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CASTLEBAR PRISON & THE BRIDEWELLS OF CO. MAYO

Castlebar Prison opened its doors to prisoners in February 1835. Designed by Frederick Darley and built by Galway contractor Denis Clarke, the imposing grey limestone Gothic-style structure served as the Mayo County Prison for eighty-four years. The prison complex dominated the landscape in the townland of Knockaphunta until 1866, when a new lunatic asylum, designed by George Wilkinson, was erected beside it. Castlebar Prison was an architecturally pleasing addition to the streetscape but harboured fatal design flaws. For this and other reasons, the prison ceased to be a place of detention within the prison system in 1919. Between 1919 and 1924, it played a prominent role in the War of Independence and the Civil War as a military detention centre and barracks. After a decade of debate about its future, it was demolished between 1932 and 1935. The Free State Government did not approve a scheme to convert the former prison to a new central hospital, so Mayo County Council opted to demolish it and build a new hospital on the site. 

The history of Castlebar Prison reflects the history of Ireland during the period 1835 to 1932. It played a central role in the Famine, the Fenian Rising, the Land War and the 1916 Rebellion. Between these events, the prison was one of the economic engines at the heart of the Castlebar economy and an integral part of the county’s justice system. Using extensive archival material from repositories in Ireland, Britain, and the United States, this volume tells the story of Castlebar Prison, the associated Prison Bridewells at Ballina, Ballinrobe, Belmullet, Swinford, and Westport, and the people who worked in and were incarcerated in these institutions.

About the author

Dr. Michael O’Connor is a lawyer, independent researcher, and author. He holds first-class honours degrees in law from Trinity College Dublin and the University of Cambridge, and a Doctorate in Philosophy (law) from Trinity College Dublin. He was a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and the High Court of Ireland, and a senior partner in one of Ireland’s leading law firms. 

His research interests include legal history, public institutions, slavery, women and the laws of men, and the history and lives of ordinary people. Michael is currently researching Irish and Anglo-Irish slaveholders in the former British Colonies in the Caribbean, Cape Colony, and the Indian Ocean at Queen’s University Belfast. 

Other books from the same author: 

County Mayo, A History of Imprisonment, Capital Punishment & Transportation – Part I: Anatomy of a County Gaol

Criminal Conversation With My Wife – Women & The Laws of Men, County Mayo Case Studies

Caribbean Slave Owners & Other Lesser-Known Histories from County Mayo