A woman was hospitalised following a "hugely vicious" assault by "three male prisoners" in a Dublin jail.
The nurse officer was savagely beaten in Cloverhill Prison two weeks ago.
Details of the shocking attack were revealed by General Secretary of the Prison Officers Association, John Clinton, this afternoon.
Mr Clinton was calling for prison staff to be provided with body cameras to deter criminals from carrying out assaults.
Speaking to RTE's Today with Sean O'Rourke show, he said: "We had a hugely vicious assault on a nurse officer in Cloverhill prison only two weeks ago.
"Three male prisoners beat a woman in Cloverhill Prison and if she had had a body camera on her they would have had to think about that because there would be no doubt that when a jury saw that, what they would think of something like that."
The union chief was reluctant to divulge further details of the attack but confirmed that it was "very serious" and the woman had been hospitalised following the assault.
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The use of drones to smuggle contraband into Dublin prisons is also posing huge challenges for officers.
Mr Clinton said 50 packages were thrown or flown by drone into Wheatfield Prison in the space of just one week in March.
He added: "In recent weeks we had seven of these drones intercepted and one in Mountjoy actually had six mobile phones attached to it and a large package of drugs.
"I've been informed that when the drone was being flown in the prisoners set off an alarm so that somebody could try and fly it in through the vents."
Prison officers are powerless to stop the operators of the drones as they are flown in from outside the prisons.
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"It's being done in what I would say civilian territory," said Mr Clinton.
"We have no powers there so that's a matter that the gardai will have to get on top of, get the people that are flying these in and prosecute them because it's a huge difficulty."
The Irish Prison Service this evening told Dublin Live it was investigating an assault on a nurse.
It said: "The prison service can confirm that a nurse was assaulted by one prisoner two weeks ago. The prison service are investigating the incident."
