Old Dublin Town

Once again we are back in the swing of things in Dublin.  This year, we were both lucky enough to be here for St Patrick’s Day.  Michael was here for St Patrick’s Day last year however I was in London at the time with Christine.  The celebration took place over 4 days with something for everyone.  In the evening, all of the principal buildings were lit by green lights, including the Spire (charmingly referred to by Dubliners as the Stiletto in the Ghetto) and it was lovely to walk around and admire the city.  There was a big children’s fair set up with rides and games and there were a number of exhibitions and displays set up around the town.  One of the buildings opened free to the public, was Marsh’s Library.  This wonderful old library was built in 1701 and it was a joy to wander around and look at the beautiful dark oak bookcases and see the cages that students were locked into to study.

The highlight of St Patrick’s Day was naturally the parade.  Thousands of people thronged the route as everyone jostled to get the best view.  It was the first parade I have attended where people brought their ladders to stand on!  There were many marching bands and floats and everyone seemed to have a jolly time.  When the parade had finished, Michael and I headed out to watch the hurling. 




This was our first hurling match and it was exciting to watch the speed at which the players run at the ball (sliotar) and whack it with their sticks (hurleys).  I won’t pretend that I understood much of what was happening but I do know that I would never have allowed James & Tim to play the game.  Arming those two boys with hurleys would have been just asking for trouble!  The hurling was followed by a game of Gaelic football, which was an exciting match as well.  At least I could pretty much follow what was happening.  It was good to see what a family celebration St Patrick’s Day is.  We didn’t see any intoxicated people like we see in Australia.  Mind you, we deliberately avoided Temple Bar as we knew that all of the tourists who had descended on Dublin would be out is force celebrating.

 





The past two months have seen several of Michael’s former work colleagues come over to Dublin and it is always nice catching up with them for a meal.  Tim’s son, Christopher, was touring Ireland with his choir and we caught a performance at St Patrick’s Cathedral.  It had been a while since Michael and I had been to a choir performance and it was very peaceful sitting in the magnificent church and the performance was very good. St Patrick’s is the largest cathedral in Ireland and has been on the site for over 800 years. 

We experienced our second Easter in Ireland and once more I was amazed at the number of shops open on Good Friday, especially the butchers.  I have subsequently discovered that the reason for this is that Good Friday is not a gazetted public holiday.  It is classified as a bank holiday, which means that not all businesses are required to close.  In fact, the only businesses required to close on Good Friday are the pubs.  Another quirky liquor law that we have discovered by chance, is that you are not allowed to purchase alcohol before 10.30am on any day and only after 12.00pm on Sundays.  We had picked up a bottle of wine to have with our dinner at the supermarket and were informed that we would have to wait 10 minutes before we could purchase the bottle (it was 10.20am Saturday).  The scanners at the registers are physically locked to ensure that no alcohol is sold before the correct time. 

Easter Saturday, we decided to have a sporting day.  First we took in a rugby game of Leinster v Bath.  It was a packed stadium and some of the Bath supporters went to the trouble of dressing as Roman centurions.  They started off very vocal, challenging all comers and waving their swords (plastic) in the air.  They soon quietened down when Leinster overtook them on the scoreboard.  We followed the rugby with a trip to the greyhound stadium to watch the dish lickers.  Michael and I had a surprisingly good meal in the restaurant overlooking the racetrack and we had great fun using our highly scientific method to bet on the winner (if we liked the name, we bet on it).  The lady who looked after the placing of our bets was impressed serving such high rollers as us- 4 Euro between us per race ($6).  One of Michael’s dogs refused to parade past the punters and his poor embarrassed owner had to carry him to the starting box.  Amazingly, he actually won the race!  We enjoyed ourselves so much that we took Tim with us last week.  He seemed to enjoy himself and he actually won a few races, possibly because he actually studied the form guide for the dogs instead of just fancying their names!

Easter Sunday we headed to the Easter Uprising service marking 99 years since the uprising.  The service was held out the front of the main post office, which of course was where the main events happened all those years ago.  The roads were blocked off by the police and security was tight.  Bags were checked at the one entrance and there was a sizable crowd there.  The service was conducted in Gaelic, however we understood the gist of it.  There were displays in the street detailing the history of the uprising.  I hope that we are lucky enough to be here next year for the centenary celebrations.

The Galway Girl

Michael wanted to do some diving so we hired a car and drove to county Galway to the tiny town of Tully Cross.  It took us 6 hours to drive there as it was pouring rain and the last part of the drive was hair raising trying to navigate extremely narrow lanes in the pitch dark.  At last we found our accommodation, Maol Reidh Hotel and we settled in for the night.  Michael spent the Saturday diving whilst I spent a leisurely day reading in the lobby, as it was much too cold outside for me.  Every time I looked out of the window I discovered the weather had changed – one moment there was sunshine, next came the rain, which was then followed by hail. 


