Ireland, 2023 – Back to Wonderful and Historical Dublin

July 1, 2023

From Athlone it was a quick trip of just a little over an hour by bus to Dublin (there is also train service). I alighted near the pedestrian Ha’penny Bridge and felt immediately energized by the hustle and bustle of Dublin. I crossed over to the south side of the River Liffey, walked through the always busy streets of Temple Bar, and made my way back towards Long Lane Close to stay again with Pearl and her Mam Therese.

I was welcomed by Therese with a warm hug, tea and biscuits, and an invitation to have dinner with her, “a proper cooked dinner, none of that awful travel food.” I accepted gladly, and after tea I headed out on foot to visit the Irish National Museum of Archaeology. Enroute I passed by the lovely and peaceful St. Kevin’s Park and couldn’t resist a walk through to check up on the roses. I felt like I was in “my park” and “my neighbourhood.”

I had visited Ireland’s exceptional National Museum of Archaeology on my first trip to Ireland and I was excited to see that they were still exhibiting some of their magnificent collection of ancient gold artefacts. The gold collars and torcs (below, top two photos) date from 800-700 BC, and the gold lunulae (bottom right) date from 2000 BC! The nine large round hollow beads (bottom left, Late Bronze Age) come from a hoard of eleven that was found in 1834 by farmers tilling land near Tumna Church, beside the Shannon River, in County Roscommon. They would have been strung together to make an enormous and awe-inspiring necklace for