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