Dublin's Hidden History

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The Battle of Clontarf ( an alternative version)

The events that took place at the Battle of Clontarf on Good Friday, April 23, 1014 were the culmination of two centuries of strife, treachery, failed alliances and treaties between Irish kings and Vikings.

The battle was between the forces of Brian Boru, the High King of Ireland, and an alliance of the forces of Sigtrygg Silkbeard, King of Dublin; Máel Mórda mac Murchada, the King of Leinster; and a Viking contingent led by Sigurd, Earl of Orkney, and Brodir of the Isle of Man. It lasted from sunrise to sunset, and ended in a rout of the Viking and Leinster forces. Brian was killed as were his son, Murchad, and his grandson, Toirdelbach.

These tales have been told and retold from medieval time to present day, in schools and communities, but what evidence do remains of the great, brave Brian Boru, the Viking’s influence and the Battle of Clontarf?

Ruth Johnson, Dublin City Archaeologist, employed by the city council, explained that there’s little evidence of the battle and, more importantly, that it didn’t take place where most presume.

She told IrishCentral, “There’s very little direct evidence of the actual battle itself. An antiquarian journal in the 18th century referenced the discovery of mass Viking graves with weaponry and human bones on Parnell Square. Potentially that is our only real link to the battle.

“Sadly, that’s lost to us because that was pre-archaeology and Georgians were the great developers. They cleared everything out to make way for their great squares and lay the houses out with cellars. Unfortunately that tantalizing glimpse is all we have.”

So why, if the battle was won and lost at Parnell Square in today’s north Dublin City Center, is this heroic battle named for Clontarf, which is three miles north along the coast.
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Where did Clontarf come in to it?

“We don’t know exactly. We know is was somewhere on the north side of the River Liffey between the Liffey and the River Tolka estuary. Obviously there’s so much sand reclamation in that area, the whole of Dublin Bay has changed even since the building of the Great south wall and the North Wall by Captain Bligh,” said Johnson.

“We’re not quite sure exactly where the battle took place, but we know it was within a few miles of Wood Quay and it had to have been a landing place because the Viking fleet from the Isle of Man and the northern and western sides of Scotland landed around Clontarf.”

She continued, “We know that Howth was set on fire in the run up to battle as well, which is interesting in itself. We also know that Brian’s troops were camped before the battle at Kilmainham, just to the west of Dublin, on high ground. It’s quite an extensive battlefield zone. We can image Brian Boru’s army marching from south to north across the city.

“Strategically, it wasn’t an idea place for any of them to fight the battle. They were miles away from the city they were all fighting over. If you’re trying to capture a town the main event should take place at least near the town, but they never got close.”

While details of the location and strategy of the battle might be lost in the annals of history, thankfully, archaeological excavations in Dublin of the 11th century town revealed a plethora of information about the forming of the city and its Viking and native inhabitants.

Johnson explained that the wealth of the discoveries made between the 1960s and 80s in Dublin, especially along Wood Quay by the River Liffey, was due to the nature of the soil.

She said, “The deposits were laid down very rapidly and they were waterlogged by the waters of the River Liffey, so that unique combination of rapid buildup and saturation with air meant an organic preservation, like bog almost. It meant that there was about four or five meters of archaeology discovered.

“There were a hundred Viking houses discovered in that one campaign alone. We know that the Viking town had urban defenses. It was the size of about two soccer pitches [fields]. It contains streets going crosswise, east to west, where Christchurch is now and, north south where Fishamble Street is today.”

The archaeological finds also show use the breadth of the Vikings’ travels and how much they brought to Ireland’s shores.

Johnson continued, “It was an extremely wealthy place. The quality of the finds from Viking Dublin is extraordinary. We have so many exotic imports from the wars they fought. We had amber from the Balkans, silver from as far as Baghdad and you can imagine all the rest of the Viking world, Britain and Scotland, down the western seaboard of France and into Spain and North Africa.”

Often the Vikings are seen as nomadic rogues who attacked and pillaged Ireland and caused quite a ruckus. The truth is that by the late 10th century the Vikings had become very much a part of Ireland’s social and political scene.

“It was just a politically intermixed scene. If you think about Queen Gormflaith. She was a key player in the late 10th century. She was a remarkable woman and was married several times.

“The name of her first husband was Olaf Cuaran, the Viking King of Dublin, he was pure Viking and he was also King of York. She was a Leinster princess married to a Viking King.

“Then when he died and she married the King of Tara. So now she’s married to an Irish high king, and then later she married Brian Boru himself and later divorced him.”

It seems that parts of these histories become altered sometimes, often for dramatic effect.

The High King Brian Boru himself is one such example. It is claimed that the king died while praying in his tent, the leader of a great army of men going to battle. However, if you do the math, Brian Boru would have been about 73-years-old and it seems unlikely that such an elderly man would be charging into the battlefield in medieval Ireland.

“We think that one of his favorite sons was actually in charge of the army, but that Brian was close by in his tent and sending messages back and forth,” said Johnson.

Brian Boru could have become stuff of legends, but his worship started during in his own time.

“He is a fantastic character. In his own lifetime he was declared the Emperor of All Ireland in the Book of Armagh, which we still have that book on display in Ireland. Even in his lifetime he had a hold on Ireland’s popular culture as Ireland’s greatest King,” explained Johnson.

