Kilmainham Gaol Museum

31/10/2026

Halloween seems to have been an occasion of great celebration in 1921 when Kilmainham Gaol was being used a political prison during the Irish War of Independence. The Kilmainham Gaol Museum collection contains a delicate and tattered letter which was written by a 16-year-old prisoner named Mick Lane to his mother Kate. He described how on Halloween night the prisoners had combined their nuts and apples to create a great feast which went on until one or two in the morning. There was a sing-song and Mick seems to have treated his comrades to his own party piece which was entitled 'The cat in the coal hole'. He added in a postscript that he did not get the ring in the Halloween barmbrack as there was no ring in the cake!

In the letter Mick also asked his sister Kathleen to write to one of his friends in the Gaol, Tom Keogh. Both of them went on to join the new national army and Tom Keogh was killed during the Civil War by a Republican b***y trap in Carrigaphooca outside Macroom in Co. Cork on 18 September 1922. Mick Lane later joined An Garda Siochána and died in 1980. Photographs of Mick Lane and Tom Keogh feature in our current exhibition, 'The Prisoners' Lens: Secret Photography in Kilmainham Gaol, 1921'.

26/10/2026

We can't wait to see the amazing artworks based on Kilmainham Gaol the pupils from Gaelscoil Inse Chór produce

25/10/2026

This docket records the food rations served to prisoners in Kilmainham Gaol on 25 October 1851. The early 1850s saw the highest number of prisoners ever recorded in Kilmainham Gaol. This was due to the ongoing effect of the Famine which saw large numbers of poor people moving to Dublin city and its surrounds in search of food, work and relief. Prisoner numbers in the Gaol remained very high for much of the decade.

13/10/2026

Please note that Kilmainham Gaol will be closed this Wednesday, 14 October, 2026 due to industrial action.

We apologise for any inconvenience and thank you for your understanding

08/10/2026

Just a reminder that we have some spare places for our Dublin Festival of History talk on Saturday, Ten Years On: The 1916 Families in 1916. This lecture will look at what the 1926 Census reveals about what happened to the friends and family of the 1916 leaders in the years that followed.

This lecture will use the 1926 Census to see where the relatives and friends of the executed 1916 leaders were ten years later.

24/09/2026

Yesterday we were delighted to welcome some of the clergy and parishioners from St. James' Parish. The Parish has lent us the chalice, ciborium and paten used by Fr. Eugene McCarthy when he performed the marriage of Joseph Plunkett and Grace Gifford the night before Joseph's ex*****on in Kilmainham Gaol on 4 May 1916 Rising. They were also used at a mass Fr. McCarthy said for the prisoners on Sunday 7 May. The altar silver is exhibited alongside a diary kept by one of the prisoners, Rose McNamara, in which she described seeing Michael Mallin, Con Colbert and Éamonn Ceannt at that mass.

Clergy from St. James's Parish continued to minister to prisoners in Kilmainham and an inscription on the base of vessels records that they were used in the Gaol in 1921 during the War of Independence. The items are currently on loan to Kilmainham Gaol and are on display in the Last Words section of the Museum. Admission to the Museum to view these items is free and no advance booking is required.

05/09/2026

Another Dublin Festival of History event here in Kilmainham Gaol. On 10 October we will be looking at what we can learn from the 1926 Census about how the family and friends of the executed 1916 leaders were doing ten years on.

https://dublinfestivalofhistory.ie/event/ten-years-on-the-1916-families-in-the-1926-census/

04/09/2026

We have a number of events in the upcoming Dublin Festival of History, including a recreation of the original tour devised by the Kilmainham Jail Restoration Society (KJRS) from the 1970s which we are running at 4pm on 3 October: https://dublinfestivalofhistory.ie/event/kilmainham-calling-the-original-kilmainham-gaol-tour/

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.