Kilmainham Gaol Museum

16/06/2026

As it is Bloomsday, we thought we would look at a fascinating object connected with John Howard Parnell who features on a number of occasions in Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’. John Howard Parnell was the brother of Charles Stewart Parnell, one of the most famous prisoners to spend time in Kilmainham Gaol. The Kilmainham Gaol Museum collection contains a number of items connected with both brothers, among them a metal chess piece presented to John Howard in 1897 by the Anglo-American Telegraph Company when John Howard Parnell was an MP in Westminster. It was souvenir of the chess match between the House of Commons in London and the House of Representatives in Washington which was played over the cable lines of the Anglo-American Telegraph Company in London and the Western Union Telegraph based in New York.

John Howard Parnell, was the Dublin city marshal and registrar of pawn-brokers in 1904 when ‘Ulysses’ was set. He first appears in the "Lestrygonians" episode of the book, when Leopold Bloom sees him near the Provost’s House on Grafton St. Bloom surmises that, although his due at a meeting of Dublin Corporation in his capacity as City Marshal, Parnell is heading instead to the D.B.C. (Dublin Bread Company) café at 33 Dame St. which was popular with chess enthusiasts.

"The sun freed itself slowly and lit glints of light among the silverware opposite in Walter Sexton's window by which John Howard Parnell passed, unseeing.
There he is: the brother. Image of him. Haunting face. Now that's a coincidence. Course hundreds of times you think of a person and don't meet him. Like a man walking in his sleep. No-one knows him. Must be a corporation meeting today. They say he never put on the city marshal's uniform since he got the job. Charley Boulger used to come out on his high horse, cocked hat, puffed, powdered and shaved. Look at the woebegone walk of him. Eaten a bad egg. Poached eyes on ghost. I have a pain. Great man's brother: his brother's brother. He'd look nice on the city charger. Drop into the D.B.C. probably for his coffee, play chess there. His brother used men as pawns. Let them all go to pot. Afraid to pass a remark on him. Freeze them up with that eye of his. That's the fascination: the name. All a bit touched. Mad F***y and his other sister Mrs Dickinson driving about with scarlet harness. Bolt upright like surgeon M'Ardle. Still David Sheehy beat him for South Meath. Apply for the Chiltern Hundreds and retire into public life. The patriot's banquet. Eating orangepeels in the park. Simon Dedalus said when they put him in parliament that Parnell would come back from the grave and lead him out of the House of Commons by the arm."

In the chess-themed ‘Wandering Rocks’ section of 'Ulysses', John Howard Parnell is spotted by two other characters in the novel, Buck Mulligan and the English student ‘Haines’. Bloom was correct in his earlier speculation as John Howard Parnell is indeed sitting in the D.B.C. café on Dame Street playing a solitary chess game with himself.

"As they trod across the thick carpet Buck Mulligan whispered behind his Panama to Haines:
— Parnell's brother. There in the corner.
They chose a small table near the window, opposite a longfaced man whose beard and gaze hung intently down on a chessboard.
— Is that he? Haines asked, twisting round in his seat.
— Yes, Mulligan said. That's John Howard, his brother, our city marshal.
John Howard Parnell translated a white bishop quietly and his grey claw went up again to his forehead whereat it rested."

When a procession led by the Viceroy, the Earl of Dudley, passes the restaurant and other patrons crowd at the windows to see it, Parnell does not lift his head from his game, thus registering his distain for the way the British government treated his brother.

John Howard Parnell appears a third time in the ‘Circe’ episode when Bloom fantasises about receiving his blessing as he assumes the role of leader of ‘Bloomusalem’, a utopian city which will replace Dublin in the future.

09/06/2026

We were delighted to welcome Ciara Dwyer to the Gaol last week. Her grandfather, George Dwyer, was a prisoner in Kilmainham in 1921 and features in several photographs in our current exhibition, 'The Prisoners' Lens: Secret Photgraphy in Kilmaiham Gaol, 1921'. Thanks to entries in autograph books, we can identify his cell in the East Wing which Ciara visited. There is a photo of him taken in a cell (he kneels on the right), but we can't be sure if it was taken in that cell. However we were able to locate the exact location in the exercise yards where he was photographed along with four unidentified prisoners (George Dwyer stands on the right in the back row). Ciara was able to stand and be photogrphed in the same spot where her grandfather stood 105 years ago.