“A lot of what we know about Brian Boru comes from the ‘Cogadh Gaedhil re Gallaibh,’ a propaganda document written by his ancestors, maybe two or three generations after him. It is very closely allied to the story of the Trojan War. It sets Brian Boru as the hero and probably has a lot of poetic license included.”

In the end we must ask, can we take revisionism too far? Will we take the magic from these heroic tales of war if we dig too deep?

Johnson finished by saying, “I was at a lecture recently and this man stood up and said ‘I’m not going to let them take Brian Boru away from us with all this revisionism. To me he’s like Richard the Lionheart of Ireland and we need our national heroes.’... I don’t think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
( Irish Central .com )

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Dublin Air Raid Shelters

While there was no World War II in Ireland (don’t you just love the term ‘The Emergency’), there were many air raid shelters constructed in the Irish capital during the years of that conflict. The above image, showing an overground shelter, was taken from the top of the Nelson Pillar.

A September 1940 news-report gives some idea of how widespread shelters were in the city, and also highlights the fact overground shelters appeared primarily in the principal streets of the capital and in areas with tenement populations:

At the moment trench shelters have accommodation for 6,500 people, and they are situated at Fitzwilliam Square, the Custom House, Merrion Square, Oscar Square, St. Patrick’s Park Spitalfields, Pimlico and Ordmond Square. The overground shelters, which are situated in the principal streets and in the vicinity of tenements, will give accommodation to some eight thousand people.
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Shelters were not only provided and constructed by Dublin Corporation, some emerged from private (and often subsidised) construction efforts. The Irish Press reported for example that “at least one Dublin cinema is providing its own air-raid shelter. This cinema was built on the site of a Turkish baths, and the old bath chamber, which as underground, has been adapted as a shelter. ”



The Irish Times noted in September 1940 that there was “much willful damage” being done to the shelters, quoting a Captain J.J Blake of the Irish Army who issued a radio appeal to citizens not to vandalise the structures. Blake explained that when first constructed the policy was to leave the shelters open, but “so great was the willful destruction and damage that the authorities were compelled to close them.”


A 1939 image of men working on an air raid shelter (Image: Irish Press)

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Air raid shelters were incorporated into some housing plans in the city, for example Mary Aikenhead House, which were completed in April 1940. The buildings were also noted to include “front balconies large enough to take single beds for sleeping in open air”, perhaps as a means of combating tuberculosis outbreaks.


Though the Republic was neutral in the Second World War, bombs did fall on the Irish capital, killing innocent civilians. In January 1941 bombs fell on the Terenure and South Circular Road areas of the city, while there was tragedy in May 1941 when 28 people were killed by bombs dropped by fascist Germany that inflicted carnage on the North Strand area. Outside of the capital, bombs fell on Campile in Wexford in August 1940, killing three people.
The North Strand following a German bombing.

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The Irish Press, argued that while Ireland wished to stay out of the conflict, she could be pulled into it by surprise: “We must assume that if the Twenty-Six Counties are involved in this war it will be with a suddenness which will allow no preparation. All the preparations must be done beforehand and the announcement that more air raid shelters are to be constructed in Dublin reminds s forcibly of the fact.”

The question of funding air raid shelters was discussed on many occasions in both houses of the Oireachtas. In the early stages of the Second World War, before any bombs had fallen on Dublin, Senator Quirke made the point that urban areas were at much greater risk of bombing, but that he was confident those in remote rural parts would be quite prepared to contribute to the funding of shelters in areas most at risk:

Many people are ready to criticise the construction of air raid shelters. If we were to have an air raid here, it would probably take place in the big centres, and, regardless of what anybody may say to the contrary, I believe that people living in the farthest corner of Ireland are quite prepared to do their part and to take their share of the expense to defend the citizens of Ireland in any part of the country in which we may be attacked. I think the Minister is perfectly justified in the steps he is taking to defend the people.



There are shelters below us even today in Dublin. Thejournal.ie have looked at one on Grafton Street in detail in their Hidden Ireland series, noting that a company “was given a grant of £234 for the building and design of the air raid shelter to protect the 50 employees working at 69 Grafton Street. The shelter was completed on 24 September 1940.” This premises is now occupied by a clothing store, and I’ve often wandered past with no clue of the shelter being there.

(From comeheretomome blog )

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The old Houses of Parliment Dublin

At the centre of Dublin, College Green provides a fine public space with the well mannered Corinthian façade of Trinity College looking down Dame Street, the ceremonial road to the former British centre of power, Dublin Castle, and the fine bank head offices and on its left the building known today as the Bank of Ireland but originally the world’s first purpose built parliament building. Originaly this was known as Hoggen Green deriving its name from the Scandinavian word for mound and the nearby nunnery of Blessed Virgin Mary del Hogges founded in 1156. Nearby was the Thingmote, which was the Viking assembly place. It was renamed College Green after Trinity College in the 1600s.

The Irish Houses of Parliament (Irish: Tithe na Parlaiminte, also known as the Irish Parliament House, today called the Bank of Ireland, College Green due to its modern day use as a branch of the bank) is the world’s first purpose-built two-chamber parliament house. It served as the seat of both chambers (the Lords and Commons) of the Irish parliament of the Kingdom of Ireland for most of the eighteenth century until that parliament was abolished by the Act of Union in 1800 when the island became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.


