Movie/TV Show 8: The Tudors

The Tudors is a British-Canadian historical fiction television series set primarily in sixteenth-century England, created by Michael Hirst and produced for the American premium cable television channel Showtime. The series, although named after the Tudor dynasty as a whole, is based specifically upon the reign of King Henry VIII of England. 

Dublin Castle 

Dublin Castle has a long history which goes back to King John, the first Lord of Ireland, though most of the building dates from the 18th century. Originally built as a defensive fortification for Norman Dublin in 1204, it became the seat of the English Government and later the British Government under the Lordship of Ireland, the Kingdom of Ireland, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1921 after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, it was handed over to the new provisional government led by Michael Collins, and in 1922 it assumed the role of the Four Courts for a decade, which had been badly damaged during the civil war. In 1938 the castle hosted the inauguration of the first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde, and has been the venue for the event ever since. It’s 

also used for official State visits, informal foreign affairs, State banquets, Government policy launches, as well as the central base for Ireland’s European Presidency roughly every 10 years. Aside from ‘The Tudors’, Dublin Castle also features in ‘Barry Lyndon’, ‘Michael Collins’, ‘Becoming Jane’, and ‘Medallion’. It also hosts the Heineken Green Energy festival every May and features on the album cover of ‘Khartoum Variations’ by Jandek. 

Kilmainham Jail

Kilmainham Jail was first built in 1796 and played an important role in Irish history as a number of political prisoners were held, and some executed there. In 1924 it was decommissioned as a prison by the Irish Free State Government and has been under the direction of the OPW since the mid 1980s. Notable inmates include Henry Joy McCracken (1796), Oliver Bond (1798), James Bartholomew Blackwell (1799), James Napper Tandy (1799), Robert Emmet (1803), Anne Devlin (1803), Thomas Russell (1803), Michael Dwyer (1803), William Smith O'Brien (1848), Thomas Francis.

Aside from The Tudors, the jail also features in The Quare Fellow, The 

Face of Fu Manchu, The Italian Job, The Mackintosh Man, The Last Remake of Beau Geste, The 

Whistle Blower, The Babe, In the Name of the Father, Michael Collins, The Escapist, The Adventures.