Cassandra Lewis

Priosun Chill Mhaighneann, as it’s written in Irish, is the Irish Bastille. During the years the prison was open, from 1796 through 1924, it’s incarcerated the leaders of the major uprisings for Irish independence.

This is above the entrance:

Wolfe Tone and Thomas Russell of the United Irishmen’s 1798 Rebellion were imprisoned at Kilmianham Gaol after the Battle of Vinegar Hill. Wolfe Tone killed himself in the prison by slitting his own throat.

Robert Emmet’s death was especially gruesome. There’s a plaque dedicated to his memory in the room where the condemned man used to spend his last night. Oddly, the room has a peephole where the condemned man could gaze upon the platform where he would be hanged the next morning, where he’d take his last step before death. The hangman didn’t measure Emmet’s slight frame correctly and miscalculated the length of the noose. Apparently the noose is supposed to snap the spinal chord and if this doesn’t happen the poor man slowly suffocates to death. Emmet hung for thirty minutes before he was cut down and taken to another location where he was beheaded in front of the entire city.

A great play that explores the absurd idea behind “the art” of a hangman is Brendan Behan’s The Quare Fellow. Behan based his play on his own prison experience at Mountjoy Prison.

By the time of the Easter Rising, the Kilmainham Gaol stopped trying to hang people and practiced execution by firing squad. (Isn’t it comforting to see how much we’ve evolved over time? We should be proud of our “humane” ways of murdering murderers).

The Easter Rising of 1916 was one of the most important events that led to the creation of the Irish Republic. On April 24, 1916, Easter Monday, 1,200 men under Padraig Pearse and James Connolly took over the General Post Office in Dublin. They burned down the City Center and other government buildings. The takeover lasted four days, 450 people were killed and 2,600 were wounded.

Pearse, Connelly and twelve other leaders of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army were executed in the Stonebreaker’s Yard at Kilmainham Gaol:

James Connolly’s leg was so badly injured that he spent five days in a hospital before he was carried to the Stonebreaker’s Yard and tied to a chair before the firing squad. Here’s where he was shot and the cross that commemorates him:

This is where Pearse was was shot:

Joseph Plunkett, one of the fourteen killed, married his fiance moments before his execution at Kilmainham Gaol.

Some of the rebellion leaders survived Kilmainham Gaol. Most notably, Eamon de Valera, who fought with the others during the Easter Rising and was imprisoned at Kilmainham. Since one of his parents was from the United States the military court decided it would be bad PR to execute him. Eamon de Valera went on to found the political party called Fianna Fail, became the first Taoiseach and the President of Ireland.

I wonder what would have become of the leaders if they hadn’t been executed.

I have to say visiting Kilmainham Gaol was one of the most moving experiences I’ve ever had while traveling. If you’re in Dublin for a short time and can only do one thing–go to Kilmainham Gaol (especially if you’re Kevin). See it. There’s nothing like it. Although it may seem familiar if you’ve seen the movie In The Name of the Father or Italian Job. Also, Bono and Sinead O’Connor have recorded music in the prison’s East Wing:

The walls of the prison are constantly cold and damp. The viscous texture of the limestone feels as though it’s stuck to your skin, seeping all the way down to your bones. I can’t imagine living within the darkness of those walls. In addition to political prisoners Kilmainham imprisoned women and children for minor offenses like stealing bread or potatoes.

Here are some pictures of the yard:

I think it was Michel Foucault, in his book Discipline and Punish, who wrote that the best way to understand a society and their history is to examine their prison, the very bowels of society. I’ve also heard the same said about examining a society’s theatre–so, I’ll explore both while I’m here.