Edward Lovett Pearce, who was himself a Member of Parliament and a protégé of the Speaker of the House of Commons, William Connolly of Castletown House was the architect of the original building, now the centre portion of the bank. While building begun, parliament moved to the Blue Coat Hospital on Dublin’s north side. The foundation stone for the new building was laid on 3 February 1729.

This was the first purpose built Parliament House in the world and was constructed at a great time of public confidence in Dublin. The original building designed by Pearce was constructed between 1729 and 1739 is only part of the existing structure. This consisted of the central section with its huge colonnades. Pearce was actually knighted in the building on the 10 March 1731.

Pearce’s design for the new Irish Houses of Parliament was revolutionary. The building was effectively semi-circular in shape, occupying nearly 6,000 m² (1.5 acres) of ground. Unlike Chichester House, which was set far back from Hoggen Green, the new building was to open up directly onto the Green, as the above photograph shows. The principal entrance consisted of a colonnade of Ionic columns extending around three sides of the entrance quadrangle, forming a letter ‘E’ (see picture at the bottom of the page). Three statues, representing Hibernia (the Latin name for Ireland), Fidelity and Commerce stood above the portico. Over the main entrance, the royal coat of arms were cut in stone.
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Irish House of Commons in session

Pearce’s creation was fronted by an E-shaped Ionic collonade and portico facing what by then became known as College Green. What is somewhat odd, perhaps even off-kilter, about Pearce’s plan is the prominence it gives to the House of Commons, presumably at the expense of the House of Lords. The Commons chamber was on a direct axis with the front entrance while the Lords were pushed off the axis towards the east. This may have reflected the fact that Pearce was himself a member of the Commons, but it is also probable that William Connolly, the powerful Speaker of the House as well as Pearce’s political mentor, played a part in this seemingly inappropriate architectural distinction.
College Green aerial view


This inbalance is in contrast to the later Houses of Parliament at Westminster designed by Pugin and Barry, in which the Commons and the Lords are given virtually equal distinction in terms of the plan. Somewhat ironically, Pugin’s parliament, which has no real main façade, was designed somewhat to look as if it was constructed at different time periods (albeit with the external style all the same), though in reality except for Westminster Hall and some basements and crypts the entire structure was completed by a single architectural duo working at one time. Contrarily, the Irish Parliament building was constructed by three architects at three different times (though all within the same century) yet has been made to appear as if composed as a whole.

Like other buildings in Dublin notably the Custom House, the Bank of Ireland is graced by sculptures by Edward Smyth. These statues are placed over the portico to the House of Lords and symbolise Wisdom, Justice and Liberty.

In the last thirty years of the Irish parliament’s existence, a series of crises and reforms changed the role of parliament. In 1782, following agitation by major parliamentary figures, but most notably Henry Grattan, the severe restrictions such as Poyning’s Law that effectively controlled the Irish Parliament’s ability to control its own legislative agenda were removed, producing what was known as the Constitution of 1782. A little over a decade later, Roman Catholics, who were by far the majority in the Kingdom of Ireland, were allowed to cast votes in elections to parliament, though they were still debarred from membership. The crisis over the ‘madness’ of King George III produced a major strain in Anglo-Irish relation, as both of the King’s parliaments in both of his kingdoms possessed the theoretical right to nominate a regent, without the requirement that they choose the same person, though both in fact chose the Prince of Wales.

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Houses of Parlimet ( continued )

The British government decided that the entire relationship between Britain and Ireland should be changed, with the merger of both states and parliaments. After one failed attempt, this finally was achieved, albeit with mass bribery of members of both Houses, who were awarded British and United Kingdom peerages and other ‘encouragements’. In August 1800 parliament held its last session in the Irish Houses of Parliament. On 1 January 1801 the Kingdom of Ireland and its parliament ceased to exist, with the new United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland coming into being, with a united parliament meeting in Westminster, to which Ireland sent approximately 100 members while Irish peers had the constant right to elect a number of fellow Irish peers as representative peers to represent Ireland in the House of Lords, on the model already introduced for Scottish peers.


The Parliament of the eighteenth century was largely controlled by the wealthy ascendancy. With the Act of Union the centre of power shifted to London and with it the desire for improvements to Dublin as many of the ascendancy moved to London when not living on their country estates. After this, Dublin began its slow slide into disrepair with the famous Gardiner Estate going bankrupt and the decay of many of the glorious Georgian streets as the houses were split up into tenements. The Parliament building was sold to the Bank of Ireland under the condition that it should not be used for political assemblies.

The abolition of the parliament in 1800 had a major economic impact on the life of the city. Within a decade, many of the finest mansions (Leinster House, Powerscourt House, Aldborough House, etc) had been sold, often to government agencies. Though parliament itself was based on the

exclusion of Irish Catholics, many catholic nationalist historians and writers blamed the absence of parliament for the increased impoverishment of Dublin, with many of the large mansions in areas like Henrietta Street sold to unscrupulous property developers and landlords who reduced them to tenements.

