Our Bus Tour of Dublin

On our aborted tour of Ireland we did have a half day on a tour bus.  At noon we were dropped off to get lunch on our own, shop or see more historic sites and return to the bus.

Pictured above is a side entrance of Trinity College.  Founded in 1592 it is the oldest university in Western Europe.  Famous alumni include author Jonathan Swift, writer and dramatist Oscar Wilde, physicist Nobel Prize winner Ernest Walton, and Nobel Laureate in Literature Samuel Beckett- to name a few.

This picture is of the front of the college.  The statue on the left is that of Edmund Burke 18^th century Irish statesman.  Figure on the right is that of philosopher and political thinker of Georgian Age (author and poet), Burke’s friend Oliver Goldsmith.  We were able to tour the campus that one afternoon and then the gates closed.  Word had it that 3 post graduate students had the virus, students were sent home.

Finola, our guide, suggested the Bank restaurant for lunch, and we were glad that we followed her suggestion- excellent food and a bit of a museum.  The building began as a bank in 1891.  In the picture above you may notice its Victorian trimming as well as marble posts.The historical bank has a replica of the Book of Kells as well as a wall of busts of the men executed for their part in the 1916 Easter uprising.  That was very sobering to read their biographies- all fairly young men in their 40s and respected people of their communities- scholars, barristers, politicians and and a poet. 

In regards to that uprising, our bus tour took us to the Garden of Remembrance.  It is a memorial to men who lost their lives “in the cause of Irish freedom”.  This had to do with the up-risings of 1798,1813-1818,1867,1916 and 1919-1921.  The statue has the figures of four children arising out of swans.  That was in reference to an old Irish legend of children who were turned into swans and later  liberated. Queen Elizabeth laid a wreath at this memorial in 2011.

And I am again ending this on a lighter note.  We completed our afternoon at the Guinness Storehouse.  We toured it on our own and saw the story which happened 250 years ago when the brewery started producing its famous dark beer.  The building is designed in the shape of a giant pint of Guinness.   Speaking of that drink, we received a free glass of it at the highest level of the building, the Gravity Bar.  While sipping our beers we could look out wide large windows and see  the city of Dublin and beyond to the countryside, ocean and mountains.  What a great view!   We also watched as the skies become dark, clouds roll in and rain come down. By the time we were ready to walk back to our hotel it was sunny again;  except for one day that was our weather pattern while we were in Ireland.

O'Connell Street

This street is the main artery of Dublin’s northside.  Mike had arrived in Dublin a day before John and was eager to show us some of the sites he had discovered. This street, one of the widest in the city, was the first one to which he guided us.  Daniel O’Connell was a politician who lived from 1775 to 1847.  He campaigned for Catholic emancipation and repeal of the Acts of Union which combined Great Britain and Ireland.  His statue on O’Connell street is titled “The Liberator”.  The winged figures by his side represent his bravery, patriotism, fidelity, and eloquence.  We passed by this statue on our tour bus on another day and our guide pointed out bullet holes on the winged figures they hit this landmark in the 1916 rebellion.

 

Another important figure for Ireland is that of the well-known Irish author James Joyce.  There is a James

There is a Joyce Centre in Dublin, which we did not visit.  However, during our tour of Dublin, Finola our guide pointed out  various sites pertaining to the fictional characters of Leopold and Molly Bloom featured in Joyce's book "Ulysses".
Pictured at the bottom of this posting is the "Dublin Spire", a 398 foot stainless steel post in the background of that photo.  It is also called “Monument of Light”, and is one of the newer landmarks on this street. There were big plans for this monument, including a revolving platform at the top- but funds ran out.  It has a variety of nicknames as “the stiletto in the ghetto” ," the pike in the dike” or “nail in the pale”.  Have to be a Dubliner to understand them!

