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My mind has finally arrived in Ireland finally, for now the stones talk to me. The stones today were the high limestone walls of Kilmainham Gaol. This prison is as central a symbol to modern Irish history as Tara is to ancient Irish history.

These dates are etched into the Irish consciousness: 1798, 1803, 1848, 1867, 1916. They all mark failed uprisings. All created martyrs who were imprisoned and, usually, executed here in Kilmainham. It was the last one, the Easter Rising, that finally turned the tide. Not that the rebellion accomplished much, just the destruction of O’Connell Street and the General Post Office and 200 civilian dead. On the columns of the GPO you can still see the bulletholes. At Kilmainham Gaol I stand in the narrow, open courtyard, the old stone breaking yard, where the leaders fell to the firing squad, and I feel moved to tears. This retribution by the English angered the nation to where they did win their Irish Free State five years later. Then came war between the compromisers and the hardliners, and it was Irish executing Irish against these walls.

The impassioned tour guide, her presentation vigorous and certain, affected all of us during our trek through the prison. The thought occurred to me, given how central the mythology of this site is to the Irish, is how it reveals a continuing thread in the national character. In Ireland’s case, violence begat violence, yet it was this violence that won them freedom. Michael Collins’ IRA is the prototype for every terrorist nationalist campaign of the 20th century. It started here. The lesson taken away, with dark implications for the state of the world, is that a tiny minority of hard men can change everything.

Dublin

Winter 1999