I happened to watch it with the others who live in my apartment a few nights ago, and great thing I did because it allowed me to appreciate the museum I visited today much more than if I hadn't seen it.
Melike and I hopped on the Luas where we got off at Heuston stop, walked across the grounds of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and on to Kilmainham Gaol. It turns out that the Irish Museum of Modern Art inhabits what used to be the Kilmainham Gaol Hospital.
Standing in the court yard of the Kilmainham Gaol hospital
squirrel sign, on the walk to Kilmainham Gaol, heh.
Kilmainham Gaol is a famous prison, now a museum, which imprisoned all of the leaders of the rebellions from the 1700s-1924 leading up to Irish Independence. Before John Howard introduced a prison system of silence, solitude, and vigilance, prisoners of all sexes and ages were kept in a room together allowing for rapid spread of disease. Before the potato famine in 1845, there were about 1900 prisoners held in Kilmainham Gaol. By the end of the famine, there were nearly 10,000. Why was there a rapid increase? Because begging for food on the street was a crime. Many Irish also committed crimes in order to be put into jail, the rationale being that if they were in jail, at least they could get a bit to eat in order to survive.
Before I go on any further, I will give a brief history of Irish politics from the late 1700s until Irish Independence in 1923.
Beginning in the 1700s, Ireland was politically, economically, and socially dominated by a minority of great landowners who were Protestant Clergy, meaning members of the Church of Ireland or Church of England. Successive severe winters resulting in poor harvests and a largescale famine killing between 310,000 and 480,000 Irishmen around 1740 (not the potato famine), probably were the "last straw breaking the camels back"for many of the land tenants living under poor conditions and now starving. The majority of the Irish (not land owners obviously) were either Roman Catholic or Presbyterian at the time and had fewer rights (being too poor to vote and all..) than the Protestant land owners causing the majority of the Irish to brew resentment for the Protestant Ascendancy and the privileges they had.
And so the rebellions began, beginning with the formation of the United Irishmen who formed most likely due to the influence of Thomas Paine's Rights of Man. Theobald Wolfe Tone wrote a similar document titled "Argument on Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland which maintained that 'religious division was a tool of the elite to...(balance) the one party by the other, plunder and laugh at the defeat of both' and put forward the case for unity between Catholic, Protestant, and Dissenter (thanks, wikipedia--couldn't have said it better myself)." After the release of the document, Tone along with others interested in promoting unity between the groups, met in Belfast (Northern Ireland--today still a part of the UK) where the group became known as the United Irishmen.
The ideals of the United Irishmen involving reforms British Rule and eventually hopes of an Irish Republic spread throughout Ireland. Eventually becoming a threat, the group became outlawed and after years of planning, the first rebellion known as the Rebellion of 1798 erupted only to be immediately crushed due to lack of leadership (the leaders were captured and executed including Tone).
The second rebellion of United Irishmen in 1803 also carefully planned for years was led by Robert Emmet. His plan was to take over Dublin Castle as well as a few other governmental buildings like the Post Office. His intelligence was also leaked and so the rebellion was quickly crushed with Emmet being taken to Kilmainham Gaol and eventually being publicly hung.
During 1845 when "potato blight" struck Ireland, nearly 25% of the population disappeared. Britain underestimated the famine when delivering aid. About ten years later, the Irish Republican Brotherhood (also known as the Fenians) formed determined to overcome British Rule by force. They attempted an uprising in 1867, but were like the others crushed by Britain and sent underground for nearly 30 years.
In the mean time, recovery from the potato famine sent crop prices rising. However, that signaled the landowners to increase taxes. Eventually the bubble burst and Irish farmers were evicted from the land. This signalled Charles Parnell to create the Land League, which encouraged all peasant farmers to refuse to work land and pay rent to landowners who had previously evicted another peasant farmer. Because the Land League policies incited so much violence, Britain deemed some of its actions illegal and arrested Parnell and other leaders. Because Parnell was also a member of British Parliament, he was treated as a VIP in the jail, being given a large room and being allowed his own furniture from home installed. He also was able to leave for 2 weeks to Paris to attend a funeral and even ordered many of his meals to Kilmainham Gaol from local Dublin hotels.
Banner carried to Land League conference
While Parnell was in jail, his sisters formed the Ladies Land League in America in 1881 in an attempt to fundraise for the Irish distress. This would have been one of the first women's political organizations of Ireland had Parnell not disbanded it upon his release from jail. He did so in order to sway parliaments vote towards better land laws for peasants.
Ladies Land League
Fanny Parnell (left) Anna Parnell (right)
Letter from Anna Parnell to Madame Drapers in Ireland requesting her to influence her lady friends to form a branch of the Ladies Land League
After much cultural revival brought on by the Gaelic League encouraging the use of Irish games and the teaching of the Gaelic language, the Irish began to feel a sense of pride for their identity. When the Third Home Rule Act (would allow the Irish to have a parliament, but still answer to Britain) in 1912 failed, many young Irish began to believe the only route for Ireland was to be a complete independent republic.
