Gateway to Hell

This is a photo taken at St. Audoen’s church where the famous 40 steps are located. We visited this place the evening before during the Dublin Ghost Bus Tour the and walked back the next day to take some pictures. While these are not the famous “40 steps” I think it is one of the the passageways between the interior of Medieval Dublin to the area known as ‘Hell’.

To give you some context about Dublin’s ‘Hell’ and how cool this area is below is a great description that someone else over on flickr posted along with their photo of the actual “40 steps”.

“…The area known as ‘Hell’ – a denizen of whorehouses and drug dens. It was the exclusive reserve of criminals, lepers, murderers and low-lifes, where the ghost of Darky Kelly, a famous brothel-owner, has been spotted many times. She was burnt alive as a witch, just steps away from the gate of the city (about ten metres to the right of the steps shown in this picture).

The story goes that she became pregnant with the child of Simon Luttrell, the Sherrif of Dublin. Fearing for his position he refused to acknowledge the child as his own and levelled an accusation of witchcraft at Kelly in order to shut her up. Being a lady of the night, the accusations stuck and she was roasted slowly in front of a baying mob.

The stories tell us that Darky has been seen here, wandering the streets of Medieval Dublin and making her way to the gate at the end of these steps, where abandoned babies were left at the side gate to St. Audoens church.

On the southern end of Hell, over on Fishamble St., a new pub called *Darky Kelly’s* can be seen. Kelly was an 18th century *madame* who kept a house known as ‘The Maiden Tower’ in the building in which the pub now resides. It was said to be ‘notably labyrinthine’ by officers of the law who once raided the place, probably because they spent so much time there before leaving…

Darky Kelly was executed, for the alleged murder of her child, the body of whom was never actually produced. Her prosecutor? One Simon Luttrell, Sheriff of Dublin, alleged Hell-Fire Club member, and reportedly the father of the child…”

~Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/birdbath/32219530/