At 8.22 p.m. on Monday, 17th March, a carefully prepared and elaborate attempt to effect a break out from Portlaoise Prison was made by a large group of prisoners there. The group were at the time in the prison recreation hall where a film was being shown. The sequence of events which ensued is as follows.
The lights went out suddenly and, at a word of command, the prisoners threw themselves to the floor. The doorway from the recreation hall to the yard was then blasted by means of an explosive charge and about 40/50 of the group rushed into the yard and towards a gate-way in the wire enclosure surrounding the yard, while the Prison Officers and the gardaí present were threatened by the remaining prisoners using chairs as weapons. The emergency lighting system in the prison had automatically taken over from the main supply, which, it was later discovered, had been cut off deliberately by the creation of a shortcircuit not far from the prison. The gate in the wire enclosure was also blasted.
At about the same time fire was being directed at the prison from outside and Army personnel returned fire. At approximately the same time a vehicle specially adapted so as to be, in effect, an armoured battering-ram for use against the prison perimeter was driven right through a closed gate leading from the main Dublin Road to the prison farm and then in the direction of the prison wall. A Garda car was immediately positioned at the farm gate to cut off the vehicle's retreat and gardaí from the area of the main gate of the prison moved towards the vehicle, which by then had come to a halt having been entangled with the protective wire fence which surrounds the prison wall. Two men are being charged in court today in connection with this particular incident.
The prison had been placed on general alert and the prisoners in the yard were by this time covered by armed soldiers, some of whom fired warning shots and thereby forced them back inside the wired compound. After staying in the compound for some short time they re-entered the recreation hall and the cell block. Later it was established that one prisoner, Thomas Smyth, had been killed from a wound received outside the recreation hall and that two other prisoners had received minor injuries while in the yard. It is not yet possible to say precisely how the injuries were received. The results of tests on pieces of metal found in the dead man's body have not been received.
At this point I want to make it quite clear that allegations or reports that official spokesmen have been asserting that the dead man was shot, or alternatively, have been asserting that he was not, are equally without foundation. From the facts as estab lished to date it does not appear that the dead man was killed by a direct hit by a bullet. The question whether he was killed by shrapnel from the explosion or from parts of a ricochetting bullet remains to be established by scientific tests of various pieces of metal. The results of the tests will be presented publicly at the inquest. The necessary tests were in progress yesterday and are being continued.
The amounts of explosives used to blast the two gates were very small. A tentative estimate is that not more than 4 ozs. were used and possibly less. A search of the prison and the prisoners which was carried out on Monday night did not uncover any explosives or any other escape material.
The foregoing is a summary of the main facts as known to me at this stage. I regret that a life was lost in the course of this incident. I am in no way qualifying that expression of regret if I immediately add that the responsibility for the death rests squarely and entirely on the shoulders of those who planned and those who helped in this attempt at escape in the full knowledge that the attempt could not but involve the most serious risk of death or injury to very many people — innocent civilians, prisoners, prison staff, gardaí and Army personnel. The responsibility of these people for the loss of life is equally clear and equally undiminished no matter whether the death was caused by one of the explosions or by a ricochetting bullet or even by a direct hit.
This was the latest in a series of attempts at escape by violence staged by prisoners belonging to this group over the last number of years. As I have said previously, Portlaoise Prison is not a "maximum security prison" or a "high security prison". Such descriptions are wholly erroneous. The simple fact is that we have in this State no such thing as a high security prison in the internationally - understood meaning of that term. Apart from the physical deficiencies from a security standpoint of Portlaoise — or any other of our prisons — the fact is that to maintain a regime in the prison that would be consonant with the notion of high security would involve the imposition of such restrictions on the movement of prisoners, on the admission of visitors and otherwise as would cause considerable hardship and difficulty in the prison and give rise to public concern. If further escape attempts are made, recourse to such measures may become inevitable but I am anxious to avoid them if at all possible. Tightening of the regime has, of course, taken place. Thus the Army and the Garda Síochána are now providing stronger support to the prison staff and recent experience made it necessary to erect a metal grille in the visiting rooms between prisoners and their visitors: the security consideration that led to the introduction of the grille could otherwise have been responded to adequately only by more severe measures.
Those working in Portlaoise prison have a difficult and dangerous task to perform but they should know that the Government and people are highly appreciative of the service they are rendering to their country and can be assured of continued support in the task of maintaining security in this institution.