When in 1914, WWI began, nearly 100,000 Irishmen were fighting in the war under Britain. I would say this was a difficult time for Irish nationalists to be fighting against Britain when many of their countrymen were dying in WWI battles FOR Britain (not by choice necessarily). By 1916, the war was still not over, and the Irish Republican Brotherhood was impatient with waiting. A gun shipment from Germany meant to be used in the Easter Uprising rebellion of 1916 was captured by the British and so the leaders of the rebellion Patrick Pearse, Thomas MacDonagh, and Joseph Plunkett led 1,500 other rebels onwards with the rebellion anyway. The plan was identical to Robert Emmets plan from the 1803 rebellion over 100 years earlier (see how inspirational he was?) and the leaders led rebels to overtake the General Post Office and other strategic buildings around dublin. Fighting against nearly 20,000 British Soldiers, the rebels eventually surrendered after 6 days of gruesome battle and 450 men were killed.
Thirteen of the leaders and 1 brother of a leader was captured and jailed in Kilmainham Gaol:
Eamonn Ceannt
Seán MacDiarmada
Thomas MacDonagh
Joseph Plunkett
James Connollyas well as Patrick Henry Pearse, Thomas Clarke, Edward Daly, Michael O'Hanrahan, John MacBride, Con Colbert, Michael Mallin, Seán Heuston, and William Pearse (Patrick H. Pearse's brother).
1 of 20 existing original copies with the names of 7 of the Easter Rising Leaders
Oath to the Republic
They all were put in the same wing of Kilmainham Gaol and their area of cells became known as 1916.
1916 row
Stairs the leaders of the Easter Rising used.
These cells were locked and unopened for viewing, but I was able to fit my camera through a peep hole to view their cells. These were actual cells that the 14 above listed men stayed in.
The rooms were quite small with a window above the cell. Each room would contain a wooden plank (the bed), a bucket (toilet), a blanket, and once every two weeks, the inhabitants would be given a wax candle. The window at the top would let in Irish air, and even in the summer time, that would make the rooms quite cold. Keeping the cells cold was important at the time because jailers believed it would keep disease from spreading. The windows were originally installed to remind the inmates that not only were prison guards watching them, but God was looking down on them as well. This was an actual psychological approach to allow inmates to reflect on their crimes and to prevent them from planning escapes.
All 14 of the above listed men were to be executed during a ten day period from May 3-May 12, 1916. Upon news of their anticipated execution, the men were allowed to write letters to family and loved ones. Joseph Plunkett for example cursed himself to Grace Gifford calling himself an "imbecile" for not asking her sooner--he arranged to have her brought to the jail to marry him the night before the execution.
The two were married on this alter-the alter in the church of the gaol--on May 3, 1916, nearly 6 hours before his execution. The couple was given 10 minutes to say their goodbyes.
The executions took place at nearly 3 AM on the following dates:
Each man was taken to the stone breaking yard (yard where prisoners were sent to break up rocks for exercise).
Stone Breaking Yard
This cross marks the place each of the men stood. As you can see the walls of this area are very high, allowing no other prisoners in the gaol to witness the executions. The executions took place around 3 am, which may have been to keep the public from witnessing as well. At the time, there was a curfew for all citizens at which 3 am it was illegal to be on the streets. The men were marched to the spot of the cross with hands tied behind their backs. They were blind folded and a white piece of paper was pinned over their hearts as a spot for the firing squads to aim. The firing squads were typically very young and anxious. To help the firing squads cope, one of the guns would be loaded with a blank bullet, so that each soldier could believe that he might have been the one with the blank and therefore not responsible for the execution.
There is also a cross at the other end of the stone breaking yard next to the gate.
This is the spot where James Connolly was executed. Connolly was the last of the 14 to be executed. This was so, because he had been wounded on the last day of Easter Rising in battle. Instead of being in Kilmainham Gaol, he was in Kilmainham Gaol Hospital (now the Irish Museum of Modern Art). His wounds had become gangrenous and terrible infected causing him to be unable to stand or walk and leaving him mostly unconscious. On the day he was to be executed, he was put into an ambulance and placed on a stretcher to be brought through the above gate. He was strapped to a chair where the cross sits and executed.
One last personal story of the 14 men is that of William Pearse, the younger brother of Patrick Pearse. Patrick Pearse was seen as the top leader of the Easter Rising. William, however, is said to have only been a minor player in the Easter Rising, but during his trial exaggerated his involvement. Many say it was only because he was Patrick Pearse's brother that he was executed.
