Kilmainham Jail, also known as Kilmainham Gaol, is a prison located in Kilmainham, Dublin, Ireland. The jail has played an important part in Irish history, as many leaders of Irish rebellions were imprisoned and some executed in the jail. The jail has also been used as a set for several films.

When it was first built in the late 1780s it was called the "New Jail" to distinguish it from the old jail it was intended to replace - a noisome dungeon, just a few hundred metres from the present site. Over the 140 years it served as a prison it held in its cells many of the most famous people involved in the campaign for Irish independence. The leaders of the Easter Rising, 1916 were held and executed here. The last prisoner held in the jail was Eamon de Valera. It was abandoned as a jail in 1924, the government of the Irish Free State. Following lengthy restoration it is now houses a museum on the history of Irish nationalism and offers guided tours of the building.

Films that have been filmed at the jail

• The Italian Job, 1969
• In the Name of the Father, 1993
• Michael Collins, 1996, (In real life Michael Collins was never held at Kilmainham)

Among its many famous prisoners were:-

• Henry Joy Mc Cracken , 1796
• Robert Emmet, 1803
• Anne Devlin , 1803
• Michael Dwyer , 1803
• William Smith O'Brien, 1848
• Thomas Francis Meagher, 1848
• Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa , 1867
• Charles Stewart Parnell, 1881
• Michael Davitt
• Patrick Pearse, 1916
• Countess Markievicz, 1916
• Eamon de Valera

See also

• The Royal Hospital, Kilmainham

External link

• Protect Kilmainham Jail Campaign