Waterford Jail disaster
The Waterford Jail Disaster occurred on Thursday night / Friday morning, 3/4 March 1943 when the wall of the old city jail at Ballybricken in Waterford, Ireland, collapsed onto nearby houses, killing nine people and injuring seventeen, one of whom died subsequently.[1]
The old Waterford jail had been built in 1727 alongside the military barracks in the city. The building was rebuilt in 1861 and continued to be used as a prison until 1939 at the beginning of the Emergency as World War II was officially known in neutral Ireland. The following year the building was taken over by the Irish army and used as a meeting place and storage depot for the Local Defence Forces, a wartime reserve force.
On the night of the wall collapse there had been heavy rain, and at approximately 12:45 am on the morning of 4 March the high wall gave way and collapsed onto the adjacent houses of King's Terrace and part of Barker Street. It is believed that additional pressure had been placed on the old jail wall by rain-sodden turf which was being stored in the premises by the army for heating purposes due to the shortage of imported coal.
Crowds assisted local emergency services in removing the heavy rubble, but there was nothing they could do, and nine bodies were pulled from the jail ruins, including a number of children, the youngest being two years old. Seventeen people were injured, one of whom subsequently died in hospital.
The subsequent funerals were among the largest ever seen in Waterford City.
References
- ↑ "Victims of 1943 Jail Wall disaster are remembered | Munster Express Online". Munster-express.ie. 2006-03-10. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
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