The next few days in Dublin we spent at the following:
We visited the Dublin Anthropology Museum, full of cases of artifacts of medieval ancestors, once stored in caldrons in watery bogs full of peat and moss. It’s evidently a great way to preserve the metalworks and gold treasures of Ireland.
We shopped. My favorite store for Irish-made gifts was Kilkenny Shop on Grafton Road. Beautiful sweaters and wool wraps but not practical for the Texas climate. I also enjoyed the gift shop at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral and the one inside Trinity University. Avoca Department Store is worth a look.
We drank. We stopped at several pubs, all seeming to begin with O’…. we usually stuck with Guinness but beyond that and Jamison, I favored the Power’s Irish Whisky as my new favorite. Coors Light is very popular here and not cheap. More expensive than Guinness by far for a pint.
We rested. Due to a bit of jet lag and all the walking, we savored our afternoon naps, when we could work them into the schedule. I loved lying on the soft bed listening to the crying seagulls, clopping of horses down the cobblestones, the whoosh of buses and trams outside our apartment and RM’s breathing next to me.
We cooked. We shopped at Lidl’s and Aldi’s just a short stop from our stay. We assembled simple meals of bagels, cheese toasties, Irish soda bread, salami and bright green olives. One night, we did laundry, hung it to dry on a bamboo rack, and braised a pot of traditional Irish stew with lamb, Guinness, mushroom, carrots and parsnips.
We read. Bookshops are alive and well in Dublin. We stopped in several including Gutter, one of the oldest.
One night, we met a group for a literary and pub crawl that lasted three hours. Our hosts shared with us excerpts from Ulysses and other great Irish literary novels and sang Irish ballads to us under the Dublin castle walls and inside several pubs. The pubs were all favorites of the Irish writers like James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, and Jonathan Swift. The hosts shared insight and humor of those times in Dublin.
We hiked. One day, we traveled by train thirty minutes to the coast of Dublin. We met our host and small group at the train station in Howth. Mark, our guide, led us on five-mile-hike along the coast and cliffs of Howth. At the end, we shared a meal and a pint at a pub. Howth is the fishing port for Dublin, with many fishmonger shops and restaurants. Don’t miss this experience, if you can handle the lengthy hike. There are a couple of steep sections.
We reflected. We toured a tenement house on Henrietta Street. This Georgian-style house, converted to tenement housing from 1860 to 1979, at one time housed over 100 people. Of this number, many were children, as families routinely included more than ten children living in one room with no running water. Poverty is an integral part of Irish history.
We were unable to secure tickets to Kilmaining Goul which we know is important to see if you can get in. We did stroll O’Connell Street with the statues celebrating the many heroes of the Irish Rebellion and ultimately independence in 1921, just over 100 years ago.
Red Dirt Girl 