Kilmainham Gaol

Kilmainham Gaol

Kilmainham Gaol is one of the largest unoccupied jails in Europe. Now turned into a museum, the gaol has been witness to some of the most heroic and tragic events in Ireland’s emergence as a modern nation from the 1780s to the 1920s with many of the leaders of Irish rebellions imprisoned within its walls.

Dublin’s Kilmainham Gaol has a place in the heart of modern Irish history and has held some of the most famous political and military leaders in Irish history such as Robert Emmet, Charles Stewart Parnell, the 1916 Rising leaders and Eamon de Valera. From when it opened in 1796 to when it closed in 1924, the leaders of 5 Irish rebellions between 1798 and 1916 were detained and in some cases executed in the gaol.

Attractions include a major exhibition detailing the political and penal history of the prison and its restoration. The tour of the prison includes an audio-visual show which gives the visitor a dramatic and realistic insight into what is was like to have been confined in one of these forbidding bastions of punishment and correction. For anyone visiting Dublin, this is one of the must see attractions if you are either interested in learning about the infamous gaol which has played a prominent role in Irish history or if you would like to experience what it was like to be put in an almost 300 year old prison without the generally less pleasant experience of having to actually be incarcerated.

Fun Fact

Kilmainham Gaol has a history of being haunted with a number of reported ghost sightings over the last century.

Contact Details:

Address: Inchicore Road, Kilmainham, Dublin 8.

Tel: +353 1 453 5984

Getting There:

Hop off the CityScape Tour at: Stop 28 Military Road (see Route Map)

Admission:

Adult – €6.00

Senior/ Group – €4.00

Child/ Student – €2.00

Family – €14.00