Kilmainham Gaol

Kilmainham Gaol, national monument in Dublin, Ireland, built in 1792. Although not all its prisoners had been political, it became most closely associated with the incarceration of Irish nationalists. It was completed just in time to hold a succession of nationalist agitators, from the United Irishmen involved in the rising against British rule of 1798, through Young Irelanders, Fenians, and Land Leaguers (including Charles Parnell and Michael Davitt), to the leading insurgents of the Easter Rising of 1916. Patrick Pearse and James Connolly were executed in the prison yard. Eamon de Valera was the last prisoner to be imprisoned there; he was released in July 1924. The complex has tiny cells, covered walkways, and stone exercise yards. Today Kilmainham serves as a museum open to the public.