I think I'm the only person who enjoys going to gaol

Kilmainham Gaol, that is.

I spent yet another afternoon there this week, and I’m finding the E6.20 I have to spend to get there (E2.20 for the 78a, then E2 admissions) to be more than worth it, because every time I go I am fascinated and riveted by the lives of the people who spent time in those halls, two people in particular: Joseph Plunkett and Grace Gifford.

The son of an Irish Unionist, Joseph Plunkett was a Nationalist and the leader of the 1916 Easter Rebellion who was jailed, court martialed, and sentenced to execution. Before his death, the gaol granted permission for Plunkett to marry his longtime sweetheart Grace Gifford, and subsequently suffered death by firing squad.

I’m thinking of writing about the two of them for my thesis, do a historical fiction screenplay type of thing chronicling their relationship as a parallel to the Irish Rebellion. What do you think, interwebs?

For more simplistic pop culture/visual references, Kilmainham is:

the prison in In The Name of the Father

the prison in Michael Collins

the execution ground in The Tudors

U2 has performed there

opera performances

etc. etc. etc.

-E

Loves it!

ELIZABETH CAME TO DUBLIN!

I had been waiting and waiting for this weekend to come, and needless to say, I was not let down!

It was so great getting to hang out with not only one of my best friends from home, but a sorority sister as well. She is so much fun to hang out with, and I absolutely love that she has no shame in looking like a tourist. We went into kitchy stores, took cliche pictures, and laughed the entire way through.

We spent Friday walking around Kilmainham Gaol, which is basically my favorite place in this city so far, regardless of the fact that one of my favorite movies was filmed there. Can we talk about In the Name of the Father?! The entire time we were in there I couldn’t help but have a conniption over how amazing Daniel Day-Lewis was in every scene filmed there. we spent that night at the local karaoke hunt up the block, where Jaime sang under the name of Euphegenia Doubtfire and I got the number of the Bouncer. Needless to say: good craic!

Saturday the three of us went up north to what is basically the most picturesque town of all time: Howth (like both). Walking around there felt like we were in Greece or the Italian coast. Also, apparently they had the best fish n’ chips on the planet (I stuck with my chicken, thank you very much). We followed up the night with another eventful evening at the favorite, Farrington’s, where we proceeded to meet the closest thing thus far to a leprechaun (his name was Noel) and a music guru (William) trying to explain the relevance of the Cork-Kerry football win from that afternoon.

All in all, it was by far the best weekend thus far and I CANNOT WAIT to go to London sometime soon!

-E