Today’s tour at the Kilmainham Gaol was an incredibly sobering experience for me. I wasn’t expecting it to have such a powerful effect. I’ve always found that visiting places people have lived, worked, or died has a lasting effect on me. What I experienced today was similar to when I visited Shakespeare’s childhood home in Stratford-Upon-Avon and the Charles Dickens Museum in London, like I could feel Shakespeare and Dickens in the room – I could feel the prisoners there, could see them in my head. Walking past the jail cells gave me chills, especially when I looked through the holes to see the living conditions inside.

For some reason, walking through the actual jail really shocked me – I think it was because of the juxtaposition with the cafe/bookshop area. That area was so neat, organized, and modern, and when I walked into the jail the difference completely threw me off guard. I really felt uncomfortable about the modern area – I know exactly why they made those renovations, but there was something unsettling about having a piece of chocolate cake and a flat white right beside the place where many, many people were murdered or imprisoned for life. The gentrification in those kind of places often makes me feel guilty because I know what this place has stood for and what has happened there. Like Cresswell says, memories make up a place, and I was constantly thinking about the memories and experiences of the prisoners here. The tour guide was absolutely fantastic in facilitating that knowledge and making sure everyone understood the gravity of the location. In particular, the exercise yard and the location of the executions were the most chilling – the latter being obvious, and the former because I pictured the monotonous task of walking around in a circle for exercises, with mandated silence.