1985 revisited: The night chaos erupted in Cork's ‘Alcatraz-type’ Spike Island prison

Last night, there was a ring of steel around the island prison with all 112 prisoners said to be again under prison control. Some 70 men, who had held out on the roof of the administration block throughout the day, voluntarily came down at 6.40pm last evening.

Last night, the prisoners were being housed in four separate rooms.

A government spokesman said that there are sufficient facilities to detain 50 men within the prison confines long-term and that the remainder will be transferred to other detention centres at the earliest possible time.

Army vehicles were shipped onto the island as dusk fell last evening, increasing speculation that some of the prisoners will be transferred at short notice to other prisons and possibly to the Curragh military camp.

The army had erected special lighting within the burned-out prison last night and were providing food for both security personnel and prisoners involved in getting sections of the prison into some acceptable shape.

The fires started by the prisoners had gutted large sections of the prison buildings, including offices where prison records and officers’ clothing were stored. Sources close to the prison said that detention records of many prisoners were lost.

There were some minor injuries to prison staff and inmates, but fortunately, none was serious.

Last night, the Prison Officers’ Association said that they had warned the Department of Justice on more than one occasion that such a situation could arise.

“We told them as late as last Wednesday that they did not even have the weekend. Decisions required to be made immediately, but this was not done,” said PJ McEvoy, the general secretary of the association. He painted a frightening picture of the island riot and said of prison officers.

“Grown men cried and got sick with fear. They were virtual hostages to a rampant group of prisoners.”

Mr McEvoy said that he did not believe that the prison officers — augmented by up to 10 off-duty men and four island-based gardaí — could have done any more.

He told of how the few young prison officers had tried to contain the riot in the early stages, but then added: “They had to run for their lives and seek shelter in the gate quarters.”

The prison officers’ leader said that he is convinced that the full-scale riot was “well-orchestrated”.

“Prisoners went to bed with their clothes on and there seemed to be a number of simultaneous happenings.”

The first indication of the trouble came around 11.30pm when there was a “bit of a commotion” in one of the dormitories — 5A. Furniture was moved around and the prisoners began dismantling beds and chairs and setting mattresses alight.

The officers did not even have an opportunity to go into the dormitories as the doors were forced open from inside. Other fires broke out almost immediately.

Prison officers attempted to contain them with fire hoses, but eventually “had to retreat and run for their lives”. At this stage, an alert went out to the Commodore Hotel in Cobh for off-duty officers to return to the prison.

It is also said that contact was made with the gardaí, both on the island and the mainland. It is not clear, however, whether there was a specific request at this early stage for security forces to travel out to the prison.

The telephone link was severed, and a prison officer attempted to make contact with the four-man garda patrol on the island in an effort to utilise their radio link.

However, by now the prisoners were scaling the outer walls in large numbers, having tied bedlinen together, and were making for the pier.

Eight families live on the island, the nearest just a matter of a few hundred yards from the arched entrance to the old fortress.

However, most of them were unaware of what was happening because there is no alarm system installed in the prison.

They, in fact, learned of the mass break-out from two neighbouring couples returning on the 1am ferry.

Despite pleas from prison officers for them to return to Cobh, they insisted in going to check on the safety of their children and friends. It was from these that the remaining residents learned of the troubles.