Dublin, Ireland

At Molly Malone Statue

Holy Duck

August 24, 2007-Book Of Kells

We had the luxury of sleeping late this morning. We woke at 8 AM & weren't prepared for humor at breakfast when David read the label on the margarine. It said, "Vegetable Fat Spread." I guess they're not into euphemisms.

We bought a 24- hour pass to a "hop on and off" tour bus that would get us around town and give us an overview of what there was to see and where it was located. Before the first "hop off" I learned that Vikings came to Dublin in 841 CE. (I use Common Era and BCE for Before the Common Era instead of AD & BC. It's a Jewish thing.) They came because of overcrowding and to plunder. Give me a break! Overcrowded where? In Iceland? You could move all our illegals into Iceland today and they wouldn't be noticed. I also learned that according to Celtic myth a shamrock stands for the trinity and leprechauns were cobblers to fairies. Now I won't wear a shamrock and I wonder if the little guys specialized in gay clientele or Tinkerbell. Come to think of it, that might be redundant.

The City Center proved to be architecturally ordinary until we came upon a few Georgian and Gothic lovelies. There were a surprising number of vacant stores.

We got off at Trinity College whose library houses the Book of Kells, an illuminated Christian text handwritten on calfskin by monks in the 9th century. Impressive. On close inspection the occasional calf hair has been spotted. Before we got to the Book of Kells there was an illustration of Ogham, a stylistic Celtic alphabet from the 5th century that was written on vellum. Once again impressive, but... I got to asking David about the dating of Hebraic writings and pre-Hebraic like Phoenicians. Now we're talking thousands of years ago. So in the long view of history the Book of Kells is a toddler.

Historic Time Line

I realized that I’m woefully ignorant of Irish history and that’s why I haven't been able to relate to it. When I studied English history in school, Ireland was invisible. Somehow English literature included the Irish greats (Joyce, Shaw, Brecht, Beckett, Wilde,Yeats) but their leaders were absent. I'm beginning to fill it in. One thousand years ago Ireland was wet. Around 700-900 CE the climate changed and it began to warm. In 431 CE the first bishop was sent to Ireland by the pope. 1845-49 was the Potato Famine causing over two million to emigrate. There was an unsuccessful rebellion, the Easter uprising, against England in 1916. By 1922 they'd gained home rule but didn't leave the Commonwealth and become an independent (80% Catholic) nation until 1947. Northern Ireland (Church of England) was split off and stayed a part of Great Britain. In 1969 The Troubles began and British troops were sent to the North. That didn't end until 1994.

Blasphemy, Beer & Bridges

We bought a Heritage Pass before we came here. It's been great. We get anywhere from 10%-50% off some admissions. We also get a senior discount. Sometimes there's a double dip. At Christ Church, a Gothic Anglican cathedral built in 1172, they couldn't do the math and let us in free. We were almost kicked out when Karen got the giggles this time. Not really. She was very discreet and curled up in hysterics on a bench in an unobtrusive spot. She'd looked into the baptistery and moved on to the next anteroom. As she approached she saw a glint of gold. Expecting to see a gilt statue of a saint, Mary, or Jesus, she was taken aback and didn't recover from the sight of a three-foot high gold duck with wings spread in preparation for flight. What popped out of her mouth was, "Holy duck!"

Fortunately, we got to visit the Guinness Brewery next. It’s an impressive converted warehouse that uses original installations and glass to create an upward motion culminating in the round viewing deck on the 7th floor. That’s everyone’s goal where free tastes are. They're no cheapskates. The free taste is a pint. Established in 1759 the original lease was probably the best in history. It was 45 pounds/year for 9,000 years. That’s no typo. Not quite as good as the purchase of Manhattan.

This is for my granddaughter Alex who has an aversion to bridges. There’s a pedestrian bridge across the river Liffey that she'd be interested in. They call it the “quiver in the river” because when you walk across and get to the middle of it the bridge trembles.

We rode on to our last stop near the dinner theater where we'd made a reservation for tonight. We were early so we stopped at a Burger King for a Coke. To put prices in perspective they charge $6.80 for a Whopper. Our lunch at O’Neill’s Pub wasn't terribly expensive and was excellent. We learned to ask questions of people on the street only if they're dressed in business attire or are police. The rest are foreign workers or tourists who don't know anything. The cops told us to try the O’Neill’s. It was so stereotypical that we thought we’d fallen into a 1940’s movie set. The paneling was dark, the lighting dim, the crowd, loud, and the barkeep overworked. We lined up to order our food and slogged to a table. We had to clear it ourselves but that seemed to be the custom. The only thing missing from the old-time setting was there was no smoking. There’s no smoking indoors at restaurants here. That’s a huge step for Ireland and Great Britain.

The dinner show was called Celtic Storm and that it was. It exceeded our expectations on all levels and we've been to many of these in many countries. The food was phenomenal. We tried colcannon, a soup made from potatoes, leeks, and cabbage. It was luscious. I had a veggie crepe called a “boxtey” (a potato and flour pancake) while David tried Irish stew. The desserts were either Irish crème cheesecake or dense chocolate cake. Both were excellent. The level of the performers and costuming was first rate. I liked it better than Riverdance. They did mention Riverdance during the program and did the original dance that got it all started. It was first performed as a 15- minute act on TV. The music and especially the fiddling had such kinship to our Appalachian sounds and the reels were pure West Virginian. Many songs had a Nashville connection and could have been lifted out of our country genre if they hadn’t been written here  first. One of the songs told about the immigration to America. They sang of leaving one island for another. Ireland for Ellis Island, “isle of hope and tears.”  It’s no wonder there’s a bluegrass zydeco band from New Orleans touring Ireland. They were on a morning TV show today. There was vaudeville shtick and storytelling. They even did an Irish “hand jive” of knee slapping that was daunting. They were so fast it’s a wonder no one got punched in the face. The weak link was the MC’s daughter who reminded me of an American Idol reject. Simon Cowell would have described her as “pitchy.”

During the opening act the table next to ours was extremely noisy. I asked the maitre de if he could speak to them if they stayed as boisterous when the show started. He said that indeed he would. By way of closing the MC welcomed people who were celebrating special occasions. He mentioned a man at that table then introduced the others sitting there. They included his dear friends and his wife. It’s a good thing they quieted down on their own. It could have been embarrassing.

On the way out I stopped to speak with the costume designer. She asked where we were from. When we say we’re from Ohio people ask if it’s near California. But she had relatives in Toronto so knew the Great Lakes region.

  

We’ll hop back on the bus tomorrow and see where we end up. Kilmainham Gaol is our first choice. It’s at one at one of the stops.

Toby