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The draw of the vice regal court and its social season was not enough to encourage most Irish peers and their large entourage to come to Dublin anymore, their absence and that of their servants, with all their collective and previously excessive spending, severely hitting the economy of Dublin, which went into dramatic decline. By the 1830s and 1840s, nationalist leader Daniel O’Connell was leading a demand for the Repeal of the Act of Union and the re-establishment of an Irish parliament in Dublin, only this time one in which Catholics like O’Connell could now be elected to and sit in, in contrast with the entirely Protestant assembly that had met in the old Houses of Parliament.

One of the more colourful figures to adorn the Irish Parliament was Sir Boyle Roche. Born in 1743, Sir Boyle Roche became the Member of Parliament for Tralee, County Kerry in the Irish House of Commons. His striking but incoherent images became famous. More seriously, he played a part in Irish history by opposing Catholic emancipation. When the Act of Union was passed in 1801, abolishing the old Irish Parliament, he did not become an MP at Westminster. He died in 1807.

He was famous for bringing mixed metaphors to new heights or depths depending on your viewpoint!

“Mr Speaker, I smell a rat; I see him forming in the air and darkening the sky; but I will nip him in the bud.”

It was sentences like these that made Sir Boyle Roche famous in his day. Long after his death, many of these sayings are still remembered. Most of Sir Boyle Roche’s more famous blunders were in speeches to the Irish House of Commons. In his speeches, he supported the Act of Union with Britain, and was deeply suspicious of any political ideas inspired by the French Revolution. A few of his sayings are remembered from letters to friends.

More examples;

Why should we put ourselves out of our way to do anything for posterity? For what has posterity ever done for us?

How can I be in two places at once, unless I were a bird?

Half the lies our opponents tell about us are untrue.

The cup of Ireland’s misery has been overflowing for centuries and is not yet half full.

Ireland and England are like two sisters; I would have them embrace like one brother.

All along the untrodden paths of the future, I can see the footprints of an unseen hand.

We should silence anyone who opposes the right to freedom of speech.

Here perhaps, sir, the murderous Marshallaw-men would break in, cut us to mince-meat and throw our bleeding heads upon that table, to stare us in the face!

The only thing to prevent what’s past is to put a stop to it before it happens.

At present there are such goings-on that everything is at a standstill.

In a letter:

While I write this letter, I have a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other.

In a letter:

PS If you do not receive this, of course it must have been miscarried; therefore I beg you to write and let me know.

This type of confused figure of speech became known as an Irish Bull. Dr John Mahaffy (the great 19th Century scholar of Trinity College Dublin) said that ‘An Irish Bull is always pregnant’. Irish Bulls can still be spotted occasionally, especially in the speeches of politicians, take a cue, George W. Bush!
Plan of the Parliament building with Pearce’s work in black, the Lords’ extension by Gandon to the right and the Commons’ extension by Parke and others on the leftfrom “Dublin 1660 – 1860” by Maurice Craig, Allen Figgis, Dublin, 1969.



Pearce’s revolutionary designs came to be studied and copied both at home and abroad. The Viceregal Apartments in Dublin Castle copied his top-lit corridors, through with minor alterations that undermined the effect somewhat. The British Museum in London copied his colonnaded House of Commons entrance for its own facade. The Prints of Dublin by James Malton in the 18th Century employed Robert Smirke the Elder to sketch in the people in the pictures. His son, Robert Smirke the Younger, was the architect of the British Museum and is thought to have been inspired by the colonnade in the prints his father worked on.

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Kilmainham Gaol, like most major prisons of its time, was a place of execution as well as punishment.

From the start, there was a gallows above the main entrance of the Gaol, and thousands of people would make the five mile trip from the city centre to see some unfortunate wretch 'turned off'.
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No image exists today of the gallows above Kilmainham Gaol's entrance. However, it was, apparently, so well designed that an almost copy was installed in Newgate Prison in the city centre two years later, in 1798.

This was later photographed after Newgate was abandoned and the above illustration is a composite of that gallows and Kilmainham Gaol entrance as it is today.

As Kilmainham was so far outside Dublin city centre, most onlookers would go to other prisons, e.g. Newgate, or execution sites, e.g. St. Stephen's Green - easier to reach and probably with better entertainment facilities (pubs, restaurants etc).

Gallows' Hill:
Kilmainham Gaol is built on Gallows Hill, an execution site in the 18th century on the main road to the west of Ireland from Dublin City.

This site was moved in the 18th century to st. Stephen's Green on the then southern outskirts of the city.

But, when Kilmainham Gaol opened in 1796, hangings returned to Gallows' Hill.

It is said that up to five thousand people would make the trip to Kilmainham Gaol for a particularly notorious or famous person's hanging until public executions were eventually banned in 1868.

Alcohol was sold, and toffee apples, and hot cakes by hawkers, pickpockets plied their trade and, frequently, the army and cavalry were present to control the crowds.

Small children mingled with adults, family members and friends tried to remain incognito in the crowd, and reporters would be on hand to record the event and, especially, any last words the condemned may utter and which could be later published.

Once the actual execution had taken place, these reporters would hasten back to their offices in the city, usually on horseback or by coach. There, the last words of the condemned would be added to a report of the crime and trial already prepared and a broadsheet quickly printed up for sale to the crowd as it made its way back to the city via the many pubs along the route.

