John Paul and the freed prisoners
PLANS for an early release of prisoners for Pope John Paul’s Phoenix Park Mass in 1979 were scotched due to concerns over a possible wave of burglaries, State papers have revealed.
The documents were unearthed for RTÉ Radio 1’s Documentary On One: The Pope’s Prisoners, which airs today. It sheds light on the Papal Amnesty which gave 76 Irish inmates their freedom in September 1979.
The amnesty was originally mooted to allow devout prisoners see Pope John Paul II when he visited the Irish capital.
The Polish Pontiff went on to say Mass in front of 1.25million people in the Phoenix Park – the largest gathering of people in Ireland’s history. However, the scale of the crowd left large swathes of Dublin’s suburbs deserted.
Tom Quinlan, keeper at the National Archives, reveals how it was suggested by the then justice minister as a gesture from the Irish government to the Vatican.
But the State papers reveal that this was reined in when a senior civil servant expressed concern about public reaction.
‘What the [senior civil servant] says is, we have a serious level of crime, a very poor rate of detection and a serious problem of recidivism,’ said Mr Quinlan.
‘He said it would be risky to give the amnesty on the first day of the visit because of the threat to Dublin’s empty homes.’
There was also concern that most of the nation’s gardaí would be on duty at the various Masses during the Pope’s three-day visit in late September 1979.
Kevin Warner, who looked after education in the prisons at the time, tells the documentary: ‘People got the image of most of Dublin being in the Phoenix Park and these guys mightn’t necessarily go to the Phoenix Park.’
It was eventually decided to go ahead with the Papal amnesty – to be implemented only on the day the Pope flew out of Ireland.
Archivist Mr Quinlan said official State papers show the prisoners who were proposed for release were all serving sentences of two years or less.
The papers also reveal that gardaí on duty during Pope John Paul’s visit ended up so hungry during their long shift that they resorted to stealing apples form a private orchard.
Documentary On One: The Pope’s Prisoners, today, 1pm on RTÉ Radio 1 and again tomorrow at 7pm.