Ireland: Saturday to Monday morning

On Saturday we hopped on the hop on-hop off bus tour around Dublin, which took us past many of the sights Dublin has to offer. These included the Guinness brewery, Trinity College, St Patricks Cathedral, the Kilmainhim jail (where the leaders of the Easter rising were executed), the Phoenix Park (the largest enclosed park in Europe) which contains the house of the Irish President, the American Embassy, the Zoo, as well as lots of sports grounds and wild deer (introduced in the 1500's for hunting purposes). The bus then took us along the side of the Liffey River, where Bono and the Edge own a hotel, on top of which is a penthouse suite that costs €2300 per night.



We had made enquiries the previous day into Gaelic football being played that weekend, there turned out to be none of these as it is played in winter. However, there was a hurling match on Saturday afternoon. This is the summer half of the Gaelic Athletic Association. Hurling is a cross between lacrosse, hockey and Aussie Rules, played with a wooden stick with a large flat end and a small ball. The idea is to hit the ball through the rugby posts above the cross-bar (worth 1 point) or between the posts beneath the bar (worth 2 points). There are 14 people on the field, 1 goalie and the only protection they wear is a helmet (not even shin-guards), which resulted in a few nasty injuries. The game was between the lowly-ranked Dublin team and top-of-the-table Tipperary team. Dublin did well, to the excitement of a very vocal local crowd, to be ahead shortly after half-time. However, this did not last and cheering disappeared and abuse came to the forefront, with liberal use of swear words and "Oh for the love of Jaysus". Tipperary went on to win, and the stadium (very similar to Carlaw Park - concrete stands and standing room only) emptied on to the field to get signatures from the players. All in all, it was pretty exciting afternoon.



On Sunday we headed off on the bus tour again, this time to do more "hopping-off". Our first stop was the Dublin Castle, more similar to a palace now after fire destoyed most of the castle in the 1700's. We then went to St Paul's Cathedral, parts of which date back to the 12th Century. We also saw St Patrick's Cathedral. We got back on the bus to go to Kilmainhim Jail, where we went on a tour of the jail. The jail was built in 1796, with no more than 200 small cells (9 by 6 foot) and at its peak it housed over 9000 people. At this time there were no sanitation facilities, and men were required to do ten hours hard labour per day, stone-breaking. No speaking was allowed in the cells, and breaking this rule led to 2 weeks in isolation. In 1904 the jail closed down and only held political prisoners, included in this was Ireland's first Prime Minister, Eamon de Valera, who only escaped execution due to his joint British-American citizenship. We saw the yard where the leaders of the Easter Uprising were executed, a very sombre experience.

We went to the Phoenix Park next, to see the huge monument to Lord Wellington (the General who defeated Napolean at Waterloo ) and to explore the grounds. Unfortunately our luck with the Irish summer ran out here and it started to rain, so we hopped back on the bus and headed back into town.

That night we went to dinner at an authentic Irish pub (O'Neills), which had amazing food that came in humungous servings. The food was served from a 'Carvery', which is sort of like ordering food in a cafeteria, but of a far higher quality. The plate was piled high with lamb pie, potatoes, gravy, Yorkshire pudding, stuffing, vegetables and salad. Shaun had a Guinness on the recommendation of the tour bus driver (apparently it doesn't travel well), and he thought it tasted amazing, nothing like the Guinness we get in NZ. After dinner we experienced the Irish cinema experience and saw Shrek 3 - lousy theatre, great movie.

On Monday morning we waved a sad goodbye to Ireland and it's friendly inhabitants, lush green countryside and indecipherable accents, and headed back to England.