Last Public Execution:
The last public execution in Kilmainham Gaol took place on July 22, 1865, when Patrick Kilkenny was hanged for the murder of Margaret Waugh.

Private Hangings:
All later executions took place within the walls of the Gaol - at first in a yard of the prison (now known as the Invincibles Yard, for that is where the Invincibles were hanged in 1883 - and later moved into the building itself in the 1890s into a a new, purpose-built execution chamber known as the 'Drop Cell' today.

Last Hanging:
The last ever hanging in Kilmainham Gaol was on January 4th, 1910, when Joseph Heffernan was executed for the brutal murder of Mary Walker, a post office clerk in Mullingar, the previous year.

Like many executions a question hangs over the justice of this one, with a strong circumstantial argument being made that Joseph was innocent of the crime, being nothing more than a useful scapegoat.

180 Hangings:
In all, there were about 180 hangings in Kilmainham Gaol from the day it opened in 1796 until its closure in 1910.

Famous Executions:
There were several notable figures hanged there, among them Robert Emmet and the aforementioned Irish National Invincibles, but most were for petty crimes, people who are now long forgotten.

Kilmainham opened during the period of what was known as the 'Bloody Code' when - in Britain and Ireland - there were over 200 hanging offences, mostly ridiculously petty crimes against property.

and beheaded because the hangman, Thomas Galvin, did not know how to carry out the full sentence, it being the only such sentence passed during his professional life. (In fact, it was the last such sentence passed in Ireland).

Firing Squads:
When the Gaol re-opened in 1914, it was no longer a civilian prison but an army barracks and prison.

Therefore, all executions that now took place there were military, and that, of course, meant firing squads.

A further eighteen men were to be executed thus until the prison's final closure in 1924.

(Above) The most famous Kilmainham execution not to take place in the prison. Robert Emmet was hanged by Thomas Galvin in Thomas Street, Dublin, before a crowd some estimate at 40,000.

Female Executions:
Out of these 180, only three were of women, for there was a reluctance to execute the 'fair sex'. Edward Trevor, the evil medical inspector of Kilmainhmam Gaol, alluded to this rarity and the public horror at a female execution when he screamed at Anne Devlin "I've only ever seen one woman hanged, but if I see another, I hope it is you"!

On February 22, 1802, Rose Kelly was executed in the same place for the abduction and murder of Mary Anne Murphy, a five-year-old girl.

The 'two Bridgets' - Butterly and Ennis - were hanged in public above the entrance on May 4th, 1821, for robbery and murder.

Women were, of course, frequently sentenced to death but their sentences were usually commuted - frequently to transportation, usually to Australia.

Other Kilmainham Gaol Execution Sites:
But, while all executions up to 1868 were in public - ostensibly as a warning to the public of the consequences of crime - not all took place above the door of the Gaol - several hangings were carried out away from the prison, in places such as Palmerstown, Tallaght and Sandyford for example. Some even took place in other prisons - Joe Poole in the Richmond Marshalsea (now Griffith College) and the Joyces - convicted of the Maamtrasna murders - in Galway Prison to name but a couple.

Perhaps the most famous execution away from the Gaol was that of Robert Emmet in 1803, when he was hanged and beheaded in front of St. Catherine's Church in Thomas Street. Although officially sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered for High Treason (he had, attempted to 'change the King's mind' by leading a rebellion against him - the highest crime imaginable), Robert was 'only' hanged

The shooting of 14 men in the grim Stonebreakers' Yard of Kilmainham Gaol in the aftermath of the abortive Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916 were to change world history, and ultimately granted the Gaol the honourable status of National Monument.

Final Executions:
The last every executions to occur in Kilmainham were during the Irish Civil war when four men - Peter Cassidy, James Fisher, John Gaffney and Richard Twohig - were shot by a Free State firing squad during our Civil War.

Kilmainham Executions in Song and Poem:
Like all prisons, the Gaol has gone entered popular lore, with songs and ballads recording some of the events which occurred there.

Among the most famous is "The Night Before Larry Was Stretched" writtenby Will (Hurlfoot) Maher, a shoemaker from Waterford. There is also "The Kilmainham Minuette", "Stoney Pocket's Auction" and "The lamentation of Patrick Kilkenny who is sentenced to die on the 20th of July 1865 for the murder of his sweetheart Margret Farquhar" many others.
The Executioners:

At first, Kilmainham Gaol had its own hangman - Thomas Galvin - who was hangman for Dublin City and County from 1787 until 1831. He was followed by John Foy, and then, it appears, the English hangmen such as Berry, Marwood and Pierrepoint took over.

