Thinking Outside the Box: A History of Ireland’s Women's Prisons

This paper takes as its focus the experiences of women imprisoned in Ireland over the past two hundred years. This time-span of two hundred years encompasses the colonial women’s prisons, operated and managed by the British government, the internment camps and women’s prisons of the years of war and revolution, the prisons of the Irish Free State, those of the Irish Republic and those of Northern Ireland. The women’s prisons reflect the country’s histories of colonialism, war and revolution, independence, development, economic struggles and successes. All of these histories and more are evident in the experiences of prison provided for women. This paper documents the institutions of Ireland’s unique female carceral archipelago, the women imprisoned, their crimes and penal experiences. The paper considers the cultural consensus that developed in Ireland to explain and justify the provision of separate and distinct experiences of prison and penality for women. The paper provides a reimagining of Ireland’s female penal history, framing it as the capstone in the tragedy that was women’s experiences in Ireland of discipline, control and punishment.