Our Native Village

Wall of the Prison

My Native Village is called Prison. It is a very large village consisting of 27 houses and 125 people. Among this crowd of people there are about ten people who are over seventy years of age. Each of these people can speak a little Irish. There are about eight families of Reillys residing at Prizon, so Reilly is the most common name. There is a large lake in the midst of the village called Loughnaminna. There is also a fair sized bog where the villagers cut turf. It is very hard to get turf as the lake is near the bog and the lake is not drained and the bog is very wet. There are parts of the land hilly and a large amount of it boggy and swampy. In this village there are the ruins of an old jail where people were hanged in years gone by. The plaster on those walls was supposed to be mixed with human blood. All that remains now are the chimneys of the jail. It used to be called the hangman's home. It was supposed to be from this jail the village got its name Prison.

Prison really consists of two villages. Prison North and Prison South.
Collector: Rita Corcoran. 
Informant: Mrs Corcoran, age 32. Prison North, Co. Mayo.