Dublin

We finally treated ourselves in a bit of a sleep in this morning! It felt a bit indulgent to be going down to breakfast at 9.15am. A very busy breakfast, the hotel (The Academy Plaza) seems to be pretty full. Breakfast finished we hit the road on our walking tour of the Dublin sights ( or the ones that interested us, anyway!) . We started by walking down O’Connell Street,Dublin’s main thoroughfare named in  honour of Daniel O’Connell, a nationalist leader of the early 19th century, whose statue stands at the lower end of the street, facing O’Connell Bridge.  Half way down is “The Spire”, which replaced an earlier monument to Horatio Nelson. It was blown up by the IRA in 1966, their contribution to the local celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Easter Uprising. The Spire is not particularly admired, it’s called the tallest waste of 5 million Euro in Europe and has nicknames like The Stiletto in the Ghetto, the Stiffy on the Liffey .

We walked past the GPO, here Patrick Pearse read the proclamation of Irish Independence in 1916 kicking off the Easter Uprising. The building was the rebel headquarters and the scene of a bloody 5 day siege. Its pillars are still pockmarked with bullet holes

Eventually we crossed the Liffey river and walked down to Trinity College to see.The Book of Kells a 1200 year old version of the 4 gospels, elaborately inked and illustrated by monks. Arguably the finest art from the Dark Ages.  Trinity college forecourt was packed with stalls, we had managed to time our visit to match with the equivalent of an Aussie university’s “O Week” – Orientation week for freshmem starting the new year. There were stalls set up for all the university clubs, from the Rugby Club to the fine art club.

We finally found our way to the entrance of the Old Library to see the Book of Kells. The exhibit had a beginning section with lots of displays on the history of the book and how it was made. After that you finally get to see the book itself, but sadly , we’re not allowed to take photos. Finally we walked up to  see The Old Library ( Long Room) , the gorgeous original library which houses several treasures including the oldest surviving Irish Harp, the Brian Boru harp

We walked on through the college grounds and out an obscure back entrance to walk down Merrion square to see  the Oscar Wilde Statue which is across the road from Oscar Wilde’s restored childhood home, known for its Georgian architecture & period furnishings.

From there we backtracked d back towards the west to the  Molly Malone Statue . This bronze statue of the subject of a well known Irish song—an attractive fishmonger who sold cockles and mussels from her barrow which she wheeled through the streets of Dublin city. The ballad tells how the woman died of a fever and now her ghost haunts the city streets. . She is particularly well endowed and neil pointed out that her “endowments” were a lot shinier than the rest of her. I’d say she enjoys a lot of caresses!

From here it was a winding walk through a few small streets to Dublin Castle. From 1204 until 1922 it was the seat of English, and later British rule in Ireland. During that time, it served principally as a residence for the British monarch’s Irish representative, the Viceroy of Ireland, and as a ceremonial and administrative centre. The Castle was originally developed as a medieval fortress under the orders of King John of England. In front is the Chapel Royal and Medieval Tower. We walked through the big gate to the courtyard. The domes building is Bedford Hall and to the right is a statue of ‘Liberty”, however, highlighting the ugliness of the English-Irish history,  she is pointedly without her usual blindfold and is looking admiringly at he sword. As Dubliners say “There she is, above her station, with her face to the palace and her arse to the nation”

Behind the palace is Dubhlinn Garden This lawn is on or near the site of the original dubh linn or ‘black pool’, where the Vikings harboured their ships and set up a trading base. It was this pool that gave its name to the city: Dublin. The lawn has a lovely Celtic pattern paved into it with bricks.

From here it was only a short walk up the steps behind the cathedral to Christchurch Cathedral. Christ Church Cathedral (founded c.1028) is the spiritual heart of the city, and one of the top visitor attractions in Dublin. They are renovating the grounds around the Cathedral so we couldn’t really get a good shot of the outside but the interior didn’t disappoint.We enjoyed the cathedral’s beautiful interior and fascinating medieval crypt,  the largest in Ireland, and the earliest surviving structure in the city. The crypt houses priceless silver and plate.

There are also the mummified remains of a cat and  rat, they were discovered in one of the organ pipes when the organ was being renovated in the 1880s.

From here we had a longish walk to another kind of cathedral..Guinness Storehouse ! It’s a sophisticated museum in the original Old Grain Storehouse of the massive Guiness brewery. It was an extremely slick place on a Disney scale. You walk up through 5 floors of exhibits, seeing fancy displays explaining everything you can imagine about the production of the famous brew.

Eventually you reach the Tasting room where you’re given a small glass and are taught the correct way to drink Guiness and to do it justice.

In the “Tasting Room”

Finally we arrived at the top floor Gravity Bar with it’s 360 degree view over the city and we could trade in our tickets for a pint. The bar was packed but we enjoyed our pint looking out over the view to Croke park 9 where the footy final was played yesterday) and the Wicklow Mountains, where we will head tomorrow.

We stopped to have lunch at one of the several cafe/restaurant options on the site before making our way to the nearest Luas stop to catch the light rail back to O’Connell Street. Luas is the light rail system here in Dublin and “Luas” is Irish gaelic for “speed”
We wandered back up O’Connell street to the hotel, stopping in at a souvenir shop on the way. these “Carrolls” shops are EVERWHERE in Dublin, sometimes 3 in one block. I have never seen so many green souvenirs in my life! We also saw another of the city’s statues of famous Irishmen. This one of James Joyce

We opted for an easy meal in the hotel restaurant tonight and swapped opinions of Dublin. I’m glad to have visited but it’s a gritty, edgy city with many homeless people around, some begging with cups in their hands. It’s been interesting to see the sights and we loved our musical evening last night but we’ll both be glad to get back to the open countryside tomorrow.