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Kilmainham Gaol ( continued )

Kilmainham Gaol, now long established as a national monument, is a unique resource in the study of Irish history. Every year many thousands of visitors make their way there, most often as a result of the effusive recommendation of inhabitants of the capital city, to absorb something of Irish social, penal and political history in the period from the 1790s to the 1920s. As a result of an inspiring voluntary restoration project, which began in 1960, the gaol was preserved as a monument for future generations, with the motivation for the project being, in particular, the commemoration of the many political prisoners (a virtual roll-call of the Irish nationalist pantheon) who were imprisoned there. The gaol is now managed by the Office of Public Works, which had leased the building to the voluntary restoration committee for some 26 years (1960–86). In retrospect one might ask why this restoration work needed to be carried out by a voluntary group at all—why successive Irish governments, in times of greater nationalist feeling, did not instigate or at least actively support or finance such a project.
Following the removal of the last republican prisoners in the early months of 1924, Kilmainham Gaol was never again used as a place of confinement. The prison was evacuated by the Irish Free State army in March of that year, when care of the gaol reverted to the General Prisons Board of Ireland. Having no need for the prison at the time, the Prisons Board carried out no maintenance whatsoever on the building over the following years and the gaol began to fall into disrepair.
The National Graves Association

A statutory order officially closing the premises was made by the Minister for Justice on 1 August 1929 and, in accordance with the General Prisons (Ireland) Act 1877, Kilmainham Gaol was automatically transferred to Dublin County Council on the expiration of one year from that date. Almost immediately after this transfer, the county council was to come under pressure over its new acquisition. Letters were received from the National Graves Association (NGA) enquiring as to the council’s intentions with regard to the property. The NGA had been formed in 1926 with the objective of commemorating all those who died in the cause of Irish independence. They had an understandable interest in establishing a permanent commemoration to the patriots executed in Kilmainham Gaol.

The NGA’s honorary secretary, Seán Fitzpatrick, urged the council to consider opening the gaol for visitors during the Eucharistic Congress in the summer of 1932 to highlight Irish patriotic endeavour both to Irish people and to the many foreign visitors. His suggestion, however, was turned down by the council. Later in the year Fitzpatrick wrote to the Minister for Local Government, Seán T. O’Kelly (himself a former prisoner in Kilmainham during the Civil War), requesting that he receive a deputation from the NGA ‘to discuss the question of permanently marking the place where the men of 1916 and four of the 1922 men were shot, also the enclosing of the place of burial of the men hanged in 1883 [the Invincibles]’. O’Kelly later raised the matter with Eamon de Valera, who appears to have approved of the proposal, and it was agreed that the matter would be passed on to the Commissioners of Public Works (henceforth the Board of Works) for consideration. The first of a number of surveys and estimates on developing the gaol as a national monument were carried out, which also involved consultation with the National Museum.

Early proposals by the Board of Works encountered opposition from the Minister for Education, Tomás Derrig (another Civil War Kilmainham prisoner), who expressed the view that the buildings were generally unsuitable for conversion to museum purposes. As an alternative, the department put forward a suggestion by the director of the National Museum, Adolf Mahr, that—following the example of Nationalist Spain, where the former republican prison in Madrid was preserved as a place of remembrance—the galleries and cells should be retained in their existing state and that memorial tablets should be provided to recall the history of the liberation movements. In other words, the gaol would be more a shrine than a museum; there would be no need for any exhibits.
This suggestion may have reflected the National Museum’s concerns that their most popular collections, those illustrating Irish political history, would be removed from Kildare Street. Mahr stressed that the gaol was unsatisfactory for museum purposes both because of its location and because of the great expense necessary to convert it adequately for such purposes. Mahr knew the mentality of the Department of Finance and his emphasis on expenditure probably helped to ensure the temporary shelving of the project. Nonetheless, the Fianna Fáil government’s apparent interest, however lethargic, in developing the gaol continued; at a meeting of the executive council on 4 December 1936 it was finally decided that the gaol premises would be acquired by the state from the county council and that the main building would be preserved and the remaining buildings demolished to make way for a public park. Over a year later, however, the gaol building had still not been purchased from the county council.( continued next post)

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Kilmainham Gaol ( continued )

With Seán Fitzpatrick continuing in his efforts to exert pressure on the government, the media briefly rallied to his cause. On 14 March 1938 the Irish Press featured a prominent article that included an interview with Fitzpatrick, under the title ‘Shall Kilmainham fall?’ The article elaborated on Fitzpatrick’s proposal, as well as publishing his plans for the treatment of the 1916 plot and the ‘Invincibles’ plot in the form of a memorial park. A special open day, organised by Fitzpatrick and other members of a Seán Heuston Memorial Committee, was permitted by the council on Sunday 19 March and vast crowds visited the gaol. As the Irish Times recorded:

‘From mid-day to 6pm there was a constant stream of people, and the queue, which waited outside for admission, stretched at times to about a quarter of a mile. Over a hundred stewards were on duty to act as guides to the various places of interest, and there was also a large detachment of Civic Guards and members of the St John Ambulance Brigade. Most of the guides obviously had a keen interest in their work. They have studied the history of the prison, and many had vivid stories to tell of escapes, executions and famous men.’
Later in the same year the gaol and the adjoining land were finally purchased by the Board of Works for the nominal sum of £100. The low price was agreed on the understanding that the prison would be restored as a museum. Following the acquisition, more estimates and surveys were carried out by the Board of Works, along with further consultation with the National Museum. These deliberations were, however, halted in 1939 with the outbreak of war in Europe, and plans for the gaol museum slid out of focus. In 1945 the Department of Posts and Telegraphs and the Department of Finance both enquired as to the possibility of the gaol premises being adapted for office accommodation. The Public Records Office also requested additional storage accommodation and the suggestions put forward included the adaptation of the gaol, ‘giving 15,000ft of shelving, the provision of a new wing at one end of the main hall for stairs, lifts, office and sanitary accommodation, and the demolition of the remaining buildings’. These proposals (as well as that for a defence museum) were not accepted, mainly on the grounds of the cost involved. Although this continuing highly unsatisfactory situation was raised in the Dáil in 1946, no action was taken and the gaol continued to fall into decay. By the early 1950s it was considered a dangerous building, with serious risk of falling debris in parts of the site. In August 1953 a cabinet committee meeting finally decided that the gaol should be converted to a museum with a small memorial park and that with this adaptation no permanent wall or structure would be removed. On 28 August a press release was issued confirming that the government ‘have recently decided that Kilmainham Gaol should be preserved as a national monument, and the necessary steps to that end are being put in place’.