To analyze, by the end of the 10 days of executions, the public began hearing stories like that of Joseph Plunkett marrying Grace Gifford and began to anger at hearing more executions each day. If all of the executions had taken place on one day, perhaps the effect would have been less on the public. Where the public was mostly insupportive of the Easter Rising before the executions, they now became enraged and began to support the idea of a Republic.
Sinn Fein, an emerging political party against Home Rule and for an Irish Republic, gained support in 1917 with Eaomonn de Valera (who was also an American citizen) as the President of the party. The British wrongly blamed Sinn Fein for Easter Rising, causing Sinn Fein to gain respect and popularity among Irishmen.
In 1919, when Home Rule had been discussed for over 7 years but not implemented, The Irish Volunteer Force renamed themselves the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and killed 2 Irish policemen (working with Britain) marking the beginning of the War of Independence. In 1920, the IRA led by Michael Collins intensified the war by killing 11 British soldiers beginning a bloody fight of British killing civilians and the IRA retaliating by killing more British Soldiers. Eventually a stalemate was reached, and a treaty was signed between British and Michael Collins on behalf of the IRA even though he did not consult the rest of the IRA. The treaty gave Ireland its own parliament, flag, and army, however, it still demanded Irishmen to pledge an oath of allegiance to the King. The land became known as the Irish Free State with Eamonn de Valera becoming the first prime minister. However, de Valera along with many of the other members of the IRA were not happy with this treaty. A later vote on the treaty ended with a slight majority supporting the treaty and resulted in de Valera and other members of Sinn Fein to walk out of the building. Therefore, the IRA was split with the protreaty members becoming a part of the official Irish Free State army and the antitreaty members planning another rebellion.
Now imagine, these were men who had fought together for the same cause, creating organizations together, sharing the grief of lost comrades--they themselves were friends. With the signing of the treaty, many friendships were severed with patriotism reigning over camaraderie.
In 1922, the anti treaty members including de Valera seized the four courts in Dublin and other buildings. Michael Collins and the Irish Free State government tried to reason with the anti treaty IRA (remember, these were Michael Collins friends, so emotions were soaring), but to no avail, and Collins was forced to order the Army to shoot at the IRA. The IRA was driven out of Dublin, however, Collins unknowingly had just triggered a Civil War. Also, in the shooting of the buildings by the Irish Army, a fire was started destroying most of Irelands important documents up to that time including the census (which is why genealogists have such a difficult time searching ancestries).
After a brutal civil war of anti treaty IRA versus the Irish Free State Army, the Free State Army eventually won out, capturing and executing many of the anti IRA leaders. Towards the end of the war, the leaders of the anti treaty IRA including de Valera ordered the anti treaty IRA to dump arms rather than surrender them and return home. de Valera reasoned that any lives lost at that point would be in vain. After the men dumped their arms and returned home, thousands were arrested including de Valera and taken to Kilmainham Gaol.
de Valeras cell
Prisoners were only allowed to use the spiral staircase
Also at this time, the Irish Free State Army was well aware of the women who had created safe houses for the IRA (previously being IRA themselves). These women were typically wives or fiances of the men and would pass intelligence between IRA members, and even hide guns in their homes. They were a crucial part of the IRA. Therefore, the Irish Free State preemptively arrested many of the women at risk of helping the IRA.
Here, the cell of Grace Griffith (married Joseph Plunkett on May 3, 1916 before his execution)
Grace Plunkett was an artist and spent 3 months in Kilmainham Gaol. During that time, she painted the Madonna and Child on the wall (I was forced to photograph it through a key hole).
Graffiti above one of the cells reading "NO SURRENDER" written by one of the Anti Treaty IRA members. This was on the outside of the door-a difficult task to complete with a guard watching.
de Valera is the last prisoner to be held in Kilmainham Gaol. de Valera was released in 1924, the same year the prison was decommissioned for use. Many of the anti-treaty IRA leaders were executed, however, the Irish Free State did not execute de Valera due to his American citizenship.
4 of the men executed for fighting with the IRA, all under 25 years of age. James Fisher's last words to his mother were on display...
de Valera eventually resigns from presidency of Sinn Fein and founds a new political party called Fianna Fáil. He realized he could no longer fight the Irish Free State, but rather become a political figure, get elected, and change the system from within. In 1933, Fianna Fáil won a majority Dáil Eírrean (Irish voting system/congress) and by 1936, the Dáil passed a motion abolishing the senate of the Irish Free State and the office of Governor General of the Irish Free State. de Valera introduced a new Constitution of Ireland in 1937 (with no oath of allegiance to the king) and was the first to have the title of Taoiseach of Ireland also in 1937.
A Book of Resurrection commemorating the leaders of 1916 rising was on display
Title Page
Name Page
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