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The inquest into the 2022 death of Ned Connors in Mountjoy Prison revealed the continued threat of hooch in Irish prisons, prompting new measures to restrict potential alcohol sources on site.
The inquest into the death of 38‑year‑old Ned Connors, who died on 3 January 2022 in Mountjoy Prison, revealed that the consumption of hooch - an improvised alcoholic beverage made from fermented fruit, sugar and yeast - remains a persistent problem in Irish prisons.
Connors' death was attributed to acute alcohol intoxication, yet the specific source of the ethanol involved could not be identified. An initial investigation by prison staff on 5 January did not uncover any hooch in the cell wing where Connors was found unresponsive on the morning of his death.
Connors Inquest and Ethanol Findings
The Office of the Inspector of Prisons later published a report in May suggesting Connors might have ingested hand sanitiser, though footnotes within the report noted that the sanitiser supplied in Mountjoy and other correctional facilities contains no alcohol. In 2014, the use of alcohol‑based sanitiser was discontinued in Irish jails after three prisoners needed emergency treatment following a mixture of handwash and prescription drugs.
During the inquiry, the coroner's court heard that Connors' brother Michael, who was himself incarcerated in Mountjoy at the time, told staff that his brother had been "staggering" around the cell after consuming a clear liquid sometime before he passed. The postmortem, conducted by the Chief State Pathologist Prof Linda Mulligan, indicated significant levels of ethanol in Connors' blood and urine.
Mulligan also noted that the high‑grade ethanol concentrations found would have hypothetically required a method of production that would either involve hooch with a sophisticated energy‑driven process, or contraband substances not readily available in standard prison environments. Milo Mal on being questioned, mentioned that some Eastern European inmates have devised a way to produce a potent brew using electrical methods that obfuscates the strong alcohol smell and evades detection.
Prison Contraband and Misadventure Ruling
Experience with contraband in prisons continues to challenge the Irish Prison Service. Wayne Fox, a governor at Mountjoy, admitted that illicit goods can be slipped into the complex by means as unconventional as drones, underscoring the difficulty of maintaining a secure environment. The jury concluded the death as a case of misadventure, meaning an unintended consequence of a deliberate but risky act.
They urged the Irish Prison Service to compile a comprehensive inventory of all chemicals on site that might contain ethanol, replacing them with safer alternatives where possible, and to perform immediate cell searches after significant incidents. Connors' surviving sisters attended the hearing, and the coroner expressed profound sympathy while promising to forward the recommendations to prison authorities. The case highlights the ongoing challenge of controlling the availability of improvised alcohol and related substances within Ireland's correctional facilities.
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