This time last night I was a little bit drunk, we have a special three course meal, and for those of you who know me I don't usually get drunk on two glasses of wine, but I did. Lucky we only had to walk around the corner to our room, or I would have been in trouble! 13% Chilean wine was the cause. Out like a light!
Unfortunately after the sun of yesterday, it was gloomy and rainy. Our hop on hop off bus was 20 minutes late due to an accident and the wet roads. We are staying in Clontarf, the site of the battle on Good Friday 1014 when the High King of Ireland Brian Boru defeated the Vikings but died along with his son and grandson.
Irish history is a bit difficult to follow, as a lot is a bit like a fairy tale. Our tour bus was late, but the driver made up for it with his dose of Irish "craic", or humour. Added to that the chorus of "Molly Malone" when were were near her statue.
The bus took us to the Dublin Castle, but there is not a lot left standing, then into City Hall.
We had a meeting with a past Mayor, Cr. Andrew Montague at 11.30, and firstly we went into the underneath to a very interesting display of the history of the Council. One of my great grand uncles Sir Michael Creagh was appointed Lord Mayor in 1690 by King James I and he stole the original Lord Mayoral chains of office when he chooffed off to France after James was defeated by the Protestants!
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| Lord Mayoral Sword |
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| Daniel O'Connor |
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| Beautiful building inside City Hall |
In the display it mentions another LM stealing the chains, but historical publications provide that Creagh was the one who took it. A bit more researching I will have to do, as to the relationship of the two ex Lord Mayor's. The City Hall was once the corn market and is a very imposing building. We had to wait as Andrew was late, and spent the time studying our maps and the trail of Brian Boru.
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| This is the replacement Gold Chain, given by Charles II |
There are 64 councillors in Dublin on 4 councils, and for 300 years they have had a policy of the Lord Mayor only being in office for 12 months at a time. Andrew was LM in 2012. They have just had their local elections and he was re-elected!. Our Mayor had a gift for Andrew which I presented to him.
Andrew told us a bit about Jame O'Connell, and his quest for a change in Ireland, to be done in a non violent manner, as they wanted to be free of England. He died before seeing his dream come to fruition.
Our next stop was the Guinness Brewery, for lunch and a free Guinness (not my drink at all).
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| The packed bar all waiting for their free Guinness took 10 minutes to be served |
The display is in a storehouse, and whether it is an Irish thing or not, but there are escalators going up, none coming down!
The 7th floor was where our free drink was, with great views over the city.
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| Some ads over the years featured Tucons |
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| The Harp is the symbol of Dublin and of the brewery |
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| Latest ad for Guinness, don't know if the Australian is supposed to be in it! |
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| For 20 euros each you can have a ride as long as there are 4 people |
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| They made the barrels and stockpiled them 250,000 in a pyramid shape |
Next we went to the Kilmainham Goal. A pretty horrible place to end up if you were a convict, or took part in the 1916 uprising when 14 were executed for taking part. Over 4000 convicts held there were deported to Australia.
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| The wife of one of those hanged for the uprising was imprisoned and painted on the wall of her cell |
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| Bound for Australia, a lot of Irish were sent to Norfolk Island where they were badly treated in 2nd settlement |
We had a while to wait for a bus and continued our tour until we got off close to Temple Street area, and had dinner in an Irish pub complete with Irish singer, sometimes not all Irish songs, with a bit of U2 thrown into the mix! Actually they filmed a video at the Goal!
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| Irish singer - add a bit of Elvis and U2 |
Over the walking bridge connecting the shopping centres and Temple Street. Also a lock bridge!
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| The River Liffey |
Today we leave Dublin and hopefully might find ourselves in the lands of Mary's ancestors, as well as mine, as we make our way across to Limerick. But this morning there is no hot water, due to a gas problem, so I guess we will just have to wait a while. And my photos only partly loaded last night so I had to wait before I could update.
So far this is the only deer we have spotted! Would rather find them on the hoof than on display in the hotel!
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