This tunnel was used to transport inmates from the Crumlin road jail in Belfast - Northern Ireland under the road and directly into the courthouse on the opposite side of the street for an immediate trial.
Crumlin road courthouse was built without a heating system so heat was piped from the jail through the tunnel directly into the courthouse. The tunnel would experience excessive condensation because of the extreme heat dissipating from the pipes.
15 of the prisoners who were executed in the jail were sentenced to death AND to be buried on prison grounds in an unmarked grave. In 1961 the last execution took place in the prison, on 20th December Robert McGladdery was found guilty of the murder of Pearl Gamble near Newry in Co Down.
The Jail was opened in 1846 and was closed on 31 March 1996. At the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland in the 1970s' the Jail was housing three times the amount of inmates it was designed for. It was not uncommon to have three or four prisoners to a cell designed for one inmate.
The Jail now serves as a popular tourist attraction in Belfast where you can learn a little bit more about the history of our wee country!
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