Kilmainham Gaol

Adventure Tuesdays started up again this week! Thank God, because honestly.. it had been way too long since we had one! This week we decided to venture to the Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced Jail, just so ya know). After running into bus ticket enforcers (who unfortunately took our student bus passes away because apparently you need more proof that your'e a student aside from having a valid student ID.. I'm not bitter or anything) and a couple of run-ins into puddles, we finally made it to the gaol.

This gaol was very influential in Irish history as a reform jail which imprisoned many of the leaders of the Irish rebellions. The British army also executed some leaders, including James Connolly, after the 1916 Easter Rising. We saw the insides of many of the jail cells, including some pictured above, as well as some that weren't located in such a spacious area. This area was known as the "all seeing" area mostly because a guard working this particular area of the jail could do a quick sweep of the area and see anything happening at any given time without changing location.

almost looks like a ghost came into the picture..

This is a quick little picture I took through a small peep hole while walking by. It's what the jail cells looked like.. Yes, you see basically a square room made of stone with a small window letting light in. This is what any offender had to live in. About 5 prisoners were kept in one room; there was no segregation of the sexes. Many times, men, women and children were kept in the same rooms with a single candle that was to provide heat and light for two weeks, when they would reach another. During the Famine, even more people were put in one cell, due to the fact that even more people were imprisoned. 

Now, I realized that smiling in a jail cell where people suffered isn't exactly what I should be doing, but I got inspiration for this particular picture by my friend Kara who went to the jail where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned in South Africa. Fun fact: Charles Stewart Parnell, an Irish political leader who formed the Irish Parliamentary Party, is considered to be the Nelson Mandela of Ireland. Bet you didn't know that, did you? 

As you can see in most of these pictures of the jail cells, they all have windows letting ample amounts of light in. In some instances, you could even see the outside world. This was meant to be a form of torture for the prisoners - they were stuck inside, rotting in a jail cell, while the outside world was about living their lives. Additionally, there were peep holes in every door so that the guards could look into a room at any time they wanted. There was absolutely no privacy at all as a prisoner of this jail - you were constantly being watched. 

The most interesting (but yet difficult) part of the tour was going to the courtyard in which many of the Irish rebels were executed. Pictured above is the exact area in which James Connolly was short. Connolly was a Socialist leader who was the last to be executed as part of the 1916 Rising. His death, more importantly, in the manner in which he was killed, led to the biggest surge of progress in Irish independence. He fought during the Rising and was shot in the shin area, leading to his inability to walk. His wounds guaranteed his death in a matter of a couple of days, but yet, the British were adamant about executing him. He was rolled into the area through the doors on the right, placed in a chair (unlike his fellow rebels who were blindfolded with hands tied behind their backs standing in front of a haystack on the other end of the courtyard), and shot until dead. The cross is placed where he was executed. As I mentioned before, this caused unwanted attention from America, leading to the ultimate declaration of Ireland as a Free State, not yet Republic.

We also learned the meaning of the Irish flag.. something I probably should have known earlier but now I do know. The green represents the Gaelic tradition and the orange represents the followers of William of Orange in Ireland with the white representing peace, or trust, between them. 

Overall, it was a very interesting and informative adventure Tuesday. I had grand fun learning more about Irish history. It's truly a blessing to be learning about the history of a country while having the opportunity of studying there for a whole semester!