 

There are a couple other monuments on O’Connell but I would rather finish this with some bit of humor.  However, it is necessary to move to another part of Dublin, to the Molly Malone statue.  Do you know the Irish song of Molly and how she was a fishmonger selling cockles and mussels?  Had another business at night.  Here she is with her fish cart.  Her breasts are a bit shiny from well, I can only imagine that some visitors to dear Molly have enjoyed giving her a bit of a rub!

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First Impressions of Dublin

 It is necessary for me to clarify where we were located in Dublin.  If you are at all familiar with the city, from what I wrote on the last posting you may have guessed the southern part.  And that is correct.  It has most of the historic sites of Dublin and we stayed on a mission to see as much as we could in the short time we had.  And during the time we had, the historic buildings and museums were closing fast because of the virus.  We got into the National Gallery of Ireland three hours before it closed for two weeks.  That was fortunate as our tour guide had mentioned that on special exhibit there was a Cararvaggio painting “The Taking of Christ” which I wanted to see and was able to. 

Pictured above is the Custom House, original building constructed in 1791.  It was gutted in 1921 by the IRA, and subsequently restored to house various government departments.  I apologize for the poor quality of pictures.  I was quite literally on a fast walk while taking them, and the weather was usually wet and windy when I was snapping them.  I chose not to take my camera, as it is rather big and bulky compared to my phone camera.  Mike took a few pictures and kindly shared them with me.

We learned very quickly that Dublin is a mixture of old and new buildings, as you can see in the picture above.  That is reflective of what is happening nationwide.   Ireland is moving from an economy based on tourism and agriculture to that of one driven by the pharmaceutical and IT industries.  Our tour bus took us through the financial area where our guide pointed out some of  the Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Apple business buildings. 

 Our bus tour also took us through the older Georgian part of Dublin.  These row homes were built at the time of King George during the later half of the 18^th century into the 19^th.   They were the homes of the British aristocracy.  Back in the day the doors were all black, that has changed, and now the doors vary in color.   These homes are also notable for their wrought iron balconies, fancy door knockers and lighting fixtures

 

One other note here before closing this posting.   Many of the older buildings have windows closed off.  We were informed that those windows were shuttered because property taxes once were based on the number of windows in the building one owned.

Trip Plans Changed

Last year John and I, along with our son, Mike planned a trip to Ireland.  Through our travel club we bought airline tickets to Dublin, Ireland, as well as a guided tour which included Dublin, Galway, Ennis, Kilorglin, Kerry Mountains, County Cork- well, I will go no further mentioning those places. We missed them all except Dublin.  The second day of our tour (Friday the 13th of March) we boarded the bus only to be asked by our tour guide to get off and meet in the hotel lobby which we had just left.  We then waited two hours, only to be told that the tour was cancelled and that they would work with us to purchase airline tickets home.

The day before, on the twelfth of March, we did tour Dublin with our tour group.  All was not lost, and, while attempting to purchase our airline tickets Friday, we spent another day and a half in that city- seeing more sights in Dublin as well as a couple of towns on the outskirts of that city.   So I have do have something to share regarding our trip.  Being on self quarantine for 14 days gives me no excuse to not get back into writing, especially since I do have a fair amount to share.

We did a lots of walking around Dublin, except for the one day when we were on the tour bus.  Our hotel was right on the river Liffey, and there were a couple of pedestrian bridges which we crossed to enter the city.  By the way, the river separates north and south Dublin.  The bridge pictured above is the Samuel Beckett Bridge.  It looks like a harp on its side (the harp is the official emblem for Ireland), and was constructed in 2009 for 60 million euros.  It has a swivel opening of 90 degrees which allows ships to pass through.

Pictured above is the Ha Penny toll bridge built in 1816.  At the time it cost half a penny to cross it, later the cost went up and it is now Penny Ha Penny Bridge.  No toll charge today.  That picture was taken on a fairly dark day.  There was only one day that was sunny with no rain while we were in Dublin.  And if you are wondering, that is a beggar sitting there, a fairly common sight on the bridge.  More on Dublin in my next posting.