Ireland Training Lesson Four

Lesson Four:  You have to have a bit of fun!

That brings us to Saturday.  We’d had a couple of calls back but no movement on the house front.  So, we decided to blow off the heavy stuff and sightsee like any good self-respecting tourist.  We got up, fortified ourselves with breakfast and drove to the center of Dublin.  We roamed through St. Stephens Green through to Trinity College and saw the incredible Book of Kells and Book of Armagh.  Trinity’s The Long Room was one of our favorite parts of the tour. 

 
This enormous room is filled, floor to ceiling with books.  Thousands upon thousands of books of all shapes, ages, sizes and genres.  For us, this was Aladdin’s Cave.  The last time I was in The Long Room, an original mathematics book from Sir Isaac Newton was on display.  Sadly, this time it was gone.  In its’ place were books and artifacts about Brian Boru—The Empire of Ireland. Having never heard of this historical figure, we took our time though the exhibit. Never fear, before we left, I found out how to visit any of the books in college’s immense library—including the Newton text.

Next we walked to Dublin Castle and took the tour.  Dublin Castle was an interesting mix of Irish history and government building.  On the surface, it seems like such a waste to not house the seat of the Irish government there at the Castle. But then you remember that Ireland was ruled by England from that very building and you can clearly understand why the Irish Republic needed a new spread. 

From Dublin Castle, we hoofed it to Christ Church only to find that you have to pay to get in.  I do not pay to get into churches.  It just doesn’t feel right to me.  Instead we decided to walk along the river Liffey for a while.  Originally we were thinking of hitting St. Patrick’s Church after Christ Church because Abby, Colleen and I had gone to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York just a couple months ago.  But seeing how tired Ker and the girls were getting, instead went the other direction to Grafton Street (Ireland’s answer to Rodeo Drive), back through St. Stephen’s green and to the car. 

Ker and I were VERY thirsty so we drove to St. James Gate intending on lifting a pint of Guinness and eating at the amazing restaurant.  Alas, it was closed by the time we go there.  Sad face.  So we went back to the hotel. 

All that tourist-ing lifted our spirits.  Even without the beer, making a life here did not seem so daunting and we were renewed in our belief that we were doing the right thing.  Faith restored, we slept easy.

Sunday morning we took a little time to lay back in the hotel.  Then we were off to Kilmainham Gaol.  We queued up in a long line.  By chance, we hit the day where all heritage sites were free to the public.  Both tourists and natives were eager to see the Gaol fee-free.  While the wait in line was aggravating for some, we found some very nice Canadians next to us in line to chat with while we waited in the welcome sunshine (we have had GREAT weather by the way).  We decided to take a less crowded tour later in the day.  This gave us an excuse to try for St. James Gate again. 

Alas, even though we were there at the right time to eat at the restaurant, you have to go through (and pay for!) the museum.  We decided to wait until Bryan and Crystal came in November. 

Always chasing the Guinness but never drinking any:(

Instead we found ourselves a nice little pub with Wi-Fi to have some lunch within walking distance of the Gaol.

Traditional Irish Stew Lunch is On!

With our extra time before the Kilmainham tour, we peeked through the Irish Metropolitan Museum of Art (IMMA), which is only a couple of blocks away from the Gaol. We definitely want to go back there.  Not only is it free, but also it’s housed in the old hospital and surrounded by long forgotten cemeteries.

IMMA

But our tour time was come up fast.  The Gaol tour was very moving.  We have been to Alcatraz and done that tour.  But Kilmainham is just simply awesome.  The museum is 3 floors of history brought to life by first person documents and artifacts.  The Goal was originally built in 1153ce to replace the “old” gaol.  There were prisoners in the gaol as recent as 1925.  Its walls are central to the Irish struggle for self-determination.  The stories told by our amazingly knowledgeable guide gave us glimpses into why the Irish are fiercely proud of their citizenship.  In America we talk of Tea Parties, and taxation without representation as examples of how the British Empire was mean to us.  In that gaol, you heard tales of famine, hangings, and firing squads.   You learn about centuries of oppression, suppression, and horror.  Makes America’s struggles seem so small in comparison.

One moment that resonated strongly with me was the cellblocks built in the “modern” style of 1200’s.  This was the last part of the prison to hold inmates.  Political prisoners were jailed there to remove their message of freedom from society.  These patriots carved sayings above their cell doors as a way of being remembered. 

I had Abby take a photo of me under one such message “No Surrender”.  One of my personal mottos’s written by someone who longed to make a difference—needless to say, I’m not smiling in the picture.  Not because I’m sad, but because part of me knows that making a difference is so difficult to do and may take my entire life and, like this person, I may never know if what I’ve done really mattered.  Quite the sobering thought in such a gloomy, hopeless place.

All in all we had a grand time seeing the sights and learning more about the country we now call home.