President Michael D Higgins will open a revamped visitor centre at Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin today.

The €5m facelift of the former court house is part of the 1916 Centenary commemorations.

The OPW have used the funding to adapt and refurbish the building.

Frank Shelvy who is with Heritage services has said it is a big improvement: “In fact what it allows us to do is to provide a modern standard of visitor services and customer services to people who are visiting the site.

“We experience something like 340,000 visitors a year I think, and we are having problems getting that number of people through what is a very old and cramped building at times.”