Family share ‘mental torture’ of hearing mother’s killer was given temporary release before it was revoked

The killer was then only aged 16 and had been a friend of Ronan, who was 14 at the time.

Costigan was given a life sentence in December 2004, and has repeatedly sought parole — most recently last year.

Ronan said he was “very annoyed” over the recent ordeal, in which:

• The parole board wrote to him in February 2023,  informing him that Costigan had been refused parole as it “would pose an undue risk to the community”, although it did recommend further periods of temporary release;
• The Irish Prison Service wrote to Mr Quinn in September 2023,  saying that Costigan had been refused parole, that there were “no further recommendations” for him from the parole board, and that he would be reviewed again by the board in two years;
• The Irish Prison Service then wrote to Ronan in June 2024, informing him that Costigan had been approved temporary release for two days a week — adding that this “may increase”;
• After Ronan challenged this, the Irish Prison Service wrote back to “sincerely apologise for the incorrect information” sent to him in September, and confirmed Costigan had been approved “daily temporary release” for educational reasons.

Mr Quinn went public in the media this week, including in the local Kilkenny People on Wednesday, to express the family’s anger at how they had been treated and their fears over the temporary release being granted to Costigan.

When the Irish Examiner contacted the Irish Prison Service on Thursday for comment, they declined — saying it was policy not to comment on individual cases.

Later that day, Ronan got another email from the Irish Prison Service saying: “I am following up with you in relation to the temporary release programme, which was approved for prisoner Mark Costigan.

“I wish to inform you Mr Costigan’s temporary release privilege has been withdrawn.

“Mr Costigan will no longer be attending the pre-release educational programme which was approved by the minister for justice. The decision to withdraw the temporary release privilege from Mr Costigan was made for operational reasons.” 

Mr Quinn said he was at a loss to figure out what was going on.

“We are again being kept in the dark why the decision was made to revoke these concessions to attend an education pre-release course, and we are very annoyed that, yet again, we have to go public to raise awareness to this and have to experience this mental torture unnecessarily.

“I suppose it’s now also thrown into question why they reverted on their original decision as the term ‘operational reasons’ is very broad statement to make.” 

He said the original mistake of not informing the family about the temporary release was like a “slap in the face”, and pointed out that families who have lost a loved one through homicide were the only ones that “serve a true life sentence”.