Dublin or Nothing

Well, when last we left our intrepid explorers, we were about to board the on/off Dublin tour bus. The Bus left from O'Connell Street near the River Liffey - pretty much the heart of Dublin City. The Liffey flows through the middle of Dublin and O'Connell Street crosses it on a wide bridge. We were also near the General Post Office or GPO which figured in the heroic but failed attempt at Irish independence known as the "Easter Rising" of 1916.

The GPO on O'Connell St. The Irish freedom fighters of 1916 occupied the building. After bitter fighting they were forced to surrender to British forces.

After the rising was put down, the British executed a number of its leaders as a stern warning. Like most such brutality, it backfired, creating martyrs and winning more support for the cause of independence.

A statue of Daniel O'Connell, who won the right for Irish Catholics to vote, be elected to Parliament, and enter the civil service.

This angel decorates the base of the O'Connell statue - note the small hole near her elbow; it is a bullet hole from the Easter Rising.


This statue is on O'Connell St. near the GPO. It is James Larkin a founder of the Irish labor movement.

At any rate, the bus continued along O'Connell St. and across the Liffey taking us past a number of Dublin historic sites. I'll post some pictures Abe took along the way.

A street in Dublin


The river Liffey - sometimes referred to as "Anna Liffey" in Irish song and poetry


A side street in Dublin. The weird yellow thing coming at you is an amphibious vehicle which is used to give harbor tours. The US Army used to call them "Ducks".


Some of the lovely Georgian row houses for which Dublin is famous. The doors are often decorated with much pride and individuality.


One such Dublin row house door.


The Bank of Ireland - this building was originally the Irish Parliament House in the 1700's

The offices of the Taoiseach or Prime Minister



St Patrick's Cathedral - interestingly, it is a Protestant Church of Ireland (Episcopal) cathedral


A statue of "Molly Malone", Dublin's favorite fish monger. Who knew she had such cleavage? The tour guide on the bus told us some blarney/malarkey about her supposedly "moonlighting" as a hooker (not that she actually existed - it was a song). Dubliners call her the trollop with the scallops.

I have to say that the bus tour was fun, the tour guide regaled us with a combination of real history and pleasant blarney. Supposedly, Dubliners are noted for having a wry or even warped sense of humor even for Ireland. Well this guy had one and we loved it.

Its was getting on about lunchtime at this point and, as the bus was approaching the stop for the Guinness tour, we decided to hop off, take the tour and get something to eat.

There is no longer a tour of the actual brewery. Instead, you tour the "Guinness Storehouse" which contains various exhibits, a restaurant, bars etc.

Roz at the entrance to the Guinness storehouse

A sign welcomed us to the tour

This sign pretty much explains the process demonstrated in the exhibits

After touring we ate lunch at the Guinness restaurant located on an upper floor of the building. This was the view from our table.

The final phase of the tour was a free pint in the "Gravity Bar" on the top floor. Roz and Michelle enjoy some of Ireland's finest.

The view from the Gravity Bar

After the tour of the "Storehouse", we hopped back on the bus for the trip back to our starting point. Once back by the GPO, we decided to cross the O'Connell St. bridge on foot to explore an area of Dublin called the "Temple Bar". This is a neighborhood along the south bank of the Liffey which contains many pubs, restaurants etc. It is a very lively area and seems popular with young people.

Roz, Michelle and I on a cobblestone street in Temple Bar

We wandered about the district checking out some of the sights and the pubs until hunger pangs once again overtook us. We found a pub with food and live music and settled in to soak up some local color (as well as food and booze).

Roz in front of "The Oliver St. John Gogarty"

The pub was named after a historical character of early 20th century Dublin: Oliver St. John Gogarty. He was, among other things, a physician, poet, author, and participant in the Irish war for independence. Gogarty was also a sometime friend of James Joyce and purportedly served as the model for Molly Bloom's lover Blazes Boylan in "Ulysses". At any rate, the place had all sorts of paintings of famous Irish literati.

