Tributes to volunteers who saved Kilmainham Gaol

The work of voluntary groups who save historic sites such as Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin from dereliction should be properly acknowledged by Government, according to Minister for State Simon Harris.

Speaking at Kilmainham Gaol, Mr Harris paid tribute to its restoration society whose members “saved the gaol from ruin” in the 1960s.

Many of the volunteers were present including John Nolan who attended with his wife, former Labour TD Anne Ferris.

Volunteer trustee of Kilmainham from the 1960s Damien Cassidy carried an A4 black-and-white photograph of one of the first tours of the gaol, showing plants growing on the floor inside.

“We restored the gaol with money collected from visitors who had to queue . . . in the rain,” he said, adding that 350,000 people visited the gaol in the past year.

In the last three years the Office of Public Works has restored a former courthouse beside the gaol – part of the original complex – at a cost of €5 million.

It is now a visitors' centre for the museum and was opened by President Michael D Higgins last Wednesday. It is one of seven Permanent Reminders in the city to mark the centenary of 1916.

In 1986 the restoration society handed the gaol over to the State and it came into the care of the OPW.