An intriguing exhibition at Kilmainham Gaol’s museum in Dublin features photographs secretly taken by the prisoners detained during Ireland’s War of Independence.
An intriguing exhibition at Kilmainham Gaol’s museum in Dublin features photographs secretly taken by the prisoners detained during Ireland’s War of Independence.
Taken using cameras smuggled into the jail, the photos document the prisoners’ everyday routines. The exhibition also includes elegantly handwritten letters – one from Vincie Lawler to his mother, requesting ‘some packets of Daylight Kodak glossy self-toning paper, size 2½ x 3½’ and further suggesting that rolls of film ‘would fit in the bottom of an NKM sweet tin and you could put a few sweets on top’. Two cameras – a Vest Pocket Kodak and a Kodak Brownie No. 2, similar to those used by the prisoners – are also on display.
A spiral staircase became a favourite setting for the men to pose for the camera and visible in some photos are the prison’s classic tiered landings. Although folded arms are a routine pose, a wry humour and camaraderie comes through in many of the images. Photographed outdoors in natural light, one prisoner is shown enjoying the sunshine in the prison’s south-facing yard; other photos taken in the cells show a temporary barber’s hair-trimming session and prisoners cooking food in the kitchen to supplement their rations.
Alongside single portraits and group shots are scenes of recreational activities including boxing matches, Irish-language classes, religious services and drama productions – the latter including reenactments of the regular street searches during the conflict and hinting at influences from silent cinema. CJ Daly’s poignant autograph book, also in the show, has signatures and photo portraits of over sixty of his fellow prisoners.
The photographs, some blurred and buffeted by history, offer an extraordinary insight into the prisoners’ interests, revealing mischief and moments of resistance and creativity within a restricted existence in darker times. Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the prisoners were finally released on 8 December 1921. Pathé’s newsreel of the event is shown here for the first time in more than a century.
‘The Prisoners’ Lens: Secret Photography in Kilmainham Gaol, 1921’ is curated by Brian Crowley and admission is free.
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