Inside Gogarty's Roz cozies up to Oscar Wilde and William Butler Yeats - she just can't resist those Celtic literary types! Must be her librarian's training.

Michelle and I in Gogarty's

Abe and Roz sat across from us.

The music was lively and the food and beer were good. At this point we decided to call it a day and made our way back to the Luas on Abbey street and thence back to our car and our B&B.

Next: Trinity College and the Book of Kells

The Rocky Road to Dublin

Okay, so, from Tramore we drove the next day northwest to the town of Cashel - home of the famous Rock of Cashel. The Rock of Cashel is a hill located in the town of Cashel in County Tipperary. It was originally the stronghold of the kings of Munster (the southwest quarter of Ireland - more or less). In the middle ages the Rock was given to the Church and from then on, became the site of various religious structures. It was largely ruined in the 1600's by Cromwell's jolly crew. For more details, see the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_of_Cashel.

This sign was there in case you didn't know what the big damn rock in front of you was

The Rock of Cashel with the ruins atop it

The car park for the RoC was, of course, at the bottom of the hill. After a long, steep climb up a long steep path, we four old geezers actually made it to the top. Frankly, it was a real stress test. I was expecting a cardiologist with an EKG machine to be waiting for us. Alas, there was just a place where you paid money to see the ruins.

The view from the top of the RoC - what do you see? More ruins.

The cathedral on the Rock. It's pretty much intact except for the roof and the windows.

Inside Cormac's Chapel

We went inside a smaller church on the RoC called Cormac's Chapel. It has a stone roof and stayed pretty much intact during all the Cromwell nonsense. However, if you notice the little bits of color on the vaulted ceiling in the above picture, these are the remains of what are believed to have been some amazing frescoes - kind of an Irish Sistine Chapel. Unfortunately, the damp Irish climate pretty much destroyed them, and these bits of color are all that's left.

This was in the indoor exhibit at the RoC. I think it's supposed to be what's left of a cross set up by St. Patrick - patron saint of Ireland and, in the U.S., of green beer.

After having duly noted the Rock of Cashel, we set off for dear old Dublin (well, actually Rathcoole, a suburb of Dublin where we were staying at a B&B). Along the way, we traveled on some good sized chunks of divided, limited access highway - basically Interstates, except they are called Motorways in Ireland and the U.K. None of these existed when I drove around Ireland thirty years ago - I suppose they are a result of the recent prosperity and E.U. membership.

Well, in the fullness of time (a couple of hours or so) we arrived at our B&B in Rathcoole. Since it was still some time before noon, our rooms were not ready, but the lady who owned the place kindly let us leave our luggage in her sun room so we could rush off to Dublin and explore.

Our B&B in Rathcoole

Our original plan in staying in Rathcoole was to take a bus into Dublin - we most definitely did not want to drive in Dublin traffic. The B&B owner told us that we also had the choice of a tram line which had a station a few miles away and would take us into the heart of Dublin. After a bit of doing - the lady's directions were rather vague and the tram station was too new to show up on the rather outdated GPS we had- we found the station, parked in its extensive lot and took the tram (what we would call a trolley car or light rail system in the U.S.) into Dublin.

The Dublin light rail which is officially called the "Luas" (Irish for "speed") system. It began operating in 2004; there are plans to expand it. This picture is at the station where we boarded: "The Red Cow Station". In downtown Dublin the tracks are in the street like an old-time trolley.

After a pleasant, 35-minute ride, the tram deposited us at Abbey Street by the corner of O'Connell: pretty much the heart of Dublin. From there it was off to see the sights.

Roz cozies up to James Joyce - Don't tell Nora!

On our first of two days in Dublin, we opted to take one of the on/off tour busses. You buy a one day ticket good for as many trips on the guided tour bus as you want, and you can get on and off their scheduled stops (which are usually near tourist sites) as often as you please. I think that I will continue with our Dublin adventures in the next post. For now I will leave you with a short video that Michelle shot of O'Connell Street in the heart of the city. It gives some idea of the vibrant busy life of the place:

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Next: Dublin's Fair City, Molly Malone, and Guinness