Some Final Thoughts on Ireland

Visiting Ireland was a real treat for Laura and I. The countryside is beautiful; it is emerald green as far as the eye can see, with stone walls snaking over the rolling hills. It sometimes reminded me of a greener southeastern United States; as we drove, we would alternately pass areas of immense natural beauty and stunning neglect. Even the latter, however, was charming in its own way and a gentle reminder that Ireland is still largely rural, with a population of just over 4 million. We were also surprised and delighted to see that the traffic signs are largely bilingual - in English and Irish Gaelic (or just Irish as a local would tell you). Less than 5% of the Irish can speak Irish Gaelic today, but that hasn't stopped a wave of nationalism from trying to revive its use.

You may have read in the news about the two British soldiers who were murdered in Northern Ireland on March 7th. Two days later a policeman was also killed. These were the first terrorist slayings in over a decade in Northern Ireland, and they were certainly dominant topics in the Republic of Ireland news during our stay (March 13-18). It was very sobering, but fascinating, to see the discourse play out from within the Republic, even if just from newspaper headlines and short newscasts. The political parties have widely condemned a return to violence. But even without violence, Laura and I learned quickly from our sojourn through Irish history that a "32 county solution," - or united Ireland - is a dream that will never die.

St. Patrick's Day

No St. Patrick's Day celebration is complete without first having a few pints in the pubs while listening to Irish music. Here's the best & the worst of night.

Best Scene: Temple Bar (in the street)

The street running down Temple Bar was packed with people playing music, dancing, and dressing up in drag. (No, we aren't sure what that was about, either.)



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Best Music Scene: Oliver St. John Gogarty

The Trad music session was loud and lively with patrons singing and dancing along. One guy even tried to get Matt to do a little jig, but he wasn't having any of it.

Best Brews: Porterhouse Brewing Co

Porterhouse and its nine house brews made a great place to hang out and enjoy the craic on St. Patty's Day. Okay, it would be fun on any day, as they have live music 7 days a week and an awesome stage that is visible from every floor. We might have even visited the place three times during our stay in Dublin - we had to try all nine microbrews! My favorite was the Oyster Stout - it was just about perfect - strong but not bitter. I also discovered my new favorite beer here - Fruli - a Belgian white fruit beer. Delish! I hope Stubbie's in Gainesville stocks it for when I get home.

If the music and the beer weren't enough to give this pub its atmosphere and craic, the band (Sliotar) was relieved during a break with the world premier of "The Simpsons go to Ireland".








Best View: A Pint from the Grocer and seat on the River Liffey Pier

Needing to take a break from the crowds and grab a bite to eat, we picked up a sandwich and pint from the grocery store and headed across the river. We enjoyed our dinner (complete with Cadbury candy bars) and pints with a lovely lit-up view of the Temple Bar area from across the River Liffey.

Worst Line (and Crowd): Temple Bar

We had to have at least a pint in the flagship bar of Temple Bar. And just a pint we had... After waiting in line for a bit - yes, we should have known - the crowd inside was just too packed to stay any longer.

Worst Floor: Fitzsimons

Market Street and Tiger Town Tavern's floors have nothing on this place. My shoes were still sticking to the floor the next morning as I walked through the Old Library at Trinity College. The roof top terrace bar and its cool air almost made up for it, but then we would shuffle our feet and be reminded of the filth we were standing in. (I've never been in a more disgusting place.)

We had a blast spending St. Patrick's Day in Dublin!

St. Patty's Day Parade

We all know how Matt feels about parades and he wasn't thrilled to go to another one after the New Year's Day Parade in London (justifiably so). He wasn't quite kicking and screaming, but I did have to bribe him with Irish coffee to get him near the parade route.

This parade did not disappoint.

The characters from The Simpsons entertained us pre-parade to promote their upcoming episode "The Simpsons go to Ireland" (more about that later).

The theme for the parade was "The Sky's the Limit" (even with the woes of 2009) - no kidding, the parade brochure actually said that! So the parade was filled with fanciful characters with wings and feather and crazy flying machines. Here is a sample of our favorite attractions (you can find the rest of the photos here).

The parade moved fast and was the perfect length - a little over an hour. After the parade, we headed over to St. Stephen's Green for a picnic in the beautiful sunshine. Apparently, so did everyone else in Dublin. It was a lovely afternoon and every Dubliner seemed to be enjoying the sunshine before hitting the pubs.

Dublin

We started our visit to Dublin with a trip to Kilmainham Goal (or jail). It was opened in 1796 and was often used by the British to hold political prisoners from the numerous Irish rebellions and uprisings. It was here that the leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916 were shot and made martyrs for the Irish independence movement. In addition, the jail was a model for its time, implementing the latest research in both its construction and treatment of prisoners. The east wing was remodeled in the Victorian style with single occupancy cells (a new idea in those days) and lots of windows (to remind the prisoners of their lost freedom).You might recognize the prison, as it has been used as the set for many TV shows, movies and even a U2 music video. During the hour long tour we learned the story of the fight for Irish independence and about daily life in the prison.The next stop in the tour of Dublin was the Guinness Storehouse - a beer Disneyland for adults. While no actual beer is brewed in the Storehouse, it is 7 levels of everything Guinness. (The rumor is they don't let you into the actual brewery because you would see the Budweiser trucks leaving :). The first level tells about the four ingredients found in every pint: barley, hops, yeast, and water. Did you know every batch of Guinness is brewed with the same strain of yeast? A batch of the yeast is kept in a vault in the director's office for emergencies.
I enjoyed the floor that displayed the various advertising campaigns from over the years. Here is my favorite:The Gravity Bar is located on the top floor of the Storehouse and provides you with a pint and a 360° view of Dublin. You can take your own tour of the Storehouse here.
We finished off the day with a trip to Brazen Head Inn, the oldest pub in Dublin (c. 1198). We were treated to a Trad session with Rafferty. I really enjoyed watching the woman play the electric violin.
More photos here

Driving through Ireland

And now back to Ireland...

