When a transportation sentence was handed down, the convict was usually returned to the local or county gaol until preparations were made for transmitting him or her to the port. Transportees from the southern counties were housed in the city gaol at Cork. Built over the old gate to the northern part of the city, it was in decay and constantly overcrowded.
From 1817 a holding prison, known as a depot, was provided in Cork to house the large numbers of convicts accumulating there [see footnote 5].
Footnote 5
The removal of the male convicts to hulks in 1822 meant that conditions at the Cork depot improved considerably. During her tour of inspection of Irish prisons in 1826, the prison reformer, Elizabeth Fry, pronounced it to be defective as to its conformation, but '...cleanly, comfortable and well superintended'. She was not convinced, however, of the need for such depots, and seemed more in favour of the English method of bringing the convicts straight from the county and city gaols to the transport ships for embarkation. (See Elizabeth Fry and Joseph John Gurney, Report addressed to the Marquess Wellesley, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, respecting their late visit to that country, London, 1827, pp 21-22).
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