Off to visit St Patrick Cathedral. Not nearly as impressive as St Patrick in New York City, but still an important cathedral in Dublin. It is the National Cathedral of Ireland. There was an ancient well with a marble slab covering which is thought to be the place where St Patrick baptized the Christian converts. A church has stood on this site since the fifth century. In 1191 the Normans built a stone church on the site. It was rebuilt in the 13th century and is the building we see today.Jonathan Swift was Dean of the Church from 1713-1745 and it is the location where Handel’s Messiah was first performed in 1742.
Interior of St Patrick Cathedral Dublin.
Above, the Door of Reconciliation meant to heal some of the wounds between the Protestants and Catholics and apologize for the abuse of the majority Catholics by the minority protestants under English rule.
Below, the small Lady Chapel within St Patrick’s Cathedral.
The next tour is the Kilmainham Gaol (Jail) the most notorious prison in Dublin. This prison opened in 1796. Built by the English, it housed thousands of Irish prisoners in very primitive conditions over the years reaching a height of over 9,000 prisoners at the height of the Irish potato famine when people purposely broke the law in order to be incarcerated. What meager food they received as a prisoner was more than they could depend upon finding in the countryside.
The prison chapel where prisoners were allowed to worship provided they obeyed the rules. In was in this chapel that Joseph Plunkett, one of the signors of the Declaration of Independence, was allowed to marry his childhood sweetheart on the night before he was executed by a firing squad. They were allowed 10 minutes together after the wedding with two English guards in the room.
Cell door. Solid metal. There was a peep hole in the top through which a guard could see into the cell and an opening at waist level through which the guard could sign a light. Up to 20 people of both sexes and all age groups were housed in a cell with no sanitary facilities. The first Irish rebels were housed in the prison after the 1798 rebellion against the English which was quickly suppressed. Another rebellion followed in 1803 when Robert Emmet was captured and imprisoned here until he was hanged. Charles Stewart Parnell, an Irish member of the English Parliament was imprisoned here in 1881 after he rebelled against the Land Act introduced in Parliament in 1881 which guaranteed forever the English landholders title to Irish lands stolen from the Irish people.
View inside one of the more “modern” cells that actually allowed some light in. Below, the very narrow hallways. The original part of the prison was built of limestone. The limestone was not covered by any other material so it was always wet and damp.
Below, when the prison was enlarged, the modern method of housing prisoners was adopted whereby a few guards could see the entire cell block and the narrow passageways outside the cell levels required all prisoners to follow in single file.
The spiral staircase made certain that prisoners had to go single file down the stairs and could not bunch up.
Edward could almost touch both walls of the cell with his hands.
Above, the mural painted by “Grace” in her cell. She was the one allowed to marry Joseph Plunkett the night before he was executed.
This plaque lists the names of the men who were tried for treason after the Easter Monday, 1916 Uprising. They were all executed in the prison yard at the location of the black cross below. The Irish prisoners executed by the English were 3 men beaten to death by the British Secret Service in 1921. Their bodies were thrown into the street outside the jail as a warning to others. This occurred just 6 months before Ireland gained its independence in January, 1922. The prison was in such poor condition that even the Irish refused to use it as a general prison and it was closed in 1924.
Following the depressing visit to Kilmainham Jail, we had to stop for a drink and some lively Irish music.
Our final stop for the evening was a place called The Gin Palace which claimed to have more than 50 gins. For 5 pounds, you could have a 3 glass flight of gins so, of course, the 4 of us got 3 glasses each and taste tested them all. Who knew there were so many gins?
Everyone slept well than night!
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