Armagh Gaol

Armagh Women's Gaol operated as a female-only prison from the 19th century until its closure in 1986, making it one of the longest-running women's prisons in Irish history. During the Troubles it became a site of significant political resistance: republican women prisoners staged a 'Dirty Protest' and hunger strikes in the early 1980s, broadly contemporaneous with the better-known actions at the Maze Prison but far less covered by the outside press. The Victorian-era building has stood vacant since closure, a sombre remnant of both the prison reform era and the conflict that defined Northern Ireland's late 20th century.