Kilmainham Gaol

Kilmainham Gaol is one of Ireland's most significant buildings. It was planned in an endeavour to develop the quality of the punishing system, and in the belief that prisons should be sanitized and spacious. Prisoners included rebels from the Easter rising in 1916; particularly Eamon de Valera, the last prisoner to be freed under the Free State, who went on to become President of Ireland.

Kilmainham Goal dates from 1789 but was restarted in the 60ties. During its 130 years of existence, it housed a lot of famous Irish resistant. It functioned as a rigorous house of punishment and correction from 1796 to 1924.Leaders of every Irish rebellion between 1798 and 1916 were imprisoned here.

The building of Kilmainham Gaol was enthused by the fear of French revolutionary ideals spreading to these shores. The jail was discarded and fell into decay. A voluntary group began the Herculean task of restoration in 1960, only completed in the 1980s by the Office of Public Works. The result is the faithful preservation of the largest decommissioned but still intact 18th–19th century prison in Europe.

A tour around the cells, corridors and chambers can still remind a tremble and a sense of the building's disastrous history. The jail also has an amazing audio-visual display on its history and a modern museum presentation.

It is worth giving you extra time when visiting, the museum is three stories high and has some tremendous information inside it. This is the only part of the whole building that you can explore alone; the rest is by guided tour. Guided tours provide the only access to the prison, where you can see and realize the Irish history.
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