A Prisoner from the Cork City Gaol tells her story

**A Prisoner from the Cork City Gaol tells her story.**
My name is Mary Collins. I am 17 years old. I live in Blarney. It is the year 1846. The potato crop has failed again, for the second year. One day while coming home from work I saw a shilling on the ground. I picked it up and I was arrested.I was brought in front of the judge and I was sentenced to 3 months hard labour because I picked it up and was going to keep it for myself and my family.The jude said I should not have put in my pocket.
	When I reached the prison I was brought around back, to the back gate. They took all my clothes and put powder over me to kill the fleas and the lice on my body. The matrons gave me a black suit to wear and a piece of rag to tie up my hair. I came to the West wing and they put me on a weighing scale. I weighed 5 stone. The guard told me what I would be fed.It was a horrible thing called "Gruel".
I went past some cells and this is what I saw. I saw a man in a cell on his own. Secondly I saw a girl lying down asleep with 3 or 4 people. Then I came to something that was a disgrace. It was a girl with a newborn baby in a room full of people. I reached my cell, there was one girl in it. The girl in my cell was Countess Markievicz. We had two beds to sleep on. The morning came and we got up. I heard one of the prisoners crying for mercy. The warder said " If you don’t move, that will be you screaming." I moved along quietly and didn’t make a sound. After breakfast I was told to come outside. Someone was being hung. I couldn’t bear to watch, but they made us all line up and watch.

After it was over I found two sandwiches on the ground. I picked them up and ate them. The next day I was late for breakfast. The warder brought me to the governor. "If it happens again you will be flogged," he said.
I was exhausted but later that day I had to exercise for 2 hours. I walked two paces behind the person in front of me. We walked around and around the courtyard in a circle. I could not keep up so I was whipped several times. The governor said, "One more wrong step and you’re a goner."

Two days before I was due to be released they weighed me. I was five and a half stone. I had put on some weight. The governor said that I had been too well fed so he told the warders that I was to starve for my last few days. I didn’t mind because I knew that I was getting out of this place soon.

Simone

**A Warder from the Cork City Gaol tells his story.**
It’s the year 1879.I’m a warder. My name is John O Callaghan. I work in the Old Women’s Gaol. It’s dirty, smelly, and disease-bound.I get up and give the prisoners their food. I give them Indian food called maize. It tastes awful. It’s all the maggots deserve.
	Today there is one young boy who is to be flogged. His name is William O Donavan. He robbed brass. It’s my turn to use the whip. He’s only seven but he still deserves it. He needs to be taught a lesson. I went in and gave him his whips. Whip after whip. I come to another inmate her name is Jill O Donovan. She gives me the brass she stole. In return I give her some of the food we are given ourselves. The conditions are terrible.
They get up early and start cleaning their cells. Then they go outside to exercise. They have to keep five paces apart. They then begin their ahrd days work. They get very little time to rest. The caulking is the worst work their knuckles bleed. Sometimes we have hangings. All the prisoners have to watch them die. After they string them up the plank breaks and they die a slow death.

Life isn’t easy for me either. I have to sleep on the same beds as the prisoners. I’m not allowed to talk to the other guards. I have to keep to myself, no one talks accept at night when we’re playing cards. We’re lucky with our fire though.This helps to keep us warm and we can cook things on the fire.
We sometimes help the prisoners by leaving doors open and by putting ladders up so that they can escape. We get well paid if we do. We could end up locked away for a long time if we are caught. Life as a warder is not what I expected. In this time of poverty at least I have food and a roof over my head.

Ross