The chapel in Mountjoy Prison, which has been in existence for more than 150 years, has been closed by the prison to be used for other purposes due to overcrowding.
The closure of the Catholic chapel was done without any consultation with the prison chaplaincy and temporarily ends the saying of mass for any prisoners who wish to avail of it.
The chaplains’ union Forsa said its members are “deeply distressed, both by the haste with which this has occurred, and the complete lack of engagement or consultation between prison management and the chaplains”.
One of the chaplains was denied entry to the chapel on Tuesday because work is already being conducted to repurpose it into a video room for online visits or court appearances.
A spokesperson for the Irish Prison Service (IPS) said that work is due to commence on December 3 but sources in the prison say it is already closed for the construction works.
The spokesperson stated that the repurposing of the chapel was to meet a requirement for video link capacity in the prison but that the works are only being carried out to the rear of the building “where a partition wall will be erected to isolate the construction area”.
He said that the rest of the chapel will remain undisturbed during the works “with no impact on the altar or remaining space”.
The IPS intends the construction work will take eight weeks after which the chapel will again be available for masses, but a number of sources in the prison are highly sceptical that it will be possible to do so under the new conditions.
Currently an average of 25 prisoners attend mass fortnightly in an arrangement with the Dublin archdiocese. The chapel has a capacity for 96.
Penal policy advisor at the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice Keith Adams described the move as “regressive decision” that diminishes opportunities available to prisoners.
“That this decision was apparently made without consultation with the chaplaincy service, which is a key component of the services in the prison, is even more alarming,” he said.