Kilmainham Gaol Museum

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Kilmainham Gaol Museum

Attractions include a major exhibition detailing the political and penal history of the prison and its restoration.

For over 100 years Kilmainham Gaol held thousands of men, women and children for crimes that ranged from minor offences to being involved in some of the most momentous events in Irish history Kilmainham Gaol is one of the largest unoccupied gaols in Europe, covering some of the most heroic and tragic events in Ireland's emergence as a modern nation from 1790s to the 1920s. The tour of the prison i

ncludes a power point presentation. Tours may be arranged for visitors with special needs by prior arrangement. Please email: [email protected]

Guided Tours:
Access to Kilmainham Gaol by Guided Tour Only
All groups over 10 people must be booked in advance (maximum 35 people in a Group)
E-mail: [email protected]
Duration of Guided Tour: 60 minutes

Location: 3.5km from centre of Dublin. Public Transport:
Dublin Bus Route(s):

No. 69 & 79 from Aston Quay Dublin 2
No 13 & 40 from O'Connell St. Dublin 1 or College Green Dublin 2

Please see www.dublinbus.ie for further information. LUAS Tram:

Red Line - Nearest stop Suir Road. Please see www.luas.ie for further information.

02/09/2026

We have just put this prison mug owned by Cathal O’Shannon (1890-1969) on display. O’Shannon was a politician, journalist and trade unionist from Co. Antrim. He was one of over a hundred Irish volunteers who mobilised at Coalisland, Co. Tyrone on Easter weekend but, due to the confusion which resulted from Eoin McNeill’s issuing of a countermanding order cancelling the Rising, they dispersed. Despite this, O’Shannon was arrested in Belfast along with other nationalist trade unionists following the 1916 Rising. He was initially held in Richmond Barracks in Dublin, before being transferred to Frongoch internment camp in Wales. He was later moved again, this time to Reading Gaol in England where he was issued with this mug. O’Shannon was released as part of the general amnesty of Christmas 1916.

(Cropped photograph of Cathal O'Shannon, taken August 1918 via wikipedia)

24/08/2026

We had a great here in Kilmainham Gaol and want to say a big thank you to everyone who attended our special tours, workshops and lectures. This images come from our cyanotype workshop on Saturday. Inspired by 'The Prisoners' Lens', our current exhibition of photographs taken and developed in the Gaol by prisoners in Kilmainham Gaol during the War of Independence, the brilliant Émile Crowther introduced participants to the cyanotype process which uses sunlight to develop images.

17/08/2026

Here are some of the participants in our Curator's Tour of 'The Prisoner's Lens: Secret Photography in Kilmainham Gaol, 1921' which ran on Saturday as part of . This photo was taken in one of the areas of the Gaol which frequently appears in the background to the photos taken in 1921.

15/08/2026

It turns out you're never too young to visit Kilmainham Gaol! Here are some pictures of our inaugural parent and baby tour this week.

03/08/2026

Roger Casement was executed in Pentonville Prison, London on 3 August 1916 as a result of his involvement in the Easter Rising. Casement had previously been knighted for his work as a British diplomat and his contribution to exposing the horrific abuse of native peoples by those engaged in the rubber industry in the Belgian Congo and the Putamayo region of Peru. He was drawn into the Irish seperatist movement and went to Germany seeking aid for an Irish uprising at the start of the First World War. He returned to Ireland just before the Rising via German submarine and was captured in North Kerry on Good Friday.

In the months after Casement's death, Jimmy Mulkerns from Royal Canal Terrace in Dublin wrote a verse in Casement's memory in several prison autograph books. Mulkerns had fought in the Rising and was stationed in the Jameson Distillery near Church Street. After the Rising he was arrested and brought to Richmond Barracks. From there he was sent to prison in England where he was held in Knutsford, Wormwood Scrubs and Frongoch Camp.

