Kilmainham Gaol

January 18, 2010 9:08 pm

Today was a beautiful day, with a whopping 50 degree temperature it felt like summertime! We headed out to class this morning and were sweating even due to the beautiful day..it was awesome! We got to class and it was culture class the one that is not interesting at all. It was the first time Meghan D. had been there and she just kept shaking her head at the teacher. He let us out 20 minutes early today though so that was a plus! We had a field trip to the Kilmainham Gaol at 3:00 and it was noon so we decided that since it was such a beautiful day my roomies and I were going to pack a lunch and take it to the War Memorial Gardens which is near Kilmainham to enjoy the weather. That plan was a crash and burn. We took a wrong turn and ended up in Kilmainham totally passing the Memorial Gardens. After the half hour walk to Kilmainham we were starving, so we sat on some steps in front of the Kilmainham Courthouse and ate our lunches. My PB & J was mighty delicious by that point.
Due to us getting lost we were very early to Kilmainham. Meghan M. wanted to go check out a pub near it called the Patriot Inn. Meghan D. led the way and when she entered she stopped. The rest of us were confused until we turned the corner and saw that the pub was filled in its entirety with 80 year old men. The second we entered all eyes turned on us and just stared. One particularly old man looked at us and in a gruff voice shouted, "Wheres ya from?" We answered him with the United States and he asked again so we each said each state which is what we thought he meant until he asked about ten more times. The bartender just told us not to mind him, so after looking at each other and laughing awkwardly we made our way to the far corner away from the old men. We looked at the wall and saw a painting of a two year old child carrying around a rifle. That is when we realized we may have accidently stumbled upon a terrible terrible ordeal. I brought up our trip to Northern Ireland and was immediately hushed...we were pretty sure the old men would try and kill us if they found out we were going there.
We made it out safely thank goodness and after taking a picture in front of the pub we made our way to the Gaol. It was amazing! It is a 200 year old jail. The \biggest not being used jail in Europe. Due to that fact it has been used in several movies and music videos of Irish artists. To begin the tour we were brought into the chapel, into the area and on the very benches where the imprisoned men used to sit for mass. It was kind of creepy to think that men who are long dead had sat in the very spot that I was just sitting in. While sitting there our guide told us of Mr. Joseph Plunkett and his wife. Mr. Plunkett was one of the main rebels in the 1916 Irish Uprising which helped get Ireland it's freedom. He was imprisoned but wanted to marry his girlfriend of two years. They let him in the very chapel that I was sitting in, on the day he was to be executed. After they were married the men who were to be shot were given 10 minutes with any loved one. Plunkett chose his wife and they had ten minutes together which was constantly interrupted by the guard every minute to tell them how much more time they had together. As Mrs. Plunkett was walking out the door she heard the shots that took her husband's life. It was a tragic story that set the mood for the rest of the tour. We entered into the basement after leaving the chapel, having to duck due to the doorways being so small. I even had to duck and I am 5'6! Those poor people who lived there. In the basement it was FREEZING, yet the sad thing is was that there were window covers now. When people were actually imprisoned there there was not glass, only bars in the windows. It had to have been awful. The jail was made to hold 200 people but in one year, during the potatoe famine it housesd 9,000 individuals. That means no sitting at all in the cell. People were imprisoned left and right for stealing food. Children even as young as 5 were imprisoned and beaten. Each prisoner was given a candle every two weeks for heat and light. If you did not use your candle wisely you were stuck in the dark and cold. No matter how awful it was in the jail though, it was better than starving on the streets. From the basement he took us through the hallway, into the second level of the jail. On the second level was where the majority of the 1916 uprising leaders were held before being executed. It was absolutely fascinating and horrible to see the names of the men who are so important to Ireland's history above cell stalls. To be walking in the very place that so many important people before me had was an experience I will never forget.
From the second level we were brought to the newer part of the jail in which the prisoners could be for the 2 hours they were not being held to clean their dishpan or to exercise. Women who were forced to do hard labor had to cook all the meals and send them up to the prisoners at meal times. Men who were forced to do hard labor had to break rocks into gravel for the roads. We got to look inside some of the cells. Mrs. Plunkett had a cell there. She was imprisoned a few years after her husband died due to being against the Irish treaty. I could go into so much detail on Ireland's history but ill let you do that yourself if you are interested...I do not want to bore anyone! In her room she had painted while imprisoned a mural of the Lord Jesus and Mary. Another cell had a huge twig ball in it. I asked the guide what it was and he said it was supposed to be modern art. In 1995 they had a art exhibit that prisoners from anywhere put together. That one was a ball of all the sticks that the prisoner had found at Kilmainham...I guess anything can be considered art these days! '
After looking around the cells for awhile we were taken to the outside part of Kilmainham. That is where men were shot. The important people of the 1916 uprising were shot in that very place in which I stood. There are two shots of crosses, one of them is where O'Connell died. He had been wounded in the uprising and taken to the Dublin Castle in which he was nursed but he was not getting better. Due to his condition in order to be executed they had to bring him through the front door, tie him to a chair because he could not stand/kneel like the others, was blindfolded, and had a piece of white paper placed over his heart as a place to aim for the guards. They couldn't carry him over to where the rest of the men were killed so he had his own corner. It was an amazing tour which brought to life what I learned in history. I will not have any more classes due to my teacher's mom passing away this weekend. It is a sad deal not only due to the circumstances, but due to not learning more as well. It was a great class. We returned to our apartment with Katy Hood, she had walked there and hadn't gotten lost so we thought it would be a great idea to follow her! On the way back she was telling me a story about one of her friends. Her friend Molly had been walking back from a pub with one of their friends when they heard a cry for help. They looked and saw a girl in the River Liffey. They called 999 (Ireland's 911) for help and they had to come rescue her. How crazy is that?! Oh Ireland, crazy place. Tonight a bunch of people went out but I want to do not want to be sick and I am scared that I might be if I do not get any more sleep. 7 hours total in one weekend isn't enough for this girl!