IN THIS article, I am looking back on some of the people who were incarcerated in Kilmainham Gaol, those who died there and those lucky enough to survive.
The jail was not just a home for political and rebel prisoners, it was also used to house the ordinary Irish criminal, who served time in one of the most dark, dank and morose prisons of its time.
As a matter of fact, during the Famine, people actually committed crimes because they would be given food and shelter when they were incarcerated.
During that period, it was so crowded that prisoners had to sleep in the corridors. At best, men, women and children would share cells, possibly as many as five to each cell.
The only light came from a candle, and each prisoner received one every two weeks. Among the children who spent time there, it is believed the youngest was seven years of age. Many inmates were deported to Australia.
Building started at Kilmainham in 1789 and it opened seven years later.
When first opened, public hangings took place at the front of the building. This practice was discontinued in the 1820s and, from then on, few hangings took place in Kilmainham. A small hanging cell was built on the first floor in 1891.
It is located between the west and east wings.
If you visit the west wing today, it will give you an idea of what conditions were like when the jail was in service.
Even to the touch, you can feel the coldness of the stone, and although windows are now in place, in bygone days there were none. The British felt that fresh air swirling through the building would turn minds away from crime.
Back then, prisoners were supplied with just one blanket − you can imagine how much heat that would generate. The corridor between the cells led straight to the stonebreakers’ yard.
Most of the jail has now been restored − the Catholic chapel on the west wing included − however, the Protestant one above it has not. The Easter Rising prisoners were held on this wing.
Moving to the east wing which, although still bleak, is at least bright and airy. Below these cells are the dungeons, where prisoners would have spent their solitary confinement.
However, there is no access to the lower area. You can visit the exercise yards and the stonebreakers’ yard, where the 1916 leaders were executed.
So to the prisoners.
Henry Joy McCracken was the first notable to be imprisoned in Kilmainham. A founder of the United Irishmen with Napper Tandy, Robert Emmet and Wolf Tone, McCracken was arrested for his activities and incarcerated in October 1796.
He contracted a serious illness and was released three years later. For his part in the 1798 rebellion, he was hanged at Corn Market, Belfast on 17 July of that year. He was 30 years’ old.
The first to die in the jail was Oliver Bond, who was arrested at his home along with 14 other leaders on 12 March 1798. He was tried and convicted of treason on 24 July.
And five weeks later, at the age of 36, he died of apoplexy. Bond would be the equivalent of today’s recruiting officers, and would possibly have enlisted more men in the Dublin area into the United Irishmen than any of his contemporaries.
Also imprisoned in Kilmainham after the failed rebellion of 1803 was Robert Emmet. Despite a number of setbacks, Emmet had gone ahead with the rising on 23 July. After an attempt to seize a lightly defended Dublin Castle failed, the rebellion became no more than a riot on Thomas Street.
Emmet went into hiding, first in Rathfarnham, then moving to Harold’s Cross to be close to his lover Sarah Curran, where he was captured.
He was convicted of treason and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered on 19 September. The following day, the sentence was carried out in Thomas Street.
He was hanged and beheaded. Once dead, his remains were interred in Bully’s Acre but later disappeared − doubts remain as to where. It was claimed to St Minchin’s but later a rumour was circulated, which led to the search of a vault in a Dublin Anglican church where a headless corpse was found.
Though not identified as Emmet, it was believed to be him, so the remains were removed and interred in St Peter’s Church of Ireland in 1804. Emmet’s housekeeper Anne Devlin was arrested and interrogated regarding his actions but she refused to reveal anything and would spend almost three years in Kilmainham.
Thomas Francis Meagher and William Smith O’Brien were two of the Young Irelanders imprisoned in Kilmainham after their rebellion in 1848.
Convicted, they were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
This was later commuted to transportation for life to Van Diemen’s Land.
Charles Stewart Parnell, John Dillon, Michael Davitt and William O’Brien were all outspoken members of the Home Rule League Party, which won 63 seats in the 1880 British general election.
They were arrested on 13 October 1881 and imprisoned in Kilmainham on a charge of coercion to sabotage the Land Act.
They were released on 2 May in accordance with the so-called Kilmainham Treaty.
Members of The Invincibles, who carried out the Phoenix Park murders of Lord Cavendish and Henry Burke on 6 May 1882, were incarcerated in Kilmainham.
Those involved were Joe Brady, Daniel Curley, Tim Kelly, Thomas Caffrey and Michael Fagan. All were convicted of the murder and hanged in the jail between 14 May and 4 June 1883.
The Easter Rising of 1916 was the blackest period in the history of Kilmainham Gaol.
Padraig Pearse was a poet, writer and political activist and an Irish teacher at St Enda’s school in Rathfarnham.
He was one of the leaders of the Rising. He had been proclaimed president of the provisional government of the Irish Republic, a status that was disputed by other leaders. Pearse issued an order to all volunteers to hold three days of manoeuvres, starting on Easter Sunday.
This was the signal for the Rising to begin.
On hearing this and knowing that the expected arms from Germany had not arrived, chief of staff Eoin MacNeill countermanded this order. In the confusion that ensued, only half of those expected actually turned up. Six days later, the Rising ended, with Pearse issuing orders to surrender.
Ninety people were court martialed and sentenced to death, 15 of whom, including all the leaders, had this sentence confirmed.
The executions of the leaders began on the morning of 3 May 1916. Tom Clarke, who was 58, was probably most responsible for organising the Rising. Thomas MacDonagh, a playwright and poet from Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary, died aged 62, while Pearse was the youngest at 36.
These were the first three to face the firing squad. The following day, William Pearse, aged 35, was executed.
He had obtained permission to see his brother the previous day and was on his way to visit when Padraig was shot.
Also executed that day was Michael O’Hanrahan, who was born in New Ross. He moved with his family to Carlow, where he was educated at the CBS and Carlow College. He was a commandant and second-in-command 3rd Battalion. He was 39.
Edward Daly from Limerick (25), the younger brother of Tom Clarke’s wife Kathleen, was also shot on the 4th. He was the youngest of the 15 to die and was also the youngest commandant in the rebel forces.
Joseph Plunkett also died on the 4th. He is remembered for his marriage in the jail chapel, just before his execution, to his sweetheart Grace Gifford, which inspired the lovely song Grace.
Seán McBride, who was not involved with any group, offered his services when he became aware of what was happening. The 50-year-old Dubliner was executed on the 5th.
Those shot on the 8th were 28-year-old Conn Colbert from Limerick, Michael Mallon (42) from Dublin, as was 25-year-old Seán Houston. Proclamation signatory Eamon Ceannt from Ballymoe, County Galway was also executed that day.
The final executions on the 12th saw a wounded James Connolly, the Edinburgh-born 48-year-old Commandant General, shot sitting in a chair, as he was incapable of standing.
He was joined by Seán McDermott from County Leitrim, who was 33. He was married to Grace Gifford’s sister Muriel.
De Valera was also sentenced to death.
This was immediately commuted to life imprisonment when it was made clear that he was an American citizen, and Maxwell decided that he was unimportant.
Also, pressure was mounting on the British to cease the executions. And the following year, De Valera received a full amnesty.