Wednesday 16^th November 2006.

Last weekend I was down in Oughterard with Doc and Dick which was very enjoyable.

On Monday Dick and I went to the village church at 11.00 am to hear a most interesting talk given by John Lonergan, the governor of Mountjoy Jail in Dublin.

His lecture was attended by the secondary pupils from the local schools aged 13 to 18 and by a few adults.

He began by saying he was from Bansha in County Tipperary Where Canon Hayes, the founder of Muintir na Tire was the priest. In 1947 Bansha was chosen as the first parish to be connected to the Rural Electrification in Ireland.

John Lonergan joined the prison service in 1967 and worked for a time in Limerick Prison before moving to Mountjoy

He stressed the sharing / caring need and that prison was not a black and white situation as many people are dumped into prison. Many are poor prisoners and some 96 % come from the lowest economic growth range.

At one time many prisoners were shipped off to Van Dymen’s Land and this transportation stopped in 1853.

There are 3,300 prisoners in Ireland including a number awaiting sentence. Some 100 of those are women and the average age of prisoners is 27 years. At 17 years one can be sent to prison. Life sentence lasts for life. So if you are given parole while serving a life sentence and break the law, you can be put back into prison for life.

The longest serving prisoner in Ireland has served 43 years.

Dublin has a population of one million and 75 % of Dublin prisoners come from six black spots which he named.

The punishment to be sent to prison includes

- A criminal record makes it difficult to travel afterwards.

- Difficult to get a job

- Being locked up 17 hours each day in a small room

- Dining on your own.

He has seen a change in heroin addiction from 6 % going up to 96 % in his time.

Alcohol and drugs contribute greatly why people go to prison.

He told a story about a Mayo farmer who was stopped driving his tractor without a tail-light on the trailer. He was summoned and brought to court. The Judge fined him £5 or two days in prison. The farmer opted for prison. He was taken under custody 160 miles to Dublin and put into Mountjoy. Next day he was released and the state had he give him free transport home again.

Another story about a girl who had seven honours in her final exams. She went on holiday and met a boy who introduced her to heroin and she became addicted.

Sad story about a 55 year old woman who was in Mountjoy on her birthday. The staff got a birthday cake for the woman and when she saw it she burst out crying. When asked why she was crying she said that she never had had a birthday cake before in her life.

John Lonergan finished by asking the students to devote one hour per week to helping somebody in the community.