17/07/2026

Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated film of Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ is released in Irish cinemas today, so we thought we would post about the oldest item in the Kilmainham Gaol Museum collection, a parallel Greek and Latin version of the epic poem published in Amsterdam in 1707. This book was owned by the Irish nationalist and journalist, John Mitchel. His Latin signature on the title page is dated 1845, the year he moved to Dublin. He quickly became a leading figure in the Young Ireland movement and in May 1848 his radical journalism led to his arrest on a charge of felony treason. Imprisoned in Newgate Prison, he was tried in Green Street Courthouse where he was found guilty and sentenced to 14 years transportation. He later escaped from Tasmania in 1853 and settled in the United States where he became a vocal supporter of the Confederacy and slavery.

Mitchel was a prisoner in Kilmainham Gaol on 11 November 1836, though not for his political or revolutionary activities. At that time he was a 19-year-old apprentice in an attorney’s office in Newry, Co. Armagh. He fell in love with a young woman named Jenny Verner who was just 16 years old and they attempted to elope. They were caught and Mitchel was imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol on a charge of abduction. They eloped again in February 1837 and were married in Drumcree, Co. Armagh. They seem to have had a very close marriage and Jenny Mitchel stood by her husband during all his travails.

15/07/2026

Constance Markievicz died 15 July 1927. Her dispatch bag, which it is believed she had with her during the 1916 Rising, is now on display in Kilmainham Gaol Museum. It is embossed with her name and initials.

The bag was donated to the Museum by David Andrews, the former T.D. and government minister who sadly passed away on 30 June. He had inherited it from his mother Mary Coyle who was a friend of Constance Markievicz. Mary Coyle was herself a prisoner in Kilmainham Gaol during the Civil War.

We would like to extend our sympathies to the family and friends of David Andrews on their recent loss.

14/07/2026

Bonne fête nationale to all our French followers! Today is Bastille Day and commemorates the storming of the Bastille prison on 14 July by a Paris crowd, an event which ultimately led to the French Revolution. As early as 1796, the year the Gaol opened, Henry Joy McCracken referred to Kilmainham Gaol as 'the Irish Bastille'. For McCracken and his fellow members of the United Irishmen, the French Revolution was one of the key inspirations for their own rebellion of 1798. This was reflected in this fabric badge from the Kilmainham Gaol Museum collection which was produced to mark the centenary of the rebellion in 1898. It features the French tricolour alongside the Fenian sunburst and the flag of the United States.

12/07/2026

12 July 1926, the Executive Council of the Irish Free State formally adopted Amhrán na bhFiann as Ireland’s national anthem. To mark this centenary, we thought we would post about some items in the Kilmainham Gaol Museum collection related to the anthem. The song was originally written as ‘A Soldier’s Song’ by Peadar Kearney and his friend Patrick Heeney in c.1909/10. It was adopted by the Irish Volunteers and was heard at crucial events such as the O’Donovan Rossa Funeral in 1915 and in the GPO during the 1916 Rising. It was popular among Irish political prisoners and the Kilmainham Gaol Collection contains a piece of paper bearing the lyrics of the song which was found in an autograph book used in Ballykinlar Camp in 1921. Interestingly, Peadar Kearney was also a prisoner there at that time.
The Museum also holds the music manuscript of Percy B. Calver’s arrangement of the song as a march for the St. James’s Brass and Reed Band. This version was first played at the funeral of Thomas Ashe in 1917.
Peadar Kearney lived near Kilmainham Gaol in Inchicore. He was never a prisoner in the Gaol, but did serve as the prison censor for a time during the Civil War. A bust of Kearney by the sculptor James Power also forms part of the Museum’s collection.

04/07/2026

Irish revolutionaries often looked to the United States for support during the struggle for independence. To mark the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of American Independence this 4 July, we thought we would post this image of an entry in a Kilmainham Gaol autograph book owned by Patrick Greene from November 1921.

Address

Inchicore Road
Dublin
D08T2X5

Telephone

+35314535984

Website

http://kilmainhamgaolmuseum.ie/

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