Friday: The tour company dropped several of us off at our hotel by about 8:30am Dublin time. Happily, I was able to check in early, shower, and take a nap. I awoke around noon, went on a short walk, and then met our tour group in the hotel lobby, at which point touring commenced at full steam. There are fewer than 30 of us, so we are a comfortable fit on the cushy tour bus. We piled on and took off with great fanfare, only to sit, stymied in the horrible Dublin holiday weekend traffic (Monday is May Day). Our tour guide was clever, however, and she kept the narrative going until we worked our way out of the city center.
We crisscrossed quite a bit and eventually, ended up at Kilmainham Gaol. The gaol started out housing perpetrators of all manner of major and minor crimes, but ended as a repository for political prisoners. It was here that 14 men were executed for their parts in the 1916 uprising. It was plenty grim -- dank and cold -- with cells built to house a single prisoner but which were overstuffed with 5-6 prisoners during the high-crime era of the potato famine. Children were imprisoned as well as adults, for infractions such as stealing apples or bread, or throwing snowballs at one another.
After returning to the hotel, our guide gathered us all together for a short talk on tour logistics and then we were set loose for dinner. I conned a few people into going with me to the International Bar on Wicklow Street, which turned out to be a seemingly authentic pub (but how would we really know?) where we had Irish stew, that being the only choice on the menu. People are right when they say that a Guinness here is better than a Guinness elsewhere. I did not drink one (too wussy) but a few folks did, and they received elaborately prepared creamy, mocha-like ales with a solid inch of foam on the top.
I finished the evening with a short walk of the nearby Merrion Square park, which features a statue of Oscar Wilde. See the photo and note that the statue is not painted -- the colors come from the various stones carved.
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Here are a today's pics.
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Do I see a poem arising from the men who died in the jail? Glad it seems to be going well.
ReplyDeleteYou ARE there! We missed writing with you last night, but your posts will give us a bit of you as you travel Ireland. Irish stew, Guinness (even just to look at!) and Oscar Wilde! You're there, baby! Enjoy!
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