Kilmainham Gaol - An Astonishing Record of Irish History

Kilmainham Gaol is a genuine historical Irish experience that will deliver a compelling and brutal history story that no resident or visitor of Ireland should miss.

I must admit that I was personally late to the party on this one. I live ten minutes from Kilmainham Gaol. I’m 36 years old, and I had never visited this amazing experience before and when my tour finished I felt patriotic and proud to be an Irish man.

The Kilmainham Gaol tour is not only a must for people that live in Ireland. People visiting Ireland that wish to gain amazing and shocking knowledge about our small country within the space of an hour, this is the tour for you!

First thing you need to know is that booking a ticket well in advance is definitely a requirement. Kilmainham Gaol is one of the most popular tourist attraction's in Dublin. It's possible for Kilmainham Gaol to get booked out weeks in advance through their website, so make sure to book online when you visit and get those tickets purchased early. Our visit was on a Monday and there was only a 10.30 am space available when we made our booking two weeks in advance. They say you can buy tickets on entry but I wouldn't risk it in case it is booked out. The cost of an adult ticket is only €8 which is excellent value for a large tourist attraction by Dublin standards. Teenagers and students cost €4, with children under 12 being free of charge.

When you arrive, you wait in the courtroom for your tour to begin. In the courtroom you can see the Judge’s seat and also where the family member's of prisoners would sit during their hearings.When your tour is ready to begin, your guide will call you out into a courtyard and introduce herself. She will then explain some safety requirements on the tour. The reason i'm mentioning the safety requirements is because of one that stood out. “Kilmainham is a prison, and it's designed to be confusing so its harder for prisoners to escape, so please don’t wander off as you will get lost”.

After the briefing on safety points, you enter a room where your guide will play a short slideshow explaining the history of the prison. They will describe the type of people that were taken to the prison, from a rebellion in 1798 to the Irish civil war in 1922.

Many early leaders of the Irish civil war were confined and executed here.

As you tour the prison, you come across the cell’s and execution areas. Hearing touching stories about the prisoner's lives, and what they had sacrificed to make Ireland the free and prosperous country it is today.

There will be some dark and gut-wrenching accounts along the way of the treatment of prisoners but nothing too harsh to give the children nightmares. I brought my 8-year-old daughter and she thoroughly enjoyed it, especially exploring the prison.

One of the most impressive things about this experience was the love you could feel from the guide for the job they do. The knowledge and respect that they have, not just for the prison, but for Irish history as well, and the desire to share it.

Kilmainham Gaol is one of the most historic places related to the formation of the Irish Republic outside of Dublin’s city centre. It's a necessity for anyone that wants to discover more about the history of this fine country we live in today.

You can book tickets for Kilmainham Gaol here.

You can find their google map location here.