After enjoying a full Irish fry for breakfast (AKA a heart attack on a plate), we were ready for more exploring. Our plan for Sunday was to slowly drive back to Dublin, stopping whenever we saw something that caught our eye.

The view of the Burren from Corkscrew Hills

We stopped for a pint at the oldest pub in Ireland (c.900 AD) in the city of Athlone

An old castle just before Bell Harbour

Matt climbing on centuries old ruins

The ruins were like our own personal castle playground!

An abbey just outside of Bell Harbour

An out building from the abbey

We stopped in Trim to see the large castle ruins in Ireland

As if one castle wasn't enough, there were ruins of a second castle in Trim just across the river in a city park

Our last stop for the day was a ruined monastery/cemetery on the outskirts of Trim

The Celtic crosses in the cemeteries were beautiful

The rest of our pictures from this day can be found here.

Cliffs of Moher

After dropping our stuff at our B&B in Doolin, we headed to the Cliffs of Moher for some hiking. We planned to hike the 6 km route from the visitors' center, around Hag's Head, and back.We parked the car at the visitors' center, walked past the Gatlinburg-type gift shops and out to the edge of the cliff and its dramatic scenery. After snapping a few photos, we headed towards the path along the cliffs. Just past the nice paved, rail enforce view point there was a sign warning of danger and prohibiting entry to the path. (Too many people have been plummeting over the edge lately, it seems.) But we could see the path and there were many people on it. Plus, the guidebooks all talk about the path. "No big deal," I thought, and we climbed over the barricade.

Did I mention cliffs? Well, the cliffs rise up 214 meters (702 feet) off the Atlantic Ocean. Have I told you about my irrational, paralyzing fear of heights? If not, you should ask my mother about climbing lighthouses in Savannah.

I took about a dozen steps on the path and froze. I couldn't go any farther. Images of me soaring over the edge were playing like a broken record in my head. I turned around to go back. And I couldn't move. I literally had to crawl back past the barricade.

Needless to say, we didn't complete the hike. But we did get some lovely pictures of the view.

You can find more pictures of the cliffs here.

Burren

We spent Saturday morning lazily driving through the Burren. With the benefit of having a car, we were able to slowly drive through an area, pop out of the car for photos and small hikes, and enjoy the scenery from Athlone to Doolin. The Burren is an area in western Ireland that has a unique landscape made up of a limestone plateau that is covered in flora. Also dotting the landscape are hundreds of Norman ruins, dolmens, wedge tombs, rock walls, and lots and lots of sheep.


The rest of our photos from this morning can be found here.

Driving on the Wrong Side of the Road

With public transit not an efficient option outside the major cities in Ireland, Laura and I were forced to do our countryside sightseeing by rental car. Unfortunately, the Irish - like most people previously subjugated by the British - drive on the wrong (by "wrong" I mean "left") side of the road. As the driver on this trip, piloting an automobile in Ireland was a part of our plans that had long worried me, and as if driving on the left were not nerve racking enough on its own, also consider:

1. I hadn't driven a car in more than six months.
2. I hadn't regularly driven a stick shift (the standard in Europe) since trading up from my first car, a 1982 Ford F-100 Pickup, more than a decade ago.
3. As a right-handed person, my left hand is almost completely devoid of coordination, which is needed to operate a stick shift on the left-hand side.
   
4. Our trip started at night, in the dark.
   
5. It was also drizzling.
6. According to Rick Steves, Ireland and Portugal have the most traffic accidents in Western Europe.
   

If the pedals had also not been in the usual configuration, I think I might have opted to walk.

Despite all these reservations, we set off from the Dublin airport to Athlone last Friday night in part one of a two installment drive across the island to Doolin. The trek required a monumental level of focus and teamwork between driver and navigator. We prepped ourselves before every turn ("Remember, right is the big turn!"), roundabout entry ("Clockwise 270 degrees!"), or exit ("That was our exit..."). I'm happy to report there were no accidents and only a few angry honks, the first of which was a reminder to us that 80 kph is a lot slower than 80 mph.


Here's a general look at our trek in Ireland; we took a more scenic route than this, but you get the general idea. (View Larger Map)

Our biggest difficulty that first night, though, was in the few instances when we needed to turn around. At one point, we found ourselves at a dead end in a neighborhood on an unfavorable slope with no idea how to get the car into reverse. I am familiar with subtle methods of reverse lockout, like pushing down while shifting, but nothing I tried worked. Instead, we opted for neutral and just pushed the car in reverse; this works well enough but isn't something you want to do in front of a crowd, especially a crowd of foreigners. We found out later that all these little manual cars in Europe have a ring on the shifter that has to be pulled up while shifting into reverse. It was so simple, and yet completely unobvious at the time...

In the end, braving the roads of Ireland, and more specifically the Irish countryside (at one point we actually encountered someone herding their livestock down the road using their car) was well worth it. More on what we saw to come...
This straggler couldn't keep up with the rest of the herd rumbling down the road.