STL DPL IN IRELAND - LOVE HOTEL

We were looking for someplace interesting for dinner on our last night in Dublin. A short walk from where we were staying was a small, expensive boutique hotel with a terrace restaurant on the top floor. Dublin is booming, and I counted no less than thirteen construction cranes scattered across the horizon. This is the hotel’s lobby. Shouldn’t the romance be established before you check in?                

STL DPB IN IRELAND - ANCIENT KNOWLEDGE

 

Not all of the books in the Long Hall of Trinity College’s Old Library have yet been removed for conservation. This gives an idea of how the stacks looked when the place was in operation. I look at those ladders and, as an American lawyer, I think about liability insurance coverage.                     

STL DPB IN IRELAND - THE LONG ROOM

 

Many people who go to Dublin visit Trinity College. (My favorite alumnus is Oscar Wilde.) The chief attractions are the 7th Century Book of Kells, a magnificent illustrated Bible produced by the monks of the Dark Ages, and the Long Hall of the Old Library, seen here. Most of the books have been removed for  conservation. The six meter globe in the center is called Gaia.                 

STL DPB IN IRELAND - ECCO IL PAPA

 

Seen yesterday in Grafton Street, the busy pedestrianized shopping thoroughfare in the heart of Dublin. The artist had stretched some kind of plastic sheeting between two posts and was painting a portrait of Pope Francis, who died on Monday. It would leave no permanent record and the authorities didn’t object. Imagine that in the U.S. 

Home late tonight but there are lots of Irish images still to edit on the plane.                     

STL DPB IN IRELAND - IN DUBLIN’S FAIR CITY...

 

In Dublin's fair city, 
Where the girls are so pretty,
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone,
As she wheeled her wheel-barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying, “Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"

The song is the unofficial anthem of Dublin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Malone . Molly was, by legend, a 17th Century fishmonger, the daughter of fishmonger parents. The statue was installed in 1988 and has become one of the most Instagram-able places in the city.

The statue has obviously been burnished by tourists. Comically, after a recent public poll, the city decided to place monitors (without authority) at the statue asking visitors to respect her patina. They will only be there from 9 to 5, so after the pubs get busy Molly will be defenseless.

However, if your monitor allows it, look closely at her face. The weariness and sadness are powerful.                    

STL DPB IN IRELAND - CLONMACNOISE

 

Clonmancoise is the site of a monastery founded in the 6th Century, containing the ruins of the church and an ancient graveyard with several high crosses. It sits in a beautiful location on a gentle hill overlooking the River Shannon. We stopped there on our way back to Dublin from Galway.               

STL DPB IN IRELAND - CONNEMARA

 

Connemara is a wild and desolate region in the west of Ireland, covering parts of County Galway and spilling into County Mayo. It is filled with mountains, lakes, peat bogs and more sheep than people. Wild beauty.                 

STL DPB IN IRELAND - CLIFFS OF MOHER

 

Day trip yesterday to the Cliffs of Moher, the 700 foot / 214 meter drop-off from the west coast to the Atlantic. The day did not go well. We got a flat tire on the way, thanks in large part to the condition of narrow rural roads and enormous oncoming vehicles that push you aside. Fortunately, we had purchased roadside assistance and it didn’t take too long to get aid. When we got to the cliffs it was very cold and the howling wind pricked the rain into our jackets. Still, gotta get a snap of something.              

STL DPB IN IRELAND - GALWAY

 

Arrived in Dublin yesterday morning and got a rental car. I was a bit worried since it has been years since I drove on the left and, well, jet lag. Made it across the island in 2.5 hours and arrived safely in Galway. Even though it’s the beginning of Easter weekend the town is full of visitors. Obviously, this is the tourist trap street.                   

NEXT YEAR IN . . .

 

The last day of 2024. I understand that at the end of the Passover seder it is a tradition for the assembled to wish each other “next year in Jerusalem!” I’ve heard Jewish friends use the phrase as a fond farewell. On New Year’s Eve in our house, the toast is “next year in Ireland!” With good health and fortune, that will happen to us. My father’s family is from County Clare in the west. We will be in Dublin on Easter, which could be interesting. 

