Mountjoy Prison

So as I say, he challenges the narrative that that the downfall was all Sean Quinn's fault.

He also reveals his Mountjoy prison routine.

He talks openly about his time behind bars.

He says, we used to play cards three, four or five nights a week.

The aftermath of the Lying Eyes trial left permanent, irreparable scars across County Clare.

Sharon Collins served less than four years of her sentence at the DOCA Centre, the women's facility at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, before her release in early 2012.

Following her release, she withdrew entirely from public life, leaving Ennis permanently to escape the intense national media glare that had defined her name for over half a decade.

The most recent reports claim that she resides in Belfast and currently works as a masseuse Essamide completed his Irish custodial sentence before being extradited directly to the United States to face federal law enforcement charges connected to similar advance fee hitman extortion schemes operated across North America.

But to describe him as only being the creator of that, I think, does him nowhere near the justice of the kind of writer he is.

The first book I came across at Paws was actually a book about Mountjoy Prison, believe it or not.

An excellent book, I have to say.

He's written biographies of Steve Collins.

And in those cases, there has to be sanction on those parents and there has to be penalties.

John Lonergan is a former governor of Mountjoy Prison.

John is with us here on Lunchtime Live this afternoon.

Should parents be held responsible for their children if they're regarded as prolific offenders, John?

Where are the youth clubs, the adults involved, needed to assist these children and teenagers? Point been made by one texter today.

Email if you want to share your own story with us, lunchtimelive at newstalk.com. We're going to come back to this a little bit later in the programme today.

For the moment though, John Lonergan, former governor of Mountjoy Prison, Robert Cullen there, criminologist, Susan Rogers, research and policy analyst with Social Justice Ireland and Dean, thanks a million for sharing your own experience with us.

Lunchtime Live

... leading members of Provisional Sinn Féin were arrested in the Republic yesterday for failing to pay fines imposed for taking part in an illegal march through Dublin and rally at the GPO on O'Connell Street on Easter Sunday.

But unexpectedly, instead of being bailed within a few hours, we were taken straight to Mountjoy Jail.

S- and this is obviously even before legislation-

Yeah

Which goes about as well as you expect.

He is arrested, briefly put in Mountjoy Prison, and then deported back to France as an undesirable alien.

And the boat ride back is horrifying.

It is.

All the desire is quite gone.

There are on occasion brilliant tours of Mountjoy Prison.

That's many years since I got in and went on one.

retired prison officer Sean Rannells, just the kind of person who should be running a museum like that.

They heard chatter amongst the people about this forthcoming execution.

Here's a contemporary newspaper report about the hanging.

Patrick McDermott, a young Irish farmer who murdered his brother, was executed at Mountjoy Prison on Thursday.

An English executioner was specially called in to carry out the sentence.

I couldn't tell you.

No, w- because Mountjoy Prison, I think is, from what I remember is, uh, I think at this stage, and the way, the last time I spoke about it was about four or five years ago, it was 110,000.

It's probably, I mean-

I, I would-

Uh, so if there's something left at the bottom of the recycling bin after they empty it, I scrape that up and I put it in the general waste bin for next week, and I feel no guilt about that whatsoever, I can tell you.

I've probably made an admission now that could be, that could be cause me to be, uh, to be slammed into the Mountjoy Jail or the Portlaoise Jail or wherever they put you when you're arrested.

Where do they put you when you're convicted of something in this part of the country? I don't know.

There is a prison in the next county, and there's a prison up in Dubli- I don't know where our local is.

The trial judge pronounced that sentence.

Sean Mahangi was sent to the condemned cell at Mountjoy Prison, joining a small number of men who had been sentenced to die for capital offences.

But the legal story did not end there.

Mohange's defense team filed an appeal with the court of criminal appeal, challenging aspects of how the jury had been directed and how certain evidence had been admitted and used during the trial.

But it gets worse.

In practice, with remission for good behaviour, sentences in Ireland at that time were often served at a reduced term.

Mohange spent roughly four years in Mountjoy Prison on the manslaughter sentence.

In 1968 he was released and immediately faced a further state decision – deportation.