By: Doug Cumming

Doug Cumming — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 13:34:21 +0000

Kelly, Our tour of the actual prison this morning was as powerful an experience of fact-gathering as I can remember. I’m excited about how much more you’ll have now on this story, in the way of photos, audio (long interview in cell 12, B Block, with Aidan Mallon, property manager for the City of Armagh, recorded in cell-reverberation by Clare), amazing facts from 1780s through the Troubles and to today. . .
It’s almost too much for one story, even told through multi-media. I could see a scholar spending a year working on the meaning of that prison, its past and future. Or a poet, delving into the history and symbolism and meaning of it all.
As a news feature, putting it as much in the present as possible, I’d urge you to find locals who represent the three opposing views that Aidan told me came out of the Community Consultation Event of 2009: Some want it razed to the ground, some want it transformed into a luxury hotel and businesses, and some want it preserved for history, to memorialize the political prisoners who were held there. (And he mentioned a fourth group, who would like it to be a jail again, to punish terrorists some more. . .or maybe for the “ODPs,” Orindary Decent Prisoners.
Ideally, one of your main sources (representing these three or four viewpoints) would be a former prisoner there, and one a former warden.
It’s asking a lot. But this is just such a fantastic story!
Your Professor

Comments on: More to Come

By: Doug Cumming