05/06/2026

June is LGBTQIA+ Pride month and we will be running two q***r history tour which explore the lives of le***an, gay, bisexual and transgender people connected with the prison, including many who played a crucial role in the struggle for Irish Independence.
The tours will run on Saturday 12 June

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/a-q***r-history-tour-of-kilmainham-gaol-tickets-1991204322731?aff=oddtdtcreator

and Friday 26 June @ 4.30pm.

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/a-q***r-history-tour-of-kilmainham-gaol-tickets-1991204651715?aff=oddtdtcreator

The tours are free but must be booked via eventrbrite.

This q***r history tour of Kilmainham Gaol focuses on the lives of LGBTQ+ people connected with one of Ireland's most historic buildings.

26/05/2026

An edition of the popular illustrated newspaper, 'The Pictorial World', published on this day, 26 May 1883, featured a series of illustrations related to the ex*****on of Joseph Brady in Kilmainham Gaol on 14 May. Joseph Brady was a member of the Invincibles and was hanged for his part in the assassination of the Chief Secretary of Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, and the Under-Secretary, T. H. Burke.

Among the images is one showing the inquest carried out after Brady's ex*****on by the county coroner, Dr. Hardy. According to some of the newspaper reports, the inquest was held in room which had previously been occupied by Charles Stewart Parnell when he was a prisoner in Kilmainham between October 1881 and May 1882. The illustration certainly looks very like Parnell’s room.

Interestingly, it seems Parnell also had use of the room across the corridor whihc he used as a bedroom (visitors to the Gaol may know it as the Robert Emmet room). It seems that, at the time of ex*****on of the Invincibles, this room was occupied by James Carey. He was the former leader of the Invincibles and testified against his comrades in order to avoid ex*****on.

(Historic image of Parnell's room comes from 'Kilmainham Memories' by Tighe Hopkins, article on the Joseph Brady ex*****on is from the 'Newcastle Journal', 15 May 1883)

25/05/2026

Today marks the anniversary of the attack on the Custom House on 25 May, 1921 during the War of Independence. Many of the men who were captured in its aftermath were later imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol and appeared in the photographs which feature in our current exhibtion, 'The Prisoners' Lens, Secret Photography in Kilmainham Gaol, 1921'.

Among the photos in the exhibtion is this one of featuring the members of an I.R.A. unit captured following the burning of the Custom House. Among the men featured were: Front row l-r: Christopher Fitzsimons, William Doyle; Middle row l-r: George Gray, James Harpur, John Foy, Paddy Evers, James Doyle; Back row l-r: James Heery, John Muldowney, James Gibbons, Joseph Gilhooly, Peter Radcliffe

14/05/2026

We are very excited about our in-conversation event this Saturday at 11am in which art teachers working in Irish prisons will discuss their work and why art is so important to their students in the Irish prison system. Those attending the event will also have an opportunity to see some of the work produced in Irish prisons which feature in our current temporary exhibtion, 'For Veronica'. To book your place at Saturday's event go to : https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/the-landscape-of-prison-art-and-crafts-tickets-1989208109002?aff=oddtdtcreator

14/05/2026

Joe Brady was executed in Kilmainham Gaol , 14 May, 1883. He and four other members of the Invincibles were sentenced to death for the assassination of Lord Frederick Cavendish, the Chief Secretary of Ireland, and T. H. Burke, the Under Secretary.

13/05/2026

Some images from the Education and Outreach (Ed+O) Forum organised by the Irish Museums Association and the Northern Ireland Museums Council where Brian Crowley from Kilmainham Gaol and Jo Bruck from UCD School of Archaeology gave a presentation on 'Objects, war and memory in Ireland past and present'. This exhibition was co-curated with seven people who have come to Ireland as refugees and which took inspiration from objects and stories from the Kilmainham Gaol. The exhibtion ran from October to February this year. A travelling version of the exhibition can currently be seen in Ballyfermot Library.

12/05/2026

In the early hours of 12 May 1916, James Connolly was visited by his wife Lillie and daughter Nora in Dublin Castle. He had been brought to a military hospital there after the Rising having received a fatal wound in the course of the Rising. Nora later described their final parting:

"…they told us the time was up and that we’d have to go. (He was to be shot at dawn)
So Mama – we couldn’t get Mama away from the bed and the nurse had to come and help her away.
And I went to the door. And then I went back again to him. And that was the last I saw of him."

