Clonmel Borstal

The Clonmel Institution is significant as it was the only borstal (youth detention centre) instituted in Ireland and was established on the site of the historic town jail. Accordingly, there is much local history connected to the site, going back to the aftermath of the Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland.

For example, after being denounced by three men who desired a share of the £5 bounty upon the heads of priests, Augustinian Friar William Tirry was arrested at Fethard while vested for Mass on Holy Saturday, 25 March, 1654. He was immediately taken to Clonmel Gaol and held there pending trial. On 26 April, he was tried by a jury and a panel of Commonwealth judges, including Colonel Solomon Richards, for violating the Proclamation of 6 January 1653, which defined it as high treason for priests to remain in Ireland. In his own defense, Fr. Tirry replied that while he viewed the Commonwealth as the lawful government, he had no choice but to disobey its laws, as the Pope had ordered him to remain in Ireland. Fr. Tirry was according found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging, which was carried out in Clonmel on 2 May 1654.^[1]

Friar William Tirry was beatified by Pope John Paul II along with 16 other Irish Catholic Martyrs on 27 September 1993.^[2] The Augustinian order celebrates his feast day on 12 May.^[3]

The famous Sean nos song Príosún Chluain Meala was composed in the Gaol by one O'Donnell, a member of the Whiteboys originally from Iveragh, County Kerry, who was held in Clonmel Gaol awaiting execution by hanging upon the following Friday. According to Donal O'Sullivan, O'Donnell had two companions awaiting the rope with him and that their heads were posthumously severed from their bodies and displayed spiked upon the prison gates. "The Gaol of Cluain Meala," a highly popular and often sung English translation of the lyrics, was made by County Cork poet, Jeremiah Joseph Callanan (1795–1829).^[4]

Clonmel Borstal was established following the recommendations of the 1895 Report of the Departmental Committee on Prisons, more generally known as the Gladstone Committee.^[5] In contrast to nearby St. Joseph's Industrial School, Ferryhouse, which had been initiated by Arthur Moore, a local Nationalist and Catholic M.P., the Borstal was promoted by the Unionist and Protestant M.P. Richard Bagwell. Bagwell, a commissioner for education, became the president of the Borstal Association of Ireland, which was founded at Clonmel Town Hall in May 1906.^[6] Among other duties, it sought to find employment for those who had completed their sentence.^[7]

The institution was modelled on an innovative approach to young-offender reform then being developed at a similar facility at the town of Borstal in England. On the transfer of the adult prisoners to other institutions, the Clonmel Borstal acquired all of the old prison grounds.

The Prevention of Crime Act 1908 envisaged that youths aged between 16 and 21 who were charged with serious offences could undergo a programme of discipline intended to rehabilitate them, segregated from the influence of adult prisoners. The Criminal Justice Administration Act 1914 extended the borstal programme to those charged with less serious offences.^[8]

A District Court could not impose a borstal sentence directly but could only recommend to a Circuit Court that a detainee might be considered for borstal. If the Circuit Court judge agreed, he could order the confinement of the youth at the borstal from 2 to 4 years. Unlike Industrial Schools, the borstal was under the authority of a governor and a staff of warders.^[9]

The average number at Clonmel at any given time was about 50. Only about half of these had been sent directly by a court. The others were transferred by order of the Minister for Justice from the ordinary prisons. The regime in Clonmel allowed a level of trust to develop between the staff and detainees. At the discretion of the Governor, the boys could be allowed out into the town to find work.^[9]