And we hope to be in some other places next year. Should end up in Costa Rica at some point. We always seem to. Who knows where else? We’re retired. We have time.

So Happy New Year from St. Louis to our friends around the U.S. and the world.                       

HALF OF ME

It's a tradition around here at big events to hang a big American flag from the ends of the fire department's longest cranes. There was one of those near the beginning of the parade route. I've never seen another kind of flag used, let alone that of another country. Here, near the end of the march, the Irish flag was on display. My heritage on my father's side is Irish, from County Clare in the west. We have visited the island several times and once spent a couple on nights in my great grandfather's farmhouse, then used as a simple tourist cottage. My mother's side is Polish. Never been there, have no known family there, but I love Chopin.           

FULL IRISH BREAKFAST

I've said many times that St. Louis loves an excuse to drink in public. There were a number of pop-up bars along the St. Patrick's Day parade route. This one got our attention. It's probably hard to read the menu at this resolution but the next to last item on the larger card says Breakfast Shot. Intrigued, I asked the bartenders what that meant. "Melted butter with a shot of Jameson," the woman explained, "chased with a piece of bacon. Full Irish breakfast!"                 

President O'Bama

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Another photo from last weekend's parade.  There is a reason his name is O'Bama. Need proof? Check this:

   

I can't really tell what that green thing in his hands is. This is a photograph of a photograph so it's not clear when I zoom in. Could be a squeegee or a toilet plunger. Somebody has to flush that other party.

By the way, this was part of a drill team consisting of broken-down old lawnmowers. They are in the parade every year. I may have another post about their wackiness.                        

Lamentation

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Home now, reflecting on the experience of the last two weeks. Ireland has strong currents of both joy and sadness. These pictures illustrate the latter.

The top picture is the Famine Memorial, outside of the town of Westport. It is in the form of a "coffin ship," the vessels that carried desperate emigrants to the New World. A large portion of the country's population died during the failure of the potato crop of about 1845 - 1850, both from starvation and related diseases. The sculpture depicts skeletal people almost flying off the island in misery.

The images below are memorials to the deceased rich in Dublin's Anglican Christ Church Cathedral. The difference of expression is shocking.

Probably more pictures from Ireland for a bit. May have some stuff, though, from half-way around the world, since this weekend is St. Louis' big Japanese Festival.

By the way, I got a lot of pictures edited on the plane yesterday. The set is here. Still more work to do.

Connemara

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Connemara is a desolate, mountainous region in the west of Ireland, straddling Counties Mayo and Galway. There are peat bogs, some sheep (including several in the middle of the road when you round the next turn), a few villages and wild beauty. It's one of my favorite parts of the country (subordinate, of course, to the my family's ancestral home in the pastures of County Clare). These pictures were all taken yesterday in Connemara National Park.

Back at Ashford last night, we decided not to have our pockets vacuumed by the restaurant in the castle. We went down to the adjacent village of Cong (official theme song here) to dine at The Crowe's Nest pub and restaurant, where I met Michael Crowe, the proprietor. Photos soon. I recommend the crispy duck.

River Cong, Lough Corrib

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The gentle River Cong flows through the village of the same name, past Ashford Castle and into Lough Corrib, the largest lake in Ireland. It is full of water plants that are speckled with light passing through the trees.

We went hawking this morning. The public are welcome at Ireland's School of Falconry on the castle grounds. Talk about a different experience. We walked through the woods wearing heavy leather gloves on our left hands with twin brothers, Uisce and Seanachai. The trainer showed us how to carry, release and call them. It was breathtaking to watch them taper and spread their wings to pass through the trees, swoop down to a few centimeters off the ground to build air pressure under their wings and then pull up, like an airplane lowering its flaps and raising the nose, for a perfect landing our our hands. Click on my Flickr site for more hawking pictures.

