Introduction: The Significance of the Prison in Irish Nationalist Culture

• Author: Liam Leonard
• Published date: 01 March 2011
• Date: 01 March 2011
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0032885510389532
• Subject Matter: Articles

The Prison Journal

91(1) 3 –6

© 2011 SAGE Publications

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DOI: 10.1177/0032885510389532

http://tpj.sagepub.com

389532TPJ91110.1177/0032885

510389532LeonardThe Prison Journal

© 2011 SAGE Publications

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1Institute of Technology, Sligo, Ireland

Corresponding Author:

Liam Leonard, Department of Humanities, Institute of Technology, Ash Lane, Sligo, Republic

of Ireland

Email: liam_leonard@yahoo.com

Introduction: The

Significance of the

Prison in Irish Nationalist

Culture

Liam Leonard, PhD1

The issue of imprisonment in Ireland has traditionally been problematic for

a number of reasons, including Ireland’s colonial past and the struggle for

Independence from British rule in both jurisdictions. This led, in turn, to the

use (and abuse) of imprisonment by forces opposed to the independence

project. Thus, a sentimental residue of tacit opposition to the prison system

has remained a salient characteristic of contemporary Irish life. Essentially,

the prevailing system of justice (and the prison system in particular) became

a symbol of injustice and oppression throughout the history of British rule

for Irish nationalists in either jurisdiction.

Consider this list of events from Irish nationalism’s catalogue of injustices

that have become part of the fabric of pan-Irish nationalist (and rogue) cul-

ture in Ireland, Britain, the United States, and Australia: the imprisonment

and execution of leaders such as Robert Emmet in Kilmainham Gaol in 1798,

the deportations of Irish nationalist activists (alongside regular convicts) to

Australian prisons throughout the 1800s, the imprisonment of 19th-century

nationalist leaders such as John Mitchel, Michael Davitt, and Charles Stewart

Parnell (see Behan, this issue), the legend of Ned Kelly in Australia, the trial

and imprisonment of Irish writer Oscar Wilde, the “Molly Maguires” trials in

the United States, the imprisonment and execution of the leaders of the 1916

Easter Rising in Kilmainham Gaol, the imprisonment of republican prisoners

in Frongoch military prison in Wales and the escape of nationalist leader

Special Issue on Prisons in Ireland