| Ireland, Dublin to Athlone
Today Joan and Larry rode. We opted to go back into Dublin and tour the Guiness Brewery and the Kilmainham Gaol (prison).
The brewery was nothing new or exciting. Guiness brews beer much the same as other breweries I've visited.
We sampled a half-pint of the world famous Guiness Stout at the end of the tour. (Many people told us not to miss it and that it was better and smoother then is Guiness anywhere else in the world.) We thought it WAS very smooth -- but also somewhat bitter.
From there we went to the Kilmainham Gaol, a prison that was in operation from 1792 until 1923. Most of the rebels who fought in Ireland's struggle for independence were held and/or executed here.
The prison houses a fascinating museum tracing the history of penal practices. Earlier prisons were single, large rooms with no windows -- often with dirt floors -- never with any sanitation facilities. Every offender -- young, old, male and female -- was thrown in together. Fights were common. Neither illnesses nor injuries were tended. The stench was terrible. A sentence to spend any time at all was usually a death sentence.
The Kilmainham was a model prison for it's time. It was built on top of a hill to take advantage of light and air. It gave each prisoner a separate cell with a bed, a table and chair, and a bucket for waste.
One of the reform theories at the time was that lawbreakers were people who had made a mistake. Therefore, prisons should be unpleasant places so that no one would want to go there, and certainly not go BACK there.
But the prevailing theory was that lawbreakers were born evil. They could only be reformed by isolation from everything but the bible and the church. Thus, prisoners were held in dark, single cells, were given a bible, and were only allowed to see or hear a chaplain. The cells had no windows or doors that prisoners could see out of. The guards wore felt pads on their shoes and did not speak around the cells so the prisoners could not hear anything.
And that was reform!
Some good things happened during that time though. Hangings were made more humane. Early hangings used the "short drop" method. In that, the convicted were made to stand on a stool, the rope put around their neck, then the stool kicked out. Thus they dropped just a few feet and hung there until they strangled to death.
The more humane method, adopted during that time, was the "long drop" method. With that, the offender's weight was used to compute the length of rope that would allow the body to drop far enough to build enough momentum so that when the end of the rope was reached, the sudden stop would break the neck and cause instant death. That method was further improved by building the hanging scaffold above an enclosed platform with a trapdoor. That way, when the trapdoor was opened, the body dropped out of sight before reaching the end of the rope.
The tour of the prison was one of the most interesting we've experienced. Combined social and political history.
Enough of talk of the prison. We left at noon to pick up Larry and Joan on route. Again, we had not quite enough time in Dublin.
Love to all, David and Lisa
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