Kilmainham Gaol

Kilmainham Jail was built in 1796 and served as one of two transportation jails in Ireland, sending about 4000 people to Australia, a British penal colony. In 1858, the jail ceased to be a transformation jail and became a regular jail. The jail had 3 guiding principles: silence, solitude, and supervision.  Many jails constructed later were modeled after Kilmainham. It was one of the forerunners in jail reformation. Instead of multiple prisoners being held in one room, each prisoner had his or her own cell, reducing the amount of violence and rowdiness among prisoners. The newest part of the jail, the Panopticon, was modeled after a Victorian prison and was added in 1861. This new section contained a spiral staircase, great acoustics and the ability to see every cell door. The acoustics are so good that guards could hear prisoners whisper. Bridget says that everyone has the right to whisper and not be heard. This new wing had a large skylight to provide light from the heavens to help orient the prisoners’ spiritual life. Even the old wings had large windows put in. The jail was originally built on a hill with for the purpose of ventilation. However, it is built of limestone, which absorbs water. For the first two weeks the ground floor of the prison was unusable because of the dampness. The earliest prisoners had a bucket for a toilet and a plank bed and would spend 23 hours a day in their cell.  A single candle had to last 2 whole weeks. Eventually, in the newer wing, the prisoners were spending 22 hours a week in their cells and were given 3 meals a day. They also had a wheel that they could spin for hours and hours if they got bored.  In 1848, gas lights were installed.

The jail saw seven rebellions. The one we learned the most about was the Easter Rising of 1916. All of its leaders were jailed at Kilmainham, 14 of whom were executed in Stonebreaker’s Yard.  The leaders were put in the same corridor, Constance Markovitz being the only woman put with the men. The leaders included Pearse, Connolly, Plunkett, Eamon De Valera and others. Emma was really excited to see Constance’s jail cell and her belongings in the museum because she had been researching so much about her.  Eamon De Valera was the last prisoner in Kilmainham Jail during the Civil War.  The jail closed in 1924 and by 1960 it was in ruins. The volunteer renovation is what is seen today.

Outside the jail was a group of statues that represented the 14 leaders of the 1916 rebellion that were shot. They were blindfolded and had bullet holes in them where they were shot. We thought that they were very sad and very moving at the same time. This jail is very historically significant because it has played such a huge role in both the rebellions and the Great Famine. During the famine, the jail became crowded with starving people who would rather be jail and be guaranteed a meal than be out in the streets. Today, the jail serves as a reminder of Irish history and Irish freedom. The executions that took place here sparked the revolution that gave us the Irish free State which then became Ireland as it is today.

Many of us were very moved by the story of Grace and Joseph Plunkett, who were married at the jail and enjoyed just a 3-hour marriage before Joseph Plunkett was taken out and executed for his role in the Rising.

After Kilmainham, we visited Arbor Hill Cemetery, the burial place of the 14 executed leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising. Sadly, none of the families of the leaders received the bodies after the executions. The corpses were taken to Arbor Hill and put in a mass grave filled with quicklime, which burned the remains. Ethan said that seeing the Proclamation written on the wall behind the grave was powerful because he saw it as sealed in death-the Proclamation would not have meant nearly as much if the leaders had not been martyred. The leaders’ deaths gave the people something to fight for.