This is the grim place inside Kilmainham Gaol, built in 1796, where people who took part in the 1916 Easter Monday Rising against British rule in Ireland were shot . The prison is the subject of an article by Ms June Tomlinson ,secretary of the NT Genealogical Society, for its journal, PROGENITOR . During a recent overseas study tour, she and her husband visited the prison and were taken on a conducted tour by a guide who suffered from claustrophobia, he having to remove himself from a narrow corridor because of an overwhelming feeling that he was being hemmed in.
Planned by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the uprising was originally intended for Sunday, but delayed till Easter Monday, April 24, in Dublin. The British decided to execute 15 of the leaders , 14 in Kilmainham Gaol, at the above site, during the period May 3-12 . A plaque on the wall lists those shot . Ms Tomlinson said the bleak site and the guide’s graphic description of what took place filled her with absolute sadness.
Planned by the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the uprising was originally intended for Sunday, but delayed till Easter Monday, April 24, in Dublin. The British decided to execute 15 of the leaders , 14 in Kilmainham Gaol, at the above site, during the period May 3-12 . A plaque on the wall lists those shot . Ms Tomlinson said the bleak site and the guide’s graphic description of what took place filled her with absolute sadness.
One of those executed , James Connolly , was so badly wounded he could not walk to face the firing squad. Because he was unable to sit upright ,he was tied to a chair, where the cross now stands . Two brothers, William and Patrick Pearse , were among those riddled by bullets. Others shot were Thomas J. Clark ,Thomas MacDonagh , Joseph Plunkett, Edward Daly, Michael O’Hanrahan, John MacBride , Con Colbert, Eamonn Ceannt,Michael Mallin , Sean Heuston, Sean Mac Diarmada . Another Irish Nationalist,Thomas Kent, was executed by firing squad in Cork ,buried in the grounds of Collins Barracks .
The tour included the area where hangings took place, the church where nobody was allowed to look at anyone or speak . “It reminded me very much of the Silent System operating in the penal colony of Port Arthur in Tasmania,” Ms Tomlinson wrote.
A "more modern " part of the gaol reminded her of scenes from stark American movies and the guide said it had been used many times in films .
