Deirdre conroy visits historic Kilmainham courthouse where a conservation project by OPW architects was recognised at this year’s riai awards
In 1882 on the morning of 6 May, the new Chief Secretary for Ireland, Lord Frederick Cavendish, and his Under Secretary, Thomas Burke, were assassinated as they walked in Phoenix Park. A group calling themselves The Invincibles – an offshoot of the Fenians–was responsible for the murders. One of the trials took place at Kilmainham Courthouse amid high security and the case concluded with five of the Invincibles hanged at Kilmainham Gaol in 1885. There is a secret burial ground at the rear of the Courthouse. That execution, and others that are embedded in our political history, took place in a building that is now one of the biggest tourist attractions in Dublin. At Kilmainham Gaol – one of the largest unoccupied gaols in Europe – visitor numbers have reached over 400,000 per annum.
Stephanie McBride reflects on the extraordinary life’s work of Arthur Fields, the last of the street photographers
All around the globe, conflicts have and continue to shape the land and their inhabitants’; Elizabeth Magill explores the flipside of the buccolic in conversation with Brian McAvera.
