1 Kilmainham Gaol Prominent penitentiary
A virtual who’s who of famous names were incarcerated at this prison, which opened in 1796 and closed in 1924. Almost all political prisoners were held here, from those involved in the 1798 rebellion – when the United Irishmen rose up against British rule – right up to men captured during the Irish Civil War (1922–23). For example, future president Éamon de Valera was held here after the 1916 Easter Rising (an armed insurrection against the British) and at the end of the Civil War.
But a visit to what’s now a fascinating museum also provides insights into the history of the area’s poor people, about whose lives there’s little recorded evidence – except when they fell foul of the law. The prison’s population swelled in the 1840s, during the Great Famine, because many people were jailed for vagrancy and other minor crimes. In the records you’ll see a 10-year-old sentenced to 40 days’ hard labour for stealing a parsnip, while a nine-year-old girl did a week’s hard labour for begging. This is also the site of the executions of 14 men involved in the 1916 Easter Rising. It’s an architecturally striking, and moving, place to visit.