 The Men's Wing of the Gaol, now the Oriel Centre. | |
| Location | Carrickmacross Rd Dundalk, |
|---|---|
| Opened | 1854 |
| Closed | 1931 |
| County | Louth |
| Country | Ireland |
Dundalk Gaol is a former gaol (prison) in Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. The men's wing is now "The Oriel Centre", the women's wing is the Louth County Archive and the Governor's House now a Garda station. [1]
Built in 1853 to help with the overcrowding of the gaol already in place at Crowe Street - which site is now occupied by Dundalk Town Hall, it was designed by John Neville and cost £23,000 to be constructed. The gaol was opened on 19 January 1854. For approximately 60 years, the gaol functioned largely as an unremarkable county gaol, averaging 25 prisoners at any one time, with few sentences of more than 2 years. During the 1870s, it became the practice to send major offenders to a convict prison in Dublin, and a number of county gaols were closed. This caused an overcrowding problem and a Royal Commission Report of 1877 recommended more prisons and even portable iron jails. Also, Australia was refusing to accept any more Irish convicts. This led to the extension of prisons in Dublin and Spike Island, Cork.
By 1915 the gaol was not in use but was revived in 1918 to house IRA prisoners, including Stack, Treacy, Lynch, etc., who embarked on short lived hunger strikes, were released and returned to their campaigns, without a great deal of attention. In 1922-1923 the gaol was swapped by the two Civil War parties back and forth and which led to some disturbances in Dundalk, reflected by some newspaper coverage, however, the major action took place in Dublin and Munster and the north east was relatively free from serious attrition, particularly as Aiken took only a minor role in the conflict.
The gaol closed again in 1925, and was formally closed by Ministerial Order in 1931, and subsequently occupied by the Garda Síochana. The Gardaí Síochána originally moved into the Governor's House in 1945, setting it up as a new police station, while Louth County Council used the existing yard as machinery and vehicle area and the cell buildings for storing office equipment, in 1991 the basement of the northern cellblock (male wing) was refurbished to serve as a National Emergency Centre for use by Louth Civil Defence.
On 27 July 1922 , the Fourth Northern Division of the Irish Republican Army placed an explosive device on the wall of gaol along the Ardee
Kilmainham Gaol is a former prison in Kilmainham, Dublin, Ireland. It is now a museum run by the Office of Public Works, an agency of the Government of Ireland. Many Irish revolutionaries, including the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising, were imprisoned and executed in the prison by the orders of the UK Government.
Dundalk is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the east coast of Ireland. It is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to the border with Northern Ireland. It is surrounded by several townlands and villages that form the wider Dundalk Municipal District. It is the seventh largest urban area in Ireland, with a population of 43,112 as of the 2022 census.
Francis Thomas Aiken was an Irish revolutionary and politician. He was chief of staff of the Anti-Treaty IRA at the end of the Irish Civil War. Aiken later served as Tánaiste from 1965 to 1969 and Minister for External Affairs from 1951 to 1954 and 1957 to 1969. Previously he had held the posts of Minister for Finance from 1945 to 1948, Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures 1939 to 1945, Minister for Defence from 1932 to 1939, and was also Minister for Lands and Fisheries from June–November 1936.
Events from the year 1923 in Ireland.
Events from the year 1922 in Ireland.
Fionán Lynch was an Irish revolutionary, barrister, politician and judge of the Circuit Court from 1944 to 1959, Leas-Cheann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann from 1938 to 1939, Minister for Lands and Fisheries from 1928 to 1932, Minister for Fisheries from 1922 to 1928, Minister without portfolio from August 1922 to December 1922 and Minister for Education from April 1922 to August 1922. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1918 to 1944.
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The executions during the Irish Civil War took place during the guerrilla phase of the Irish Civil War. This phase of the war was bitter, and both sides, the government forces of the Irish Free State and the anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army (IRA) insurgents, used executions and terror in what developed into a cycle of atrocities. From November 1922, the Free State government embarked on a policy of executing Republican prisoners in order to bring the war to an end. Many of those killed had previously been allies, and in some cases close friends, of those who ordered their deaths in the civil war. In addition, government troops summarily executed prisoners in the field on several occasions. The executions of prisoners left a lasting legacy of bitterness in Irish politics.
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This is a timeline of the Irish Civil War, which took place between June 1922 and May 1923. It followed the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921), and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Pádraig Ó Cuin was an Irish Republican Army Quartermaster General in the Fourth Northern Division in the Irish War of Independence. He succeeded Aiken as commander of that division in the Civil War, where he took the anti-treaty side.
William P. Quinn was born in Inniskeen, County Monaghan, Ireland. He was the son of Thomas J. Quinn, the principal of the National School. He joined the Garda Síochána in December 1922 and was the first recruit to rise through the ranks to the office of Commissioner.
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The Flagstaff Hill incident was an international incident between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. It took place on the night of 5/6 May 1976 near Cornamucklagh, a townland just inside the Cooley Peninsula in the north of County Louth in the Republic of Ireland, when the Irish Army and Garda Síochána arrested eight British Special Air Service soldiers who had illegally crossed the Irish border.
Aiken Barracks is an army barracks located in Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. The barracks was originally known as Dundalk Barracks and was renamed after Frank Aiken, a commander of the Irish Republican Army and an Irish politician. It is the current Headquarters of the 27 Infantry Battalion of the Irish Army.
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