Kilmainham Gaol

Our next stop was Kilmainham Gaol. It opened in 1796 and was very modern and ahead of it's time. It was used as a debtor's prison as well as a political prison. Many people who fought for the Irish independence were executed here. Also, ages varied a lot. The guide said that the youngest girl who was imprisoned was 8 and the youngest boy was 5. They were put in prison because they were stealing food due to hunger. During the potato famine, many people wanted to be in jail because it meant they would get a little food as opposed to none. The jail was the first to have solitary cells and used silence as a way of punishing and reforming people. Exercise was done in the larger areas--only walking around the perimeter and in complete silence for one hour per day. This picture shows one of the smaller areas.



Looking through the bars to the courtyard below. None of the windows had glass and it was very cold. The only thing the prisoners had in their cell was a bucket and a blanket. The cell below actually was modernized later on as it has a toilet. The cells were very small, although if you were an important person the cell would be larger.


The words below were above one of the doorways.



The next two pictures are taken from the inside area of the jail. It was built in this manner so that the jailer could see all the cells very easily. It was beautiful and bright with huge windows. Now it is used for concerts and events as the acoustics are great.



In the above picture you can see the spiral staircase. This was the only way the prisoners could get down to the lower level. It was very slow to get up and down. In the next picture there is a long straight staircase. This was only used by the guards who could get down very quickly in case of trouble with the prisoners. The architecture was amazing considering it was a prison.


This picture below is in the area where stone was broken up for use in building. The gate was opened when the stone was loaded onto the wagons. The prisoners all had to work, for it was believed that was a way of teaching reform. Even the youngest children had to do work. They would be given a piece of rope, sometimes dipped in tar, and would have to separate the rope into fibers. It was very hard work and their fingers would bleed while they were working. Some of the prisoners were only in the jail for a few months. Others never were freed and were executed.


This flag is in the same area where the stone was broken. The guide said that the green was for
the native Irish people who were mostly Irish Catholics. The orange was for the British supporters of William Orange who settled in Northern Ireland and were mainly protestant.
The white represents peace and honesty between the people.


The jail was used until July 16, 1924 when the last prisoner , Eamon de Valera, was released who later became president of Ireland.
This tour was one of the highlights of our trip so far.

Dublin--Part 2

While we were waiting for the next bus we heard some drumming and you know what that means! We had to discover the source! There was a cool shopping area that was originally a street but is now closed off for pedestrians. The drumming was from some guys playing the
pots!




Also, a bit further down we heard some flute music and saw a girl about 10 years old doing some Irish dancing. So awesome!!






On our way to the bus stop we saw this statue of Molly Malone--you know "selling cockles and mussels, alive alive-o". Dad still doesn't know who she is. We couldn't get a picture without people sitting all around her.


Our next stop was Dublin Castle. We took some pictures but didn't take the tour.



Here is the gate entrance to the castle.






Here is the castle from the parking lot. The ornate part is a chapel with stained glass windows. We couldn't take pictures inside, but it was gorgeous.
We walked back out to the bus stop and headed for our next stop.

Dublin--Part 1

After a good night's sleep we ate breakfast in the hotel which was included with the room. We each got the Irish full. We will get this again so we'll include a picture next time. Let's just say we weren't hungry till about 2! We then headed to the LUAS which is the light rail train and took it to the city center. We had decided that we were going to do one of the hop on-hop off buses and it was well worth it! All the buses are double decker and the one we went on also was uncovered for the back part. It was fun to see the sights from the top!



We first went to Trinity College and had a tour of some of the historical parts of the campus.
This is the bell tower (Campanile) that is supposedly really well known. It has intricate carving all over it.

This is one of the residence halls--Dad said it was Hogwarts!

Here is the library where the Book of Kells is kept. It was amazing to see the method of how they wrote and illustrated this beautiful work.


We thought this was a cool sign!

This building had amazing carving all over. It was really hard to capture the detail. Dad's in this to prove we were actually there!

After the tour and seeing the Book of Kells, we ate our pb&j on a bench at the cricket field. We enjoyed the breeze and then headed back to hop back on the bus.

Rainy walk

After we rested, we headed out to explore the area. We went back to the mall and found a little cafe to eat in. We had Irish lasagna! It had a custardy layer on top, a thick beef layer, and a tiny bit of noodles and sauce. We walked around outside and found the stadium where the Shamrock Rovers play. It seats 6,000 people and they are one of four local teams. Luckily there were some men outside the stadium updating the sign and we asked if we could look inside for a minute and took a couple of pictures.

Tallaght

After getting off the Flybus at Tallaght Square, a large shopping mall, we found a McDonalds and got egg McMuffins with free-range Irish eggs! Yum! So much better than the States! Then we headed to our hotel- Abberley Court Hotel-where they so graciously checked us in almost 6 hours early and we rested for a bit. It was sunny when we arrived, but began raining in the afternoon and was quite windy.


This is our view from our room window. There are beautiful green hills not far from us.

On our way!

We spent Wednesday finishing last minute shopping, visiting, and packing. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. Here is Cremo at the Salt Lake City airport before we boarded our flight. Memo decided he didn't want to come on this trip so Cremo volunteered. He was pretty tired having to get up so early!

The flight went by quickly and we munched on our snacks from home. Unfortunately we forgot to bring some for our little friend.
JFK airport was CRAZY!!!! We walked a lot and avoided the crowded gates and found a nice quiet gate to chill in. We had a 3 1/2 hour layover and were so excited to get on our plane to Dublin. Our boarding passes said we were flying on Air France so we were anticipating getting a picture of the plane, but it was Delta instead. Sorry, T! Here's a pic in the quiet gate area. Finally we boarded our plane and got settled for our long flight. We had dinner and tried to snooze, but it was really hard. After 7 hours we landed in Dublin and took a Flybus to our hotel.