The ‘necessary steps’ were in fact not taken and the situation continued to stall. In 1954 a new coalition (non-Fianna Fáil) government assumed office. This interparty government included the Labour Party, and one of its members, John O’Leary, appeared to make the party position on Kilmainham very clear in the Dáil on 15 June:
‘We believe that the spending of money on Constellations [a reference to Aer Lingus’s acquisition of Constellation aircraft at this time] and on schemes such as the building of the Bray Road, Kilmainham Gaol, and on new government buildings, should cease. We believe that all these schemes were nonsense and should not have been introduced by Fianna Fáil. I often wonder how Deputy de Valera allowed his party to introduce them.’
This kind of depressingly negative mind-set, not uncommon in this period, continued to hamper any hopes of progress. Goaded by the remarkable government inaction (and rumours that the Board of Works were inviting tenders for the demolition of the jail), the baton, which had been held for so long by Seán Fitzpatrick, was taken up by a Dublin engineer, Lorcan Leonard, who began to gather support for a voluntary restoration project. Leonard was very successful in bringing together a group of concerned citizens (including veterans of the struggle for independence, architects, lawyers, tradesmen, etc.) to form a provisional restoration committee in 1959. Public meetings were held to outline the proposals for the gaol. An impressive project proposal was submitted to the government by Leonard. At a government meeting on 26 February 1960 the restoration committee’s proposed project was finally approved. Among some of the older government ministers there may have been a measure of relief to have the fate of the gaol settled at no expense. Care of the ‘national shrine’ would be someone else’s responsibility.

In conclusion, it seems remarkable that these ‘wilderness years’, when Kilmainham Gaol fell into a serious state of decay, continued for so long. With a little imagination Fianna Fáil (in government for so much of the period discussed) could have exploited the site in their own interest. Indeed, with so many of the party having associations with the gaol, most famously de Valera (under sentence of death in 1916 and the last prisoner held in the gaol after the Civil War), it is difficult to understand why there was so much procrastination and inertia on their part regarding this issue. Seán Fitzpatrick, on the other hand, deserves credit for his vision of developing the gaol as a national monument and for his perseverance with that aspiration. His endeavour, and that of other little-known men and women who came to share his vision (beyond the scope of this brief essay), represents a unique and inspiring instance of active citizenship and passionate voluntarism towards a patriotic cause in modern Irish history. HI

Rory O’Dwyer lectures in history at University College Cork.

[DAMNTHEWEATHER]

Walk down Clonmel Street from the Green end of Harcourt Street and amble into the hidden world of the Iveagh Gardens......one of Dubs hidden gems.

The Iveagh Gardens are among the finest and least known of Dublin's parks and gardens. They were designed by Ninian Niven, in 1865, as an intermediate design between the 'French Formal' and the 'English Landscape' styles. They demonstrated the artistic skills of the landscape Architect of the mid 19th century and display a unique collection of landscape features which include Rustic Grotto's and Cascade, sunken formal panels of lawn with Fountain Centre Pieces, Wilderness, Woodlands, Maze, Rosarium, American Garden, Archery Grounds, Rockeries and Rooteries.

The conservation and restoration of the Gardens commenced in 1995 and to date most of the features have been restored, for example the Maze in Box hedging with a Sundial as a centrer piece. The recently restored Cascade and exotic tree ferns all help to create a sense of wonder in the 'Secret Garden'. The pre 1860s rose varieties add an extra dimension to the Victorian Rosarium.

[bojangles]

Kidnapped , a Georgian adventure .

An excellent documentary on BBC 4 tonight about James Annesley who lived as a street urchin in Dublin in the 1700s
The novel Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson was based on his story .
You can watch it here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0135m59

[muiris]

Dublin be damned! Playing with skulls in dublin

For more on Dublin's hidden history an new book on Dublin - DUBLIN BE DAMNED - Discovering a Heroic City, Surviving a Hidden City. was seen in Alan Hanna's books in Rathmines. It's also available in the usual outlets and also on Amazon. It's written by that local historian Maurice Curtis who wrote on the Liberties and Monto etc.

Not only does he look at some of the great areas of Dublin including Monto, Hell, the Liberties, Temple Bar etc, but he also looks at many of the great characters of the city ranging from Zozimus, Dublin's 'Invisible Prince, the 'Monarch of the Liberties' , Bang Bang, the 'Shaking Hand of Dublin' etc.

Moreover, the story will bring you back to our younger more mischievous days - he used to play football in Mount Jerome cemetery using skulls as football! Followed by a game of Skulls and Roses on the coffins in the vaults. Read this book at your peril!