Afterward, we walked through the ruins of Cong Abbey, built in the early 1100s. In the afternoon we took a boat ride on the lake to Inchagoill Island (Island of the Foreigners) where St. Patrick & Co. were sent by the local Druids to get them out of their hair. With few visitors and government protection, the ruins of the 5th Century St. Patrick's Church remain.

Cottage and Castle

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Almost six hours driving yesterday on the tour of Ireland's byways to get to the next destination. We stopped at the Ulster American Folk Park near Omagh, Northern Ireland. It is a detailed recreation of the lives of the people of the region, before and after they emigrated to the United States. The picture above is an effigy of one of the Mellon family of this area, posing for us in Vermeer-y light. The old man, Thomas, emigrated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he founded the now-huge Mellon Bank and was the co-benefactor of Carnegie-Mellon University in that city, along with the Scottish industrialist, Andrew Carnegie.

We've been staying in modest places on this trip. As we swing back toward Dublin and our flight home Saturday, we're blowing it out a bit. Three nights at Ashford Castle, the baronial home of the Guinness Family, now a snooty baronial hotel. OMG, it would be nice to live like this. We're going hawking today, and I'm not talking physics.

Away down Knowth...

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Knowth. Rhymes with south, creating the opportunity for a terrible pun. HAR!, as Virginia might say.

Anyway, Knowth and nearby Newgrange, 45 minutes drive north of Dublin, are neolithic burial mounds, some parts of which are 5,000 years old. Millenia later they were used by other peoples as religious sites, towns and fortifications. They have channels within them that catch the sunrise of the winter and summer solstices , and spring and summer equinoxes.

Out and about in Belfast today. We were surprised to find that there was no checkpoint of any kind at the border between the Republic and Northern Ireland, not even a sign that we had crossed over. Our first hint was that the road signs were no longer bilingual in Irish and English.

STL DPB In Dublin, In Jail And In Kathmandu

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We visited Kilmainham Gaol yesterday morning, the most notorious prison in Ireland. It was here that the English confined the leaders of the Irish revolutions (six between 1798 and 1919) and executed many of them. It was an unspeakably cruel place. Our guide gave some of the young members of the group signs reminding us that even children were imprisoned for the crime of being poor. Vagrancy, in this context, meant to be homeless.

On Peter Kelleher's advice, we drove down the coast to the toney village of Dalkey, home of Bono and other wealthy Irish. It felt like a local version of Carmel-by-the-Sea. We climbed to the top of Killiney Hill to see the obelisk, a make-work project for the destitute, and its sweeping view of Dublin Bay and surroundings.

And now for something completely different. Dinner was at Monty's of Kathmandu, a brilliant Nepalese restaurant in the Temple Bar district. It had an all-Nepali staff, fabulous food (the chicken momos were to die for) and the best nan we've had anywhere, including India and Nepal. I gotta have a set of those glasses to remind me of my Buddha nature with every sip of malbec. And then, a few doors from the restaurant, a little more local weirdness.

Today, a stop at Newgrange and then on to Belfast.

St. Louis Ramblers In Dublin

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It's late Wednesday night here in Dublin as I write this. A full day of wandering around the city, details of which will have to wait. Lots of good pix today, too. Not sure when they will get edited. For the moment, a detail from a monument to local pop and folk music heroes, the Wall of Fame. And, since Cieldequimper reminds me that there has to be a Thursday Arch Series photo on Thursday, an image from Christ Church Cathedral, the city's Anglican HQ.

We were out late because of an invitation from one of my readers, Peter Kelleher. He is an Irishman who lived and worked in St. Louis for twenty years and has been back in Dublin for two. STL DPB keeps him up with his home for nearly half his life. Terrific dinner (here), good conversation and a pint at a traditional pub to finish the evening. Adventures are planned on the outskirts of the area for today.

By the way, I generally agree with the statement in the first picture. Given the choice, though, I'd prefer a glass of good Argentine malbec.