Kilmainham Gaol, Ireland
Kilmainham Gaol should be on every serious tourist's to-do list. Don't worry about what there is to do while in Dublin, where you'll find many worthy historical places and sites that tell a moving story such as Kilmainham Gaol. Here are definitely the 5 top facts you must learn about the infamous former prison.
1. What is Kilmainham Gaol?
By just having read history textbooks back in college, you still may not know what Kilmainham Gaol is only from reading its name. But if you love history, then you already surmised correctly that it's a prison, or more precisely, a medieval prison. Now, it serves a very different purpose as a museum to relate the horrors that once occurred here to tourists.
2. Short History Lesson
It was constructed in 1796, managed by Dublin's Grand Jury. The new prison was built in 1796 to replace the last one and referred to as the new Gaol as a distinction from the old one. Many Irish revolutionaries experienced their death here at the British rulers' orders.
Infamous for its awfully filthy and revolting living conditions, it housed many criminals, men, women, and even children as young as 10-years-old. Gaol did not distinguish inmates based on gender and often men and women were imprisoned together in a frequently overpacked room.
3. Men received better treatment than women
It was quite sad the reigning discrimination. Both male and female inmates were not just kept locked together, but the females were treated far worse than their male counterparts. For example, the bedding: while male prisoners slept often on metallic cots, female inmates slept either on the cold hard floors or on straw. This double standard and awful debasing treatment is astonishing.
4. Usually, prisoners were hung outside
Public executions took place only a few centuries ago. It provided some kind of sadistic pleasure to a certain crowd of people; in addition, they were means to ensure that everyone in jail followed the rules and instilled a healthy dose of fear in them.
From beheadings to the guillotine, public executions were very popular and it was the same in Dublin between the 17th and 18th century. Prisoners receiving a death sentence were hung in shame in front of an audience. But after some time, when the need for the hang man's noose diminished, a small hanging noose materialized, getting incorporated into the prison's design and blueprint.
5. Kilmainham Gaol's restoration
The prison's operations stopped in 1924 because the then government disliked the image it portrayed which wasn't the message its government wanted to transmit.
After a while, the structure was abandoned in disrepair till there was a decision made to restore it in 1958. Eventually, after the historical society lobbied a lot, funds finally came for its renovation. Following years of restoration work by paid helpers and volunteers, Kilmainham Gaol opened at last to the general public in 1971. Since then, it has turned into a museum for visitors to tour and perhaps even "relive" a one-thousandth part of what former prisoners underwent.
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