[jembo]

For more on Dublin's hidden history an new book on Dublin - DUBLIN BE DAMNED - Discovering a Heroic City, Surviving a Hidden City. was seen in Alan Hanna's books in Rathmines. It's also available in the usual outlets and also on Amazon. It's written by that local historian Maurice Curtis who wrote on the Liberties and Monto etc.

Not only does he look at some of the great areas of Dublin including Monto, Hell, the Liberties, Temple Bar etc, but he also looks at many of the great characters of the city ranging from Zozimus, Dublin's 'Invisible Prince, the 'Monarch of the Liberties' , Bang Bang, the 'Shaking Hand of Dublin' etc.

Moreover, the story will bring you back to our younger more mischievous days - he used to play football in Mount Jerome cemetery using skulls as football! Followed by a game of Skulls and Roses on the coffins in the vaults. Read this book at your peril!

When did you write it Maurice....sorry I meant to say muiris

[rossi]

Kilmainham Gaol, like most major prisons of its time, was a place of execution as well as punishment.

From the start, there was a gallows above the main entrance of the Gaol, and thousands of people would make the five mile trip from the city centre to see some unfortunate wretch 'turned off'.
[ATTACH]66744[/ATTACH]
No image exists today of the gallows above Kilmainham Gaol's entrance. However, it was, apparently, so well designed that an almost copy was installed in Newgate Prison in the city centre two years later, in 1798.

This was later photographed after Newgate was abandoned and the above illustration is a composite of that gallows and Kilmainham Gaol entrance as it is today.

As Kilmainham was so far outside Dublin city centre, most onlookers would go to other prisons, e.g. Newgate, or execution sites, e.g. St. Stephen's Green - easier to reach and probably with better entertainment facilities (pubs, restaurants etc).

Gallows' Hill:
Kilmainham Gaol is built on Gallows Hill, an execution site in the 18th century on the main road to the west of Ireland from Dublin City.

This site was moved in the 18th century to st. Stephen's Green on the then southern outskirts of the city.

But, when Kilmainham Gaol opened in 1796, hangings returned to Gallows' Hill.

It is said that up to five thousand people would make the trip to Kilmainham Gaol for a particularly notorious or famous person's hanging until public executions were eventually banned in 1868.

Alcohol was sold, and toffee apples, and hot cakes by hawkers, pickpockets plied their trade and, frequently, the army and cavalry were present to control the crowds.

Small children mingled with adults, family members and friends tried to remain incognito in the crowd, and reporters would be on hand to record the event and, especially, any last words the condemned may utter and which could be later published.

Once the actual execution had taken place, these reporters would hasten back to their offices in the city, usually on horseback or by coach. There, the last words of the condemned would be added to a report of the crime and trial already prepared and a broadsheet quickly printed up for sale to the crowd as it made its way back to the city via the many pubs along the route.

Last Public Execution:
The last public execution in Kilmainham Gaol took place on July 22, 1865, when Patrick Kilkenny was hanged for the murder of Margaret Waugh.

Private Hangings:
All later executions took place within the walls of the Gaol - at first in a yard of the prison (now known as the Invincibles Yard, for that is where the Invincibles were hanged in 1883 - and later moved into the building itself in the 1890s into a a new, purpose-built execution chamber known as the 'Drop Cell' today.

Last Hanging:
The last ever hanging in Kilmainham Gaol was on January 4th, 1910, when Joseph Heffernan was executed for the brutal murder of Mary Walker, a post office clerk in Mullingar, the previous year.

Like many executions a question hangs over the justice of this one, with a strong circumstantial argument being made that Joseph was innocent of the crime, being nothing more than a useful scapegoat.

180 Hangings:
In all, there were about 180 hangings in Kilmainham Gaol from the day it opened in 1796 until its closure in 1910.

Famous Executions:
There were several notable figures hanged there, among them Robert Emmet and the aforementioned Irish National Invincibles, but most were for petty crimes, people who are now long forgotten.

Kilmainham opened during the period of what was known as the 'Bloody Code' when - in Britain and Ireland - there were over 200 hanging offences, mostly ridiculously petty crimes against property.

and beheaded because the hangman, Thomas Galvin, did not know how to carry out the full sentence, it being the only such sentence passed during his professional life. (In fact, it was the last such sentence passed in Ireland).

Firing Squads:
When the Gaol re-opened in 1914, it was no longer a civilian prison but an army barracks and prison.

Therefore, all executions that now took place there were military, and that, of course, meant firing squads.

A further eighteen men were to be executed thus until the prison's final closure in 1924.

(Above) The most famous Kilmainham execution not to take place in the prison. Robert Emmet was hanged by Thomas Galvin in Thomas Street, Dublin, before a crowd some estimate at 40,000.

Female Executions: Bluestacks Kodi Lucky Patcher
Out of these 180, only three were of women, for there was a reluctance to execute the 'fair sex'. Edward Trevor, the evil medical inspector of Kilmainhmam Gaol, alluded to this rarity and the public horror at a female execution when he screamed at Anne Devlin "I've only ever seen one woman hanged, but if I see another, I hope it is you"!


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Exceptionally fascinating perusing and tosses light on a portion of the names that I frequently pondered about when I was growing up.