8/29 -- Explore Dublin and Pack for Home

This morning, we met Lorcan Collins, a local historian, at the Park of Remembrance and learned about the 1916 Easter Rising. If the planned arms delivery hadn't been foiled, it could have been a very different result. The Rising was supposed to start on Sunday morning, but the leader tried to call it off for lack of arms. At a meeting that day, it was decided to launch it on Monday instead, totally confusing all those who had planned to participate. It was launched with 1,200 Irish partisans against 3,500 British troops. The timing was planned for the middle of WWI, to make it more difficult for the British to fight back, but by the end of the week, there were about double the number of Irish, but 29,000 British, and the rebellion was put down. Over 3,400 Irish men were arrested and imprisoned along with 79 women. Sixteen of the leaders were executed the next month. 1,800 were sent to internment camps and prisons in England and Wales. Fifteen years in these prisons ended up being educational for the rebels and facilitated their ability to fight back when they were finally released.

The park also had a statue representing the children of King Lir, whose children were turned to swans by a jealous step mother who cursed them to live 300 years on each of three islands. On the third island, they were finally freed by a church bell  and turned back into children and quickly died of old age. The statue depicts their transformation back to humans or maybe from kids to swans.

There were other statues too, some with cute nicknames. One I was unable to photograph was a slender woman sort of leaning back in a pool. She had originally been in the River Liffey (Lethe?) and is known as "The Floozy in the Jacuzzi".

The Millennium Tower is commonly called
The Stiletto in the Ghetto or The Stiffy
by the Liffey. BTW,  notice the
clear blue sky! The first clear sky all trip.
It didn't last, but it didn't rain either.

We walked down to the Post Office, which became the headquarters of the Irish rebels. Even today you can see the shell holes in the pillars of the Post Office and several statues in the area. The rebels broke out the windows to prevent them from being sprayed by glass coming in. They stacked ledger books in the windows to provide cover inside. Several buildings in the area burned and the fires were so intense that the inner wall of the Post Office was too hot to touch.

GPO or General Post Office

Bullet holes in the columns

The windows on the left were the ones removed.

Jim Larkin was a union organizer. When the
Dublin Police attacked and killed striking workers,
he and James Connolly founded the Irish Citizen
Army to protect the strikers.

Above and below: plaques on the Jim Larkin
pedestal.

Another statue to Daniel O'Connell, who we
'met' in Ennis earlier in the trip. He is the one
who led the repeal of the Penal Laws which
persecuted Catholics and other religious
minorities for 200  years.

We ended up at Trinity College and separated to explore the city on our own. 

On the way to Trinity, we saw the Hapenny Bridge, so called
because when it was first built, you  had to pay a half
penny to cross it.

Entering into Trinity College

One of the school buildings in the Trinity Collage Square.

We went in search of a bottle of Irish Cream, similar to Baileys, but white instead of creamy, like the one we had had in Ennis at our home-hosted dinner. Apparently, we should have pursued it earlier, because we were unable to find it. We had lunch in a park, walked to see the James Joyce Bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava and then over to the Jameson Distillery for a tour.

The park where we ate lunch. Not as sunny, but pleasant .

Walking toward Jameson, we passed an area of the original
Viking settlement.

James Joyce Bridge. The two arches bend outward to
remind you of an open book.

We got there very early and they let us take an earlier tour. We learned about the company history, their process of distilling, and sampled three whiskeys from different makers: Jameson, Johnny Walker Black, and Jack Daniels. They were all very different. The Johnny Walker is heated with peat and has a definitive smoky flavor. The Jack Daniels is made with barley and corn and aged only in new barrels and tasted of banana of all things. Afterward we got a glass, either neat, on the rocks, or with ginger (as in ginger ale, I discovered) and lime. As a non-whiskey drinker, I clearly preferred the adulterated version. I could actually finish a glass of the ginger and lime, but not the one on the rocks which Jim took care of. I  also decided that adding ice did not enhance it, and should have gotten one neat instead.

Courtyard of the distillery

Introduction while we waited for the tour to start.

Page of a book about whiskey. The name
comes from the Irish for Water of Life.

Notice the heavy beams! The barrel is on a scale. It was
weighed when first filled, then again when aging completed.
There was always evaporation (called the Angel's Portion)
and distillers didn't want to pay taxes on the evaporated part.

From there, we walked back to the hotel to work on packing for our departure tomorrow noon. It is definitely nice to be leaving mid day vs. early morning!

Around the corner from our hotel, there was a group singing
in apparent protest about the plight of the homeless here.
The hotel they are in front of is being used to support the
homeless and it wants to become a fancier place for traveler
 instead, hence the protest.
Dublin has half the population of the Republic and better
job opportunities, but housing volume has not kept pace
and the number of homeless is growing as rents escalate,
similar to the problems in San Francisco and the Bay Area.

 

 We shared a lovely group dinner with our fellow travelers on our final night. It is always a happy surprise to travel with a group of people you never met before and discover that you would gladly spend time with them again.