March 21
20,256 steps (8.58 miles) day today.
After a great Full Irish Breakfast:
We purchased couple of LEAP public transport cards, put 15€ into each and took the Tram into Dublin. (About 10 miles south of Malahide)
Our first stop was the Irish Emigration Museum. It's also known as the EPIC. Built to showcase the influence of the Irish migrations worldwide.
The exhibits were "ok", I felt about 90% of the material could just be on a website. To me, it wasn't EPIC. Apparently though, part of the purpose of building it was to help revitalize a rundown part of Dublin.
A bit disappointed, especially given the entrance fee's, we walked to the nearby replica of a Famine Ship.
The Harp Bridge, formally known as the Samuel Beckett Bridge
Next, a bit of a walk to the area known as Temple Bar. Bar being an old world for dock/wharf area.
Martha led me to one of the more famous pubs: The Temple Bar, apparently the holder of largest collection of Irish Whiskeys and featured on the cover of Rick Steves book about Dublin.
The prices of the drinks reflected the "fame" of the place, still, it was time for me to start day drinking.
Lunch was at a nearby bistro, just a couple of yummy sandwiches with crisps....and another beer.
Next was a bus ride to the Kilmainham Gaol or Prison. The most famous prisoners having been the leaders of the Easter Rebellion, a failed attempt to establish Irish independence during the first world war.
The rebellion, one of several over time, was crushed by the British. The leaders of the rebellion killed by firing squad as they were judged under Army Court Martials.
We were a bit early, so we killed time touring the grounds of IMMA, Irish Museum of Modern Art.
Finally, it was time to go in. We were part of a group of perhaps 25-30 tourists. Manageable numbers and our guide Adam did an excellent job herding us through the jail while giving forth on interesting information.
Prison's Catholic Chapel, where one of the Easter Rebellion leaders got married then led off to his cell, and soon after, shot.
Did you notice the door behind the altar? It leads to a covered walkway to the main prison shown below. The chapel is on the right.
We first toured the rather dilapidated "old" section of the prison:
Peephole for guards to check
On prisoners.
Note the lower placed hole, it was to monitor children prisoners! Yep, they considered children who committed "crimes" as fit to share same cell as adults.
Women, children and men all shared same cells.
The grillworks allowed guards to monitor more than one level of cells.
Later construction was "better" we were told, though of course hardly inviting.
Remember the chapel earlier? Well, the bride ended up in this section of the prison for her political cartoons against the British.
We were then led outside to the area just behind the front of the prison.
The wall next to the large door was where one of the rebellion leaders, who'd been in hospital recovering from wounds, was brought. He wasn't fully recovered, so they tied him to a chair and then shot him. Nice huh.
This wall, lined with sand bags to absorb ricochets, was where the remaining leaders were shot:
Exiting the prison near it's old front door, we had a close look at the five serpents which comprise the Kilmainham Gaol's "logo".
Oh, the public hangings, of which there were many, were carried out here.
The declaration of the Easter Rebellion.
One of the leaders of the rebellion, she wasn't shot because the British worried about the "bad optics" of their executing a woman.
COUNTESS MARKIEVICZ (1868-1927), who commanded members of the Citizen Army in the Stephen's Green area during the Rising; sentenced to be executed on 9 May, she was reprieved because she was a woman.
The prison is a good tour if you're in Dublin.
We managed to catch the "rush hour" as we returned to Malahide. Bothe the bus and the tram were packed! It was a long hour of standing room only travel.
Another beer at Gibney's pub helped us recover, along with a bite to eat.
4 comments:
Never toured a prison, a jail yes but no prison. Looked very interesting. Thanks for all the info.
We toured an American prison once, also interesting, also a place to avoid. Thanks for commenting Oz.
What a contrast and nice change that is. I prefer Kilkenny over Guiness, and I love fish and chips... Thanks for taking me along on your wonderful trip. I certainly enjoyed tagging along albeit virtually. Say hi to Martha! Cheers, SonjaM
Martha says hi back, Ireland was just the thing to do before we fly home....Dublin is quite congested though, even Malahide is exhibiting signs of population -driven infrastructure overload.
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