Today we started around 8am, got breakfast and made our way to the Kilmainham Gaol (or Kilmainham Jail).
This was one of the more recently historically significant sites that we went to, as it is owns the title of being the very jail that the members of the Irish Volunteers were executed following the Easter Rising in 1916. The jail itself was rather large in the area that it covered. It was built out of lime stone with a thin coating of plaster to cover the walls. The stone walls meant that the castle did not retain heat of any kind, even during potentially warm days the floors and walls kept all of the building quite cool. The halls were thin, the doorways short, and the cells themselves were decent sized. Decent sized for a single individual that is. Almost directly after the jail was built, Britain changed their prisoner transportation laws, shipping them across the pond to Ireland as opposed to way down under to Australia. This caused the jail to hit capacity very quickly. They originally didn't have the individual rooms, just a large room to stick several prisoners into, however since this group was made up of rapists, murderers, and thieves this setup didn't last long. After much blood was shed, the individual rooms were constructed. These rooms themselves were not home to a sole individual for long though and eventually came to occupy several people. The number of cells in the jail was ~120 and the number of inhabitants was around 12,000, so roughly 8-10 people to a room. The floors were bare and without any sign of a hole for plumbing so all were to use a single wooden bucket for their business. Also, during the potato blight, the prison switched to mashed corn for food, which apparently leads to some intestinal distress after continued ingestion. Single bucket for a lot of diarrhea. Also, since there was rarely ever light or heat in the jail, they were eventually kind enough to install gas heating/lighting systems when they became available. However, since these systems still had many kinks back then, they actually leaked and lead to the deaths of numerous prisoners due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
So after that cheery, but very informative excursion we made our way towards the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Like every building that we've seen, there building had a beautiful courtyard. A lot of the art was pretty interesting, especially a piece called Ar jee be? by Haroon Mirza. It was an audio/visual compilation using lights that were connected to a circuit that made a specific noise whenever they had current running through them. Several lights were synced up in intervals to make a sort of techno trance music. The room was darkly lit and the the lights were set up in a dark room with each of the computer color scale in their individual rooms, so red, blue and green (RGB) in their own rooms with their own sound, syncing up in their own cool way. Actually probably the best piece in the exhibit. The rest was sculptures made out of cow dung, some rusted metal assorted in some way, rope strung about the ceiling and floors, and a large silver sweater set up on a auto pulley system that raised and lowered it. One of the rooms was an enclosed room with three switches that each controlled a red, blue, and green light. Which was fun though i don't see how it was art but what do I know. I don't get modern art.
This ended the history/touring events for the day for most of us. We stopped an got gelato and headed back to the hotel room to blog and relax. Currently its 4:30pm and we'll be meeting up with other students from our same university, here on a different study program, for some dinner. I'll probably put a quick update later on afterwords.
This was one of the more recently historically significant sites that we went to, as it is owns the title of being the very jail that the members of the Irish Volunteers were executed following the Easter Rising in 1916. The jail itself was rather large in the area that it covered. It was built out of lime stone with a thin coating of plaster to cover the walls. The stone walls meant that the castle did not retain heat of any kind, even during potentially warm days the floors and walls kept all of the building quite cool. The halls were thin, the doorways short, and the cells themselves were decent sized. Decent sized for a single individual that is. Almost directly after the jail was built, Britain changed their prisoner transportation laws, shipping them across the pond to Ireland as opposed to way down under to Australia. This caused the jail to hit capacity very quickly. They originally didn't have the individual rooms, just a large room to stick several prisoners into, however since this group was made up of rapists, murderers, and thieves this setup didn't last long. After much blood was shed, the individual rooms were constructed. These rooms themselves were not home to a sole individual for long though and eventually came to occupy several people. The number of cells in the jail was ~120 and the number of inhabitants was around 12,000, so roughly 8-10 people to a room. The floors were bare and without any sign of a hole for plumbing so all were to use a single wooden bucket for their business. Also, during the potato blight, the prison switched to mashed corn for food, which apparently leads to some intestinal distress after continued ingestion. Single bucket for a lot of diarrhea. Also, since there was rarely ever light or heat in the jail, they were eventually kind enough to install gas heating/lighting systems when they became available. However, since these systems still had many kinks back then, they actually leaked and lead to the deaths of numerous prisoners due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
So after that cheery, but very informative excursion we made our way towards the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Like every building that we've seen, there building had a beautiful courtyard. A lot of the art was pretty interesting, especially a piece called Ar jee be? by Haroon Mirza. It was an audio/visual compilation using lights that were connected to a circuit that made a specific noise whenever they had current running through them. Several lights were synced up in intervals to make a sort of techno trance music. The room was darkly lit and the the lights were set up in a dark room with each of the computer color scale in their individual rooms, so red, blue and green (RGB) in their own rooms with their own sound, syncing up in their own cool way. Actually probably the best piece in the exhibit. The rest was sculptures made out of cow dung, some rusted metal assorted in some way, rope strung about the ceiling and floors, and a large silver sweater set up on a auto pulley system that raised and lowered it. One of the rooms was an enclosed room with three switches that each controlled a red, blue, and green light. Which was fun though i don't see how it was art but what do I know. I don't get modern art.
This ended the history/touring events for the day for most of us. We stopped an got gelato and headed back to the hotel room to blog and relax. Currently its 4:30pm and we'll be meeting up with other students from our same university, here on a different study program, for some dinner. I'll probably put a quick update later on afterwords.