Kilmainham Gaol
Technically, this is not a pre-tour activity; on the second day of the tour, we have some free time and so Janis, Roz and I visit Kilmainham Gaol. This building was opened in 1796 and housed many of those involved in the fight for Irish independence including Robert Emmet, Charles Stuart Parnell and Anne Devlin in the 18th and 19th centuries and Joseph Plunkett and James Connolly from the 1916 Easter Rising.
The tour is riveting but I am especially struck by the story of Anne Devlin, assistant to Robert Emmet, chief planner of the 1788 push for for an independent Ireland. She was privy to the identities of the financiers of the revolution. Despite horrific conditions, solitary confinement in a cell with about a foot of sewage flowing through her cell, psychological torture when her family was also imprisoned including her nine year old brother who died, she never once divulged her knowledge.
The tour is riveting but I am especially struck by the story of Anne Devlin, assistant to Robert Emmet, chief planner of the 1788 push for for an independent Ireland. She was privy to the identities of the financiers of the revolution. Despite horrific conditions, solitary confinement in a cell with about a foot of sewage flowing through her cell, psychological torture when her family was also imprisoned including her nine year old brother who died, she never once divulged her knowledge.
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"If the prison does not underbid the slum in human misery; the slum will empty and the prisons will fill."
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