Kilmainham Gaol

Yesterday and today, Rose and I did the Hop On Hop Off bus tour around Dublin. Today we didn't get to see as much as we wished, but we did go to Kilmainham Gaol. Pronounced like it's written, Kill-main-am Jail, it was a working prison for over 120 years.

Kilmainham Gaol was built in 1796, and until 1820, public hangings were held right outside the front gates, on the balcony above the doors.

For some of the time that the prison was running, it was overpopulated. Men, women and children were sometimes stuck five to a room, and they weren't big rooms either.

Facts about Kilmainham Gaol: 

The youngest person sent to Kilmainham Gaol was a five-year-old child, who was arrested for stealing a loaf of bread. His sentence was three months.

When they arrived, prisoners were given a straw mattress, a blanket, a bucket and a Bible.

A man named William Marwood was one of the executioners for Kilmainham Gaol, who held the position for 9 years. He hanged 168 men and 8 women in his lifetime.

During the potato famine, 7,000 men and women were packed into these cells. During those years, some people committed crimes on purpose so they could live in the prison, where there was shelter and food.

Hours before Joseph Plunkett was set to be killed in front of a firing squad at Kilmainham Gaol, he was married in the prison chapel to Grace Gifford. She also spent time in the jail.

Graffiti over a doorway in the prison tells the gaolers, or people in charge of the inmates, that they will experience the "vengeance of the risen people."

Look where my feet have been! Standing on the exact floors that Irish prisoners stood on.