DUBLIN’ DOWN

September 24, 2014
Our second and last day in Dublin, we trained in from our B&B and decided to take a guided walking tour.  There are many to choose from, but we picked the improbably named “Paddy Liddy Walking Tour” as it was the second half of a twofer when we bought our bus tour tickets yesterday.  It’s luck of the draw as to whom you get as your guide, and we got a pip.  An accent second only to that of our B&B star, Gerry, looking like he just stepped out of a pub for a minute, and spouting nonstop blather as only an Irishman can.  Loni’s notes has him named Henry St. Shoppo, but that makes no sense.  Surely he’s Seamus O’Toole?
We didn’t have to do much but turn around and look up the street for our first sight, the needle monument, formally known as the Tower of Light, more familiarly known in these parts as the “Stiletto in the Ghetto.”  Other than “what’s the point?” (ouch), little else need be said.

Our first stop,naturally, was a pub, the Church Pub which is a reuse of a former chapel.  Quite nicely done.  Guinness was married here, and John Wesley preached.  C&A stopped off here for a bite later in the day.

“New Square” was created by demolishing an old graveyard.  Apparently this is a casual act in Ireland.  What to do with all those pesky tombstones lying all over?  Why, you stack them up on the borders and make a low wall out of them!

A bit of Irish humor relief was provided by this placard on a residential wall.  A lot of buildings in Dublin are homes where windows looking right into the rooms are smack on the sidewalk.

One of the more bizarre murals we’ve seen anywhere is John Byrne’s 2004 controversial ‘Dublin’s Last Supper’ in the Italian Quarter off Lower Ormond Quay. It is a re-enactment of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous masterpiece, but with an ethic mix of disciples, modern dress, women and contemporary food, and featuring a real-life Sikh as Jesus.  To assemble the apostles, Byrne walked through Dublin and approached people asking them if they would like to take part in the Last Supper.  They were then photographed and assembled into this work. 

The thirteen, from left to right, are:
Bartholomew: Jude O Dochartaigh, a tattoo artist;
James the Less: Vernoica, a librarian;
Andrew: Eddie Salim, from east Africa;
Judas: Frank Conlon, an actor and drama facilitator;
Peter: Henry;
John: Julie Kerrigan, an employee at Pavee Point Travellers’ Centre;
Jesus: Kulpreet Singh, a PhD student at Trinity College Dublin;
Thomas: Willie Crowley, an ecologist;
James the Great: Leighton, a student at Cornell University;
Philip: Diana Sabogal, a student at the American College, Dublin;
Matthew: Alan Kavanagh, an architecture student at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT);
Thaddeus: Aloysius McKenna, a building worker;
Simon: Michael Foley, a network analyst.
Is this the blog that gives it all, or what?  Moving on, we wandered through various streets and alleyways, and crossed the River Liffey with another gray day view of Ha’penny Bridge.

Thank goodness Dublin has avoided the purist’s reliance on old Irish in their streetsigns.  They have the good sense to include English for us tourists.


By the way, Temple Bar has nothing to do with Irish law or courts.  It’s a section of town named for Sir William Temple.  A rather nondescript square (right) was another pause in our walk.  For you “Twilight” fans (and I do NOT count myself as one), the progenitor of the genre, Bram Stoker, worked in rooms above that blue door.

One excellent stop we made was Chapel Royal, which has a stone head of Jonathan Swift above the entry.

The core of the church was built in the 13th century.  After the Reformation, it became an Anglican church.  A century later, troops of those delightful Calvinists under Oliver Cromwell, who viewed Anglicans as mere Catholics without a pope, stabled their horses inside as a sign of disrespect.  Swift was dean of the Cathedral for 32 years, and his grave is located near the front door.  Inside, there is a true delight in the beautiful, multi-colored-pipes organ.






Inside the chapel, an “installation” was underway, consisting of all these fine strings strung throughout the place.  Meaning?

Dublin is a mashup of old and new architectural styles, best exemplified by this view of Dublin Castle, the seat of English rule in Ireland for 700 years.

Our tour ended, we split up for the afternoon.  C&A wanted to see the Writer’s Museum, but we wanted to go to the Chester Beatty Library.  This turned out to be virtually the highlight of the trip for Loni.  She loved it, and I must say I was truly impressed as well.  If you are in Dublin, do not miss it.  All I can show is the exterior, as no photos were allowed within.

So, what lies within?  Priceless, beautifully displayed collections of rare ancient religious manuscripts and illustrated books from all around the world.  Unearthed in Egypt in the 1930’s, there are 1,800 year-old fragments of Old Testament books and the Letters of Paul.  They were written in Greek on papyrus more than a century before any previously known such documents.  They had not been rolled up like most, but were in book form, called a codex.  These are about as close in time to the “source”’ as you can get, and it was fascinating to see.  Beautiful works from Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Jainism are also present.  It is all gorgeous and remarkable.  I was especially drawn to a form of Indian art where an animal is rendered by forming its body from a composite of many other animals in smaller form.  Loni liked the calligraphy, which is Islam’s most revered art form.  Here’s a link to the Library’s image gallery where you can peruse selected items.
After all this beauty, we hopped on the bus to go out to a brutal site, the infamous Kilmainham Gaol, opened in 1796 as a county jail and debtor’s prison.  Mostly, though, it was used by the British as a political prison, holding a who’s who list of those who fought for Irish independence in the rebellions of 1798, 1803, 1848, 1867, and 1916.  The last such prisoner held here was Eamon de Valera, who later became president of Ireland.  The tour covers the cells, cellblocks, and execution sites.  Our guide, Michael, was so impassioned, you’d think he’d attack anyone admitting to be from London.  He hissssed the word “English.”  The gaol was actually considered quite humane and advanced for its time.  Only 96, single cells, and open areas within, etc.  One feature was its two sets of staircases:  winding ones (background, right photo) for the prisoners, to slow them down; and straight ones for the guards for quick access.

Through many of the rebellions, much of the populace was rather wishy-washy, and only tepid support was given to the firebrands.  However, the British went a little too far in executing the 1916 rebels.  The cross in the yard below – the “stonebreakers yard” – marks the site of those executions, including that of James Connolly.  Connolly had been grievously wounded in the fighting, and got scant care from the Brits.  He was so injured, that he fell out of the chair they had placed him in for the firing squad.  The Brits picked him up, tied him into the chair, and let loose the volley. 

This so outraged the Irish that it changed the complexion of the fight overnight.  Independence now became a widespread sentiment and a united populace eventually did the British in.  I have to confess, I was ready to do our guide in if he used the phrase “now we go ba-a-a-ck in history” one more time.  Enough already!
The prison was heavy stuff, thus, on our way back to the train station, I was very happy to spot this, my favorite shop name in all of Ireland.