I woke up late. Then I got off my bus walked three miles to the Gaol (from now on Jail) and promptly got lost for another hour and a half, walking about another three miles in circles. I asked for directions like 8 times but not once did they get me the three blocks away that I needed to get (I swear on my life that the map I had was wrong! If I had any drive I'd write to Lonely Planet).
I eventually gave up and decided to walk to Phoenix Park. On my way to what should my wondering eyes should appear? But a 18th century prison! Just what I was looking for.
Killmanum (Sp?) Gaol (Pronounced Jail) was built sometime in the mid 18th century. It was then rehabbed in the mid 19th century. It housed just about every rebel in modern Irish history from 1798-1926. Crazy stuff. If you've seen the original Italian job or Michael Collins you've seen the jail. It's amazing. The tour pretty much was the best history lecture I've had yet! Getting to see the place where so many people I've learned about spent so much time - not to mention the 9000 held there during the famine ( this in a space that was meant to house 200) - was incredible. It really gave life to history.
The creepiest part of the whole tour was after going through the inside of the prison they brought us out into the yard. They had it subdivided into three sections. The first was for women and children, the next the mens exercise yard, and then the stone breakers yard.
What really freaked me out was that the second I walked into the stone breakers yard I felt like my soul was going to die. I mean the jail itself isn't uplifting but this was crazy. Then I found out it was where the leaders of the Easter 1916 rising were executed. They were all executed by firing squad. They had two little black crosses in the yard opposite of each other. They marked were they all had been shot.
The Easter Rising was bound to fail, in fact it was meant to. It was a blood revolution meant to spark the revolutionary spirit in the people. It didn't really work though. They had managed to destroy most of Dublin and there were a lot of civilian causalities. It would had failed for it not been for these executions.
The british, instead of killing them all at once, decided to make an example of them. They killed one or two a day for about a week ending in James Connolly. James had been shot during the battle and was bleeding bad. He was going to die from blood loss, but the British wanted them to die on their own terms. Problem was that English law demanded that a prisoner couldn't be executed unless they were in perfect health - kinda vindictive if you ask me. So they attempted to nurse him back to health but by the end of the week it was clear that James was going to die. So in the middle of the night they brought him to the stone breakers yard on a stretcher because he was too weak to walk. They tied him to a chair because he was too weak to sit up by himself and twelve british soldiers fired, breaking every humanitarian rule of the day.
The public was out raged. Had the long drawn out executions not been enough, this caused an out rage that lead four years latter to all out war ending in independence eight years six years latter.
I walked about a mile and a half to their grave (they were all thrown in an unmarked mass grave afterwards). The Irish Government now has a big thing. It's called Arbor hill. They have a big raised paved surface with flowers running up the sides with a green patch in the middle where they are buried. On one side of the grave are their names in Gaelic the other in Irish. Then there's a giant wall behind them with the text of the proclamation they read that day declaring independence in Gaelic and in English.
Walked back home afterwards - another 2 miles to the bus. thought I might die when I got back home. I hadn't eaten so I was starving and my legs were killing me. Ann made me a great dinner though - lasagna, fries, and triffle for desert.
I meet my TD tomorrow!!!! Can't wait
Night
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