Kilmainham Gaol is a former prison, located in Kilmainham in Dublin, which is now a museum.
Over the 140 years it served as a prison, its cells held many of the most famous people involved in the campaign for Irish independence. The British imprisoned and executed the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising here.
Children were sometimes arrested for petty theft, the youngest said to be a seven year-old boy while many of the adult prisoners were deported to Australia.
There was no segregation of prisoners; men, women and children were incarcerated up to 5 in each cell, with only a single candle for light and heat, most of their time was spent in the cold and the dark.
Kilmainham Gaol is one of the biggest unoccupied gaols in Europe. Now empty of prisoners, it is filled with history. It has aptly been described as the ‘Irish Bastille’.
