The gaol ("open 360 days a year") is a Gothic, and deceptively romantic, Georgian building designed by Sir Thomas Deane (also responsible for the magnificently decorative Imperial Hotel in South Mall). The audio tour gives a chilling representation of harsh prison life, which kept prisoners isolated and silent. Young children were whipped twice weekly and there was scant regard for pregnant women caught stealing rags for clothing. Public executions were performed here and heads displayed outside to instil fear in the public. Opened in 1824, in later years the gaol housed Republican prisoners including writer Frank O’Connor. It finally closed in 1923. There is also an interesting radio museum attached.
