such as the regularly smuggled into the prison including ‘messages larger numbers are those often remembered today. The
artwork on the outside of this piece was done by Peter
and plans, also reveals a lot about 1808 onwards it was also referred one used in the Kilkenny jail was and articles’. This could be one way in which the three names of twenty-four prisoners are then recorded in the
Quinlan and Seán Quilter with the photographs taken Two prisoners, identities unknown, photograph is courtesy of
the escape and the approximate to as the county jail to differentiate it very common in nineteenth century autograph books known to survive made their way into Kilkenny Moderator on the Saturday following the escape,
by Edward Balfe. The original of this souvenir survives the descendants of Thomas Brennan.
location of the exit point of the tunnel from the city jail that remained close jail architecture. This new jail was the jail. The prisoners also had access to a camera and with the headlines ‘Stone walls do not a prison make’ and
in the archives of Rothe House and it is reproduced
can be established. to Coalmarket. closed in 1929 and stood until circa a number of photographs taken inside the prison have ‘Forty-four prisoners free’. Forty-three names are then
here. The artwork on the outside of the portrait is
1948 when it was demolished, and survived. Life inside the jail is also illustrated by the poems, listed in the Kilkenny People on 9 April 1955 in an article
reminiscent of designs from the Book of Kells and other
The first recorded escape from a By the early 1840s there was a the rubble used in the construction sketches, and limericks, recorded in the autograph books, on the passing of Fr Delahunty who is noted as being the
Early Irish manuscripts with its intricate knotwork and
Kilkenny jail occurred in 1770 when need for a new jail due in part to a of a stand at Nowlan Park. now part of the collections of the Kilkenny Archaeological first through the tunnel by Balfe. Fr Delahunty apparently
mythical animals. The photographs that have survived
a prisoner escaped from the county rising crime rate and an increasing Society. turned this opportunity down and insisted that those under
are a variety of shots of individual prisoners, or of
jail. At this time, the jail was located population. Plans for a new jail the most severe sentences were allowed through first.
pairs of men, with three group shots of eight to thirteen
This was the situation towards the end of the summer in The first men to escape were to take up watch outside the
individuals. The names of most of these men are not
1921. The number of prisoners was swelled greatly by an warder’s houses while the other escapees then dispersed
known. The prisoners all tend to strike a very relaxed
influx of about eighty to eighty-five prisoners from Spike through the city streets into the countryside and freedom.
pose. The photographs are not dated, but they have to
Island on 18 November 1921 with the precise number of The escape was well organised both inside and outside
pre-date the escape as both Thomas Brennan and Fr
additional prisoners that were transferred to Kilkenny on the jail with one source suggesting that a number of pony
Delahunty were amongst those who got out in the early
that date varying in the surviving oral testimonies. While and traps were waiting for the escapees. The organisation
evening of 22 November.
the number of additional prisoners varies in the written required to affect the escape is at odds with the suggestion
record what does not is that these oral histories all refer that more men would certainly have escaped that night Group of ten prisoners, Fr Delahunty is centred, Thomas
to the fact that plans were in place to escape the jail by had it not been for the fact that one of the men unwisely Brennan is in the back row second from the right, photograph
means of a tunnel. Escape plans had been in place since decided to try and bring his suitcase with him. The tunnel is courtesy of the descendants of Thomas Brennan.
August or September 1921 and a number of possibilities allegedly got blocked as a result, the guards were alerted
had been thought through by the prisoners. In the end, it shortly afterwards, and the escape of anyone else was
was decided that a tunnel was the best course of action. unfortunately thwarted. While this story survives in some of
Logically, the shortest distance possible was needed for the oral evidence, it is more likely that the passage of forty-
any tunnel to succeed and reduce the risk of collapse three men through a makeshift tunnel caused it to collapse
or detection. To do this, the prisoners needed access to prematurely, given the organisation and work required to
the unused solitary confinement cells. These cells were undertake the task, it seems unlikely that someone would
slightly below ground level and the distance from here to be allowed to enter the tunnel with a suitcase.
the outside was at least forty feet. This is also recorded
in some testimonies as forty to fifty yards. The old solitary The aftermath of the escape is well documented elsewhere,
confinement cells in the jail were in the basement level. but life inside the jail is less so. It is possible, however, to Edward Balfe, Kilkenny jail photographer.
Access to this part of the jail was cut off as there were get some insight into life in the jail due to the survival of
rows of barbed wire across the stairway leading down to photographs and the contents of several autograph books.
the cells. N
To gain access to the cell, the prisoners pried up the Prisoner, identity unknown, photograph is courtesy
floorboards of the cell immediately overhead, using a of the descendants of Thomas Brennan.
hacksaw they were given from a warder, and they dropped
down into the cell below. They only had rudimentary tools
to work with but managed to loosen the stone wall by using
a series of makeshift tools made from pokers and cutlery,
Plan of the jail from the Balfe comments that they used dinner knives, while they Pit
Fiftieth report of the also had access to a trowel that they had managed to
Inspectors-General on the state acquire from the prison stores. The next problem that
the prisoners were to face was disposal of the earth from
of the prisons of Ireland, 1871. their tunnel. They used blankets as bags tied to a rope to
Copyright © 2005 ProQuest pull the earth back to the cell and the same system was R.
information and learning used to return the bags to the men working in the tunnel. P.
company, all rights reserved. This spoil was then disposed of in adjacent cells as the 0m 50m Two prisoners, identities unknown, photograph is Group of eight prisoners, identities unknown, photograph is
wardens and prison guards never went down to this level. courtesy of the descendants of Thomas Brennan.
Map redrawn courtesy of Philip Kenny. courtesy of the descendants of Thomas Brennan.

KILKENNY JAIL 22 NOVEMBER 1921