Yesterday, after we finished school we went to a local prison called „Crumlin Road Gaol“ which is closed since 1996.Our tour started in front of our language school we walked for about 30-40 minutes through belfast before we reached the prison itself. Jane who is responsible for the social actitivies at our school organized this trip and also showed us the way to the prison.
After we arrived at the prison each of us bought a ticket (7£ each students price) and waited for our tour guide.
The tour started at the entrance where every prisoner arrives, afterwards we walked halfway trough the tunnel, that connects the prison with the old court house sadly we weren’t able to go in the old court house due to its bad conditions. We continued our journey at the main entrance that connects all 4 cell blocks, which were able to hold 500 prisoners, at peak there were 1400 prisoners in the prison. We moved on through cell block C where we could see all different kinds of cells starting at a normal cell that was designed for one prisoner(Child/Adult) (Yeah they also put childs in the prison, the youngest kid was about 7). In 1860 they introduced a new law preventing prisoners under 14 to serve their full sentence in a adult prison, but childs could still be sent to the prison for a short amout of time to ’scare them straight‘. Our second to last stop was the condemned cell where the condemned lived together with 2 guards 24/7. He also lived right next to the execution room but he was totally unaware of it since he was 24/7 in his cell. If you’re sentenced to death it happened by hanging. The procedure wasn’t longer than 3 minutes but the body remained there for 45-60 minutes before they pulled it down and put it into a coffin. The bodys (17 in total) were buried in a unmarked grave within the prison walls. Our last stop was the prison wall the place where they buried all the bodys you’re still able to see 2 stones engraved with the initials of two prisoners that were hanged.
