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The Saker Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Public InquiryInterested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
Human Rights in IrelandIndymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Lockdown Skeptics
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VIDEO: "The Last Jingle Jangle Of The Auld Triangle" (Mountjoy Closure & Super Prison Construction) dublin |
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feature
 Tuesday March 01, 2005 14:45 by kevin
 Short film about Mountjoy closure & building of new super prison in north Co. Dublin
In this short film, Joe Costello from the Labour Party (a regular commentator on prison issues and prisoners rights), Rick Lines from the Irish Penal Reform Trust, and Seanie Lambe from ICON (Inner City Organisations Network, a community organisation based in the Summerhill area) give their opinions on the closure of Mountjoy. Issues discussed include the implications of private companies' involvement in the construction of the new prison, what will probably happen with the existing site, and different initiatives that could be put forward to combat crime at its source, rather than continually incarcerating people & building bigger prisons. Click on the Feature Continued Link for Full Intro and Infromation on how to Download Video for you to download. File is over 175 MegaBytes in size, so realistically it is not viewable if you only have a dialup connection - broadband or network connection to the intenet is a pre-requisite.
In 1847 the British Authorities passed a law enabling the Commission of Public Works to purchase land for a new prison. Two thousand pounds was granted by the Treasury for the construction of Mountjoy. The original site for the prison was at North Wall Quays, so prisoners could be easily loaded onto convict ships in the harbour. The lack of a fresh water supply, coupled with the foul smell from the river which would make life unbearable for inmates, meant that the prison was moved elsewhere. Mountjoy Prison opened its doors in March 1850. It is located on the banks of the Royal Canal in Phibsborough, a northside inner suburb of Dublin. Since 1850, over half a million prisoners have passed through its doors, mostly from working class communities around the city. Now, after more than 150 years, the Minister for Justice has decided to close the prison. A new super-prison is to be built in rural north Co. Dublin, roughly 12 miles from the city centre. The new prison is to be built under a PPP scheme - a Public-Private Partnership. This means a private company will be given the contract to construct the prison in conjunction with the state. In the last ten years with the advent of the Celtic Tiger economy, property prices in Dublin have skyrocketed. Inner city working class areas, previously neglected, have experienced massive redevelopment, primarily consisting of expensive apartments and office spaces. In many cases, people on lower incomes or those that have grown up in these areas are pushed out of the market. Mountjoy is very close to Dublin city centre. The lands around the prison are worth a considerable amount of money. The sale of the prison to private investors could generate millions of Euro for the state. This is considered to be one of the reasons for the sale of the prison. Does the introduction of PPP schemes into prison building also signal the introduction of private prisons? Security companies like Wackenhut and Group4 operate prisons in the UK and USA. Private prisons are routinely condemned by human rights groups. But what are the alternatives to building a new superprison in north Co. Dublin? What other options are open to the Minister for Justice? In this short film, Joe Costello from the Labour Party (a regular commentator on prison issues and prisoners rights), Rick Lines from the Irish Penal Reform Trust, and Seanie Lambe from ICON (Inner City Organisations Network, a community organisation based in the Summerhill area) give their opinions on the closure of Mountjoy. Issues discussed include the implications of private companies' involvement in the construction of the new prison, what will probably happen with the existing site, and different initiatives that could be put forward to combat crime at its source, rather than continually incarcerating people & building bigger prisons. The film is just under 18 minutes long and is in the MPEG film format (MPEG1). You can download the film by right-clicking or Ctrl-Clicking here and saving the target onto your computer. It will play with most if not all operating system media players. The MPEG1 film is a PAL VCD-Compliant file, so you can burn it onto a VCD and distribute it cheaply. If you are interested in a DVD or VHS copy of the film for screening then please contact Indymedia Éire.
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Does the introduction of PPP schemes into prison building also signal the introduction of private prisons? Security companies like Wackenhut and Group4 operate prisons in the UK and USA. Private prisons are routinely condemned by human rights groups. But what are the alternatives to building a new superprison in north Co. Dublin? What other options are open to the Minister for Justice?
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Comments (11 of 11)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11I think it would be a good idea to create an mp3 of the audio track and a much more compressed video version if kevin or anyone else has the time or technology.
Make it more accessible to more people.
unedited MP3's from the 3 speakers, plus lo-res DivX .avi and/or .mov quicktime video will be made available hopefully by the end of the week.
Great work. Impressive video, thanks.
yup - good film
Would have liked to hear the views of those visiting their family members and friends in the joy.
Another related subject for a film might be the numbers of prisoners who have got are getting hep c and hiv in there through lack of clean needles and generally unsanitary crowded conditions
I noticed a photo of one of the cells in a newspaper at the weekend with a collaged to merry hell wall.
wouldn't it be interesting to send in a bunch of disposable cameras / postcards and put the pics and texts online if and when they made it back out
it is too 'invisible' in there
This is a very good short film, glad to see different stuff on Indymedia Ireland that isnt so related to the standard Indymedia "anti-globalisation" type news.
I would agree with the above posters though, even with broadband it takes a while to download, a smaller file would make it more accessable. Getting prisoners' and prisoners families' views would have been good too.
However these are only small gripes. Well done to Indymedia and to Kevin, you are a consistent excellent contributor of material to the site.
This short documentary is informative, probing and interesting. More of the same from Indymedia please! However, it should be made available for 56K dial-up users too. Well done.
(Right Click - Save Target As)
http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/the_last_jingle_jangle_of_the_auld_triangle.mp3
File Size: 8MB
Track Length: 17:56
someone has put up bittorrent versions of the films on video.indymedia.org
Low Quality Real Media On Line.
Watch without waiting here:
http://w3.buz.org:8080/ramgen/imc-media/JingleJangle.rm
There's a higher quality RealMedia File here:
http://w3.buz.org:8080/ramgen/imc-media/JingleJangle_surestream.rm
It will adapt to your bandwidth so you should be able to watch it on any connection. The faster your connection, the better quality you will see.
There is also a DivX/Ogg version for download here:
http://w3.buz.org/media/[Indymedia]_(2005-02-28)_Mountjoy_DivX+Ogg.ogm
This file is 49M.
While some may denounce the building of prisons by the private sector, the truth is that they are very expensive to build, and taxpayers hate their money being spent on prisoners.
The fact is that prisoners in Mountjoy have no sanitation facilities in their cells, and have to urinate and defecate in a bucket in the corner of their cells; the new prison will stop this horrible practice. The new site will allow more emphasis to be placed on resettlement, ie workshops teaching trades, education classes; Mountjoy is simply too old fashioned to suit the needs of the prison population of the 21st century.