Opened each listening cell,
Each from his separate Hell.
Oscar Wilde, The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
Prisoner number 74326 will have plenty of time over the Christmas and beyond in his listening cell in Portlaoise Gaol to rue the mistakes he made in the USA in 2015 and 2016. He was to all intents and purposes clean away after committing one of the most shocking crimes in the history of the state.
The prisoner’s fondness for drink however, and its ability to ‘loosen the tongue’ led to his arrest, extradition, conviction and a life sentence in circumstances that Oscar Wilde described as his separate Hell more than a century ago.