Shorty after this farewell, James Connolly was executed in the Stonebreakers Yard of Kilmainham Gaol.

In the 1926 Nora Connolly O’Brien was living at 36 Belgrave Square in Rathmines with her husband Seamus. There are three household returns recorded for that address as her mother also lived there, as did her brother Roddy and his wife Jessica (Lillie Connolly is pictured here with her daughter Fiona). The Connolly family remained active in socialist politics ande ud the tranion movement throughout their lives. The socialist movement was often beset by splits and division, at the time of the 1926 census Roddy Connolly was in the process of setting up the Workers Party of Ireland in opposition to Jim Larkin’s Irish Workers League. It failed to gain the support of the Communist International and dissolved after about two years. Roddy Connolly then joined the Irish Labour Party. Nora Connolly O’Brien was a co-founder of the party. Three years earlier during the Civil War she had been a prisoner in Kilmainham Gaol and spoke movingly about her father at the commemoration the women prisoners organised to mark the seventh anniversary of the Rising and her father’s ex*****on. She was later a member on the first management committee of the Kilmainham Jail Restoration Society (KJRS) in c.1960, the only woman on the board.

In 1926 another of the Connolly siblings, Ina Connolly Heron, lived nearby on Casimir Road. She was also a 1916 veteran and labour activist and her husband Archie is listed as a trade union official. Interestingly, it seems they had a Latvian family, the Martinsens, living with them at the time.

12/05/2026

Seán Mac Diarmada wrote a letter to his brothers and sisters prior to his ex*****on in Kilmainham Gaol on 12 May 1916. While some of his siblings can found in the 1926 census, in these post we are going to look at the Ryan sisters who visited him in Kilmainham the night before he was shot. MacDiarmada mentioned Mary Joseph Ryan, known as ‘Min’, in his last letter to his family and wrote that if he had lived, he would have probably married her. Originally from Tomcoole in Co. Wexford, Min Ryan was a founder member and first secretary of Cumann na mBan. Several of her sisters were also involved in the Irish separatist movement and took part in the 1916 Rising. It was one of these sisters, Phyllis Ryan, who accompanied her to the Gaol on 11 May 1916 to bid farewell to Sean MacDiarmada. Years later she recalled that last meeting: ‘We talked about things that happened during the Week, and about people that were in it, and people that weren’t in it, and we had a good laugh about some of them. It was ridiculous in a way because there was no sign of mourning. We had to hold up, of course, because he held up, and so we showed no sign of sorrow while we discussed things.’

The ten years that followed the Rising were incredibly tumultuous for the Ryan sisters. Phyllis was active in Cumann na mBan during the War of Independence. Min married Richard Mulcahy, the IRA Chief-of-Staff, in 1919 and their home was frequently raided by British forces (image of the couple courtesy National Library of Ireland). He became a leading figure in the Free State government during the Civil War, which led to a split in the Ryan family. A number of Min’s siblings were active on the anti-Treaty side also. Another of her sisters, Nell Ryan, was a republican prisoner in Kilmainham Gaol in 1923. Phillis shared Nell’s political convictions and visited her in the Gaol when she went on hunger strike. Their brother James was also a republican prisoner.
In 1926 Min Mulcahy was listed in the census as Máire, Bean Uí Mhaolchatha and was living with her husband and five children in Lissenfield House in Rathmines. This house was attached to Portobello Barracks and the Mulcahys moved there during the Civil war for security reasons. Despite her political activities, Phyllis managed to pursue her studies in chemistry and became a public analyst. She set up a laboratory on Dawson Street and became the public analyst for several local authorities. She employed many female graduates and her name frequently appeared in the newspapers in 1926 when she and her colleagues tested everything from drinking water in north county Dublin to ice-cream in Wicklow. She married Seán T. O’Kelly in 1936. He had previously been married to her sister Mary Kate who died two years earlier. In 1945 Seán T. O’Kelly was elected the second President of Ireland. It seems that over the years the Ryan family were able to reconcile following the bitter divisions of the Civil War, and even had a family gathering hosted by the O’Kellys in Áras an Uachtaráin.