National Archives:A series of letters from the "official executioner to the British government" Thomas William Pierrepoint to the Irish High Sheriff are among those released by the Department of Justice. He describes an execution at Mountjoy but also complains of turning up for another only to find that the prisoner had been granted a reprieve.
Pierrepoint's letters began on November 20th, 1923, when he thanked the High Sheriff for an appointment at Mountjoy Prison, where William Downs, the 25-year-old killer of a police officer, was to be hanged on November 29th. On arriving in Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire) he wrote: "I will make my way straight to the Prison Sir, as it does not do to hang about and advertise yourself on these jobs."
In a later letter, he touts for business. "I shall be very pleased to meet with the Sheriff of Offaly, who is responsible for two further executions on the 12th December next, and to say I shall be very pleased to oblige if he should require my services without fail Sir, and if the Sheriff of Roscommon should require me at any time . . . I shall be very pleased to oblige and do my best."
After visiting Dublin he wrote of walking part of the way to the boat at Kingstown. "I kept hearing conversation about the execution at Mountjoy but I never let on. Even the sailors on board were looking out for the hangman and I was close beside them but I never let on. I expect they thought of seeing me with a lot of luggage but I never carry any with me only in my pocket only a pair of pliers, a two-foot rule and tape measure as I think it better than carrying a hand bag. I think it gives the game away.
"I believe in going nice and quiet about my business and not let everybody know who I am."
However, his letters also complained of arriving in Mountjoy during Christmas week of 1923, only to find that the prisoner had been reprived. He argued that if he arrived at the prison, "we get paid in full as if we had carried the execution out".
