Kilmainham Goal is now unoccupied and has been turned into a museum. It marks many historical events in Irish history. I took a tour with a guide, Peter, who took a group of us around the prison telling us stories and giving us historical context. The prison was built in 1792 and was originally supposed to be for political prisoners, though Peter told us that only a small percentage were actually arrested for political crimes. During the time when England was trying to strip Catholicism from the country the jail was used to house people and “reform” them. There was men, women and children in the jail. The jail is the site of incarceration of (almost) every significant Irish nationalist leader. A large amount of them (Eamonn Ceannt, Tom Clarke, Cornelius Colbert, James Connolly, Edward Daly, Sean Mac Diarmada, Sean J. Heuston, Michael Mallin, Major John McBride, Thomas McDonough, Michael O'Hanrahan, Patrick Pearse, William Pearse and Joseph Plunkett) were executed in the stonebreakers yard outside the jail. The history of the jail remains to be one of the most important in Ireland and I definitely enjoyed the tour.
My morning was followed by an afternoon trip to the Guinness Brewery. Notably, I’ve never liked Guinness all that much…in fact, I’d never had a whole pint until I went to the brewery. It was really neat, they had taken the old Brewery and sectioned into 7 floors that looked like a tall cylinder (or a pint glass as they said). Like any brewery it went through the ingredients and the taste, but they also had a floor to showcase Guinness advertising over the years. The top of the building was added on more recently and is a circular bar surrounded in glass windows. It gives an amazing view to enjoy a pint of Guinness in, which admittedly I tackled and enjoyed!
Waterfall in the Guinness Brewery
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