Down By The Liffeyside

We moved out of our little workers cottage into a modern apartment at the Grand Canal Docks.  The area is full of brand new apartments and is very similar to the Docklands in Melbourne.  We have a view of the River Liffey from our balcony and it is nice to watch the activity on the water including the occasional tall ship docking. They even put a band on for us or maybe that was for the LE Samuel Beckett was being commissioned on the river next to us. Irish naval ships are designated LE for "Long Eireannach" = "Irish Ship".

Dublin has begun to feel like home, so much so, that I find myself getting annoyed with the meandering tourists and then I remind myself that I am a tourist too.  The days are getting longer as it stays light until almost 10.00pm now.  There have even been a number of sunny days although mostly you just take it for granted that it will rain for at least part of the day.  It doesn’t stop us from getting out and about though.

In one of my previous blogs, I mentioned the Lady on the Rock statues, which can be seen in areas of Dublin.  When I first saw them, I thought that if I had one, I would like to paint her robe a different colour.  Well, great minds think alike as Michael discovered a shop full of “pimped up” ladies.  There were gothic ladies, glow in the dark ladies and psychedelic ladies.  They were actually very good.

 

The Giro Italia came to Dublin, which was very exciting.  The race started in Belfast and continued to Dublin.  I felt a little sorry for the cyclists, as they had to endure some pretty heavy downpours along the route.  Michael and I waited for about 90 minutes near the finish line to cheer them home.  Just as the cyclists came into view, the entire crowd lifted their arms to take photos with cameras, iphones and ipads.  I could barely see a helmet whizzing by.  Nevertheless, it was exciting to be there.  It wasn’t until the following day that we heard on the news that police had found a bomb in a car along the Dublin Giro route.  That was a little unsettling!

A short trip from Dublin is Malahide Castle, which had been built upon receipt of the royal warrant from Henry II in 1174 and had been a family home for over 800 years. The last Talbot left in 1977, as she was unable to pay the property taxes and sold it to the government. Subsequently she moved to the family estate in Tasmania. It is the oldest castle in Ireland. Lord Talbot de Malahide (Milo to his mates) was the last owner and was rumoured to be a spy for the British Government serving in Asia. One of his hobbies was collecting plants from the antipodes and he set up a special garden of the plants he collected. It was nice to smell eucalypts and see Australian plants. They had a few hot houses to cater for them as well as huge gum trees and an oak over 350 years old.

Omnia Pro Deo

Once again we hired a car, this time to take a daytrip to Glendalough.  Our boys attended St Kevin’s College and the junior campus was named after this medieval monastic settlement, which was founded by St Kevin.  The ruins are nestled in the most beautiful countryside and it was peaceful walking the tracks alongside the river and lakes.  We even saw deer grazing totally oblivious to the people walking by. 

We drove for some time around the area, just winding our way through the valleys and stopping when we saw something interesting, which was often.  Feeling hungry, we stopped for lunch at the village of Avoca and were pleasantly surprised to discover that this was where the television series Ballykissangel was filmed and the pub where we had stopped featured heavily as the bar in the series.  The food was delicious and the whole time we were entertained by the television showing re-runs of the series.

Home Of The Late, Great Jimmy Stynes

The bank holiday weekend (yes, another one) afforded us the opportunity to travel around the Ring of Kerry.  This is a spectacular circular tourist route in County Kerry and it certainly lived up to its hype.  Michael drove and even though we got lost a couple of times, it didn’t matter as we were surrounded by beautiful countryside. We passed through many old villages, each one more lovely than the next.

Killarney is where we stayed which of course was where Jim Stynes, the Melbourne football legend was from.  The Irish are very proud of Jim and the fact that his statue is being erected near the MCG received wide coverage here. 

We saw a number of jaunting cars, which is the local form of horse drawn carriages.  It would be a lovely way to see the countryside (provided the weather was fine) however there were so many of them that they caused quite a traffic jam at the end of the day when they were all returning. 

Killarney is also famous for the Vatican Pimpernel Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty who
rescued prisoners and Jews from the Germans by hiding them around the Vatican and frustrating the Nazis to the point that they painted a line around the Vatican and declared that if he stepped over it he would be shot. Ireland has little WW2 history, as they stayed neutral during the war. 

The Lobster Bar in Waterville was where we stopped for dinner, which was very tasty.  It is a funny little town on the sea and there is bizarrely a statue of Charlie Chaplin.  It appears that he had spent some time in Waterville.  There is also a statue of Mick O’Dwyer, the most successful Gaelic football manager of all time.  They like their statues in Ireland.

We headed to a bar after dinner to listen to some Irish music.  Ireland is definitely the place to be if you are a musician as I am sure that you would never be unemployed – especially if you know how to play Irish music.  Just about every pub has a band playing nightly and you can hear music wherever you walk.  This night the crowd was in the mood for a sing a long, so many Irish ballads were played including the Irish Rover, which seems to be mandatory, as I have heard it played in every pub we have visited (Galway Girl is also popular).

The next day we headed out to drive the ring once again, however the weather was very poor and we couldn’t see much due to the clouds sitting low on the mountains.  It didn’t worry us too much as we were happy just driving around and stopping at villages along the way.  One thing that we could see was the magnificent purple rhododendrons, which carpeted the mountains.  They were absolutely everywhere and were spectacular.  When I researched them later, I discovered that they are an introduced species and the government spends hundreds of thousands of euros each year trying to eradicate them, as they are highly invasive.  You wouldn’t suspect that something so beautiful could be so destructive.

 

Another thing we have noticed on our travels around Ireland, is the number of roadside monuments to people who have been killed in car accidents.  In Australia you will see wooden crosses erected alongside country roads with floral tributes.  In Ireland, they are full on engraved marble headstones, usually with a pile of fresh flowers on top.  They are a sobering sight.

The sun shone gloriously for our final day, so once more Michael drove the ring.  This time the views were absolutely spectacular, particularly from the top of the mountains.  The sheep filled valleys are the most amazing green, which is then fringed by the vivid blue waters of the Atlantic – simply breathtaking.  We stopped to walk up to the top of the beautiful cliffs on the Skellig Ring and were rewarded with a stunning panorama.  It reminded me a little of the Gap in Sydney but even more dramatic. 

We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Ireland and hope that one day we can return here, as there is still more to see.  Tomorrow we head of on a new adventure.