The cycle then went onto repeat in a never-ending loop.  Michael returned shivering, having completed a shore dive and a boat dive.  He enjoyed himself but was too cold to want to repeat the performance on Sunday.  The town of Tully Cross consists of 2 pubs, the hotel we stayed in and a few scattered houses.  That was it – no general store or anything else.  We amused ourselves with a pub- crawl of the 3 establishments.

We awoke the next day to the view of mountains covered in snow, which explained why we had been feeling so cold.  After breakfast, we took a lovely drive through the countryside, stopping at Roundstone for a coffee.  We had been there before and remembered what a relaxing town it was.  The café overlooked the water and it was peaceful sitting sipping our coffees and watching the world drift by.  Then we drove through the wilds of Connemara to Limerick where we spent the night.

The next day, Michael had work to do in Shannon so I had the day to myself to explore the town.  The last time we were in Limerick the weather was cold and raining, however, this time, it was glorious sunshine.  The city looked completely different and it was interesting to see just how beautiful the city is with lovely buildings and gardens and of course the castle along the River Shannon.  I spent the day checking out the places of interest along with the shops.  Michael says that I have turned into his father, as I can’t go past an op shop without checking out the books for sale.  There are many op shops in Limerick, which, whilst good for me, is a sad reflection of the times.  We dined in Limerick before driving back to Dublin and I was able to try a Knickerbocker Glory, which I had tried to track down in England with no luck.  It was wonderful!

Michael and I attended the dawn service on Anzac Day at the Grangegorman Military Cemetery.  The crowd was considerably larger than last year and the service was very moving.  Unfortunately we had a rather embarrassing moment when Michael’s phone alarm went off at full volume during the prayer.  Michael panicked and pushed every button on the phone but still it rang on.  He eventually managed to remove the battery just as I was getting ready to stomp on the thing!  It could have been worse though, it could have happened during the two minutes’ silence.  

Since we were up and about so early, we decided to wait until the zoo opened.  Unfortunately, just as we entered the zoo, the heavens opened and the rain set in for the rest of the day.  We spent the morning wandering the exhibits soaked to the skin whilst the animals did the smart thing and stayed in their shelters.  It is a nice zoo with a good range of animals and we will definitely return when the weather is kinder.

The Boys of the County Cork

It was the Labour Day weekend so Michael and I hired a car and headed to Cork for the weekend.  It poured with rain for most of the drive however the weather cheered up by the time we arrived.  We had lunch at the English Market, which is the main food market in the centre of Cork.  There has been a market on this site since 1788 with the present buildings dating back to the mid 19^th century.  It was very pleasant wandering around looking at all the fresh produce and it was the best market we have seen in Ireland.  Cork is a beautiful, old city and we spent the afternoon exploring the streets and shops before checking into the Ambassador Hotel.  When we arrived, we assumed that there was a wedding reception taking place, as we could see a huge number of formally dressed guests.  Imagine our surprise when we looked in and saw that the “bride” was in fact a 7 year old girl celebrating her first communion!  The hotel receptionist told us that every Friday and Saturday evening for the next two months has been booked for communion functions.  Apparently the trend is for the child to arrive by chauffeured limousine and if the child is a girl, then a spray tan is a must!  It is all much grander than when our boys took their first communion.

The next day was our wedding anniversary (how the years fly by) and we drove to Kinsale for breakfast.  One of the more challenging things in Ireland is to find somewhere that opens at a reasonable hour for breakfast.  It is nearly impossible to find somewhere even in Dublin with many cafes advertising breakfast but not opening until 11.00am or even midday.  It is certainly not like Melbourne. 

Kinsale would have to be the most picture perfect town that we have seen since arriving in Dublin.  The narrow, winding streets are filled with lovely, restored houses and shops and I would definitely like to spend a weekend in the town.  We spent the afternoon driving around the countryside, which is mainly beautiful, lush green farmland.  










 We also saw the monument for the people who perished during the sinking of the Lusitania at the Old Head.  It was 100 years ago today (at time of writing) that the Lusitania sank in 91 metres of water just off the Cork coast.

 









Since we were in Cork, it was only right that we should make the pilgrimage to Blarney Castle.  We arrived nice and early in order to beat the tourist buses and we dutifully climbed to the top of the castle keep to see the Blarney Stone.  We did not kiss the stone, as I was worried that if I lay down to kiss it, I would not be able to get back up again!  The view from the tower was impressive and it worth the climb just to see that.  We then walked the grounds, which were enormous and we hoped that we would see some red squirrels however they were all hiding that day. 












 








A short drive took us to the Jameson Distillery where we lunched and had a good look around.  It was then time to slowly wend our way back to Dublin.