It was a Sunday morning, our nephews were still with us and the weather was fairly bad. We needed an interesting place to visit that was going to keep us indoors and entertained.
Kilmainham Gaol, Inchicore Road, Dublin 8 fitted all the requirements, even the extra one of being great value at €14 for a family ticket.
We entered under the five chained snakes, booked our place on the tour and while we waited for it to start we wandered around the exhibition of the history of the prison.
Along with many historical documents there are also visual displays. One in particular allows you to peer through the spy-hole at an agitated prisoner as s/he paces and makes a sudden lunge at the door.
The tour started and about 30 of us tourists were guided along the narrow walkways of the prison. Going from floor to floor it didn’t take much imagination to realise that for most prisoners Kilmainham Gaol was a bleak place to end up.
If you had money and power you could have some luxuries. Charles Stewart Parnell was detained in the prison in 1881 for attacking the Land Act and encouraging a rent strike by tenant farmers. While there, his wealth, power and popularity with the public allowed him to have several rooms and some of his own furniture for comfort.
But Parnell was an exception. Most of those who found themselves to be guests of the gaol suffered in very poor conditions.
As we walked around, our tour guide listed the names of key people from Irish history who were unfortunate enough to be prisoners of Kilmainham: Robert Emmet, Anne Devlin, Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, Charles Stewart Parnell, Pádraig Pearse, James Connolly, Countess Markiewicz, Éamon de Valera – names that take you from the 1798 Rebellion, through the United Irishmen, The Fenians, The Land League and The Invincibles and on to the 1916 Rising.
The tour ends at Stonebreaker’s Yard, where many of those involved in the 1916 Rising were shot.
Kilmainham Gaol looms over Irish history. If you haven’t had a chance to explore it then I definitely recommend you pay a visit and take the tour.
If it’s a cold, wet, windy day then wear warm clothes as the gaol itself is cold, and the wind at Stonebreaker’s Yard would cut through you.
After the tour, although we were freezing, we all thought it was excellent. I’d definitely go again, but maybe on a warmer day.
Thankfully my wife had the great idea to head to the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre for well needed soup and hot drinks.
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