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June 17, 2026

Our Trip to Kilmainham Gaol

Our first few days have been busy, but students are very engaged, asking lots of questions and explaining their own personal connections and interests in Ireland. 

Our trip to Kilmainham Gaol reinforced the historical facts around the 1916 rebellion, but it also added an intense emotional punch.

Stone carving of serpents entwined over the entrance to Kilmainham Gaol with a Landmark student entering the building.
Danny walking through entrance to Kilmainham Gaol.

 Our tour guide’s great-grandfather, whom he knew, was friends and comrades-in-arms with some of those executed at the Gaol, most of them about aged 19. His voice broke as he explained this connection. 

students listening to tour guide and looking up at the 3 level prison structure designed as a panopticon.
The East Wing of Kilmainham Gaol—the Panopticon where the female prisoners were held.

The story of the marriage of Joseph and Grace Plunkett, the night before his execution, in the prison chapel, was also moving and has been mentioned several times by students as a powerful and sad story they will not forget. 

Jail cell with the the name Mrs. Joseph Plunkett over the door.
The jail cell where Mrs. Joseph Plunkett was held.
A painting that Grace Plunkett made while incarcerated on the wall.
A painting of the Virgin Mary on the wall of Grace Plunkett's cell.

We’ve discussed the fact that Ireland’s independence movement is much more recent than America’s, which helps us to understand the pride in their identity as a nation. 

No Surrender Carved in stone over a cell doorway in Kilmainham Gaol.
"No Surrender" carved over a cell doorway by a political prisoner during the Irish Civil War.

We have also discussed how occasional glitches in our planning and inconvenient circumstances can be learning experiences and fodder for creative travel writing.