Before coming back to the United States from Ireland, I tried to squeeze in as much culture as possible!!

One of the recommended tourist sites at the top of many lists in Dublin is Kilmainham Gaol. A prison built in the late 1700s, it remained in service until 1924. I decided to bring my children with me on the tour of the prison as an educational experience. Ah, if I could turn back time on that decision! My youngest was quite bored and I was actually glad he wasn’t paying much attention to the many stories of executions. My older two toggled back and forth between stoic boredom and piqued curiosity. That being said, the tour is a good insight into Irish history that I didn’t know much about beforehand.

As we were walking toward the Kilmainham Gaol we passed a sculpture. The sculpture portrays several people blindfolded and represents their execution. After leaving the Museum I had a much clearer idea of what it meant and how it connected to the Easter Rising.

The guided tours last a little over an hour. If you go on a cold day be sure to dress warmly. You’ll walk outside some and in areas without heat. While it wasn’t as cold and rainy as our trip to the Aran Islands, we did go on a chilly, rainy day. It gave me a sense of how cold and dreary it would have been for prisoners within the stone walls so long ago.

During our tour we learned about some of the leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916. I have lived in Dublin now long enough that I have heard and read about the Rising and I recognized a handful of names. The tour goes through a chapel, several floors of prison rooms and the sites outside where executions took place.

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There is also a small museum you can visit at the end of the tour. There are some different artifacts about the prison and former prisoners. I am glad that I went on the tour but in retrospect I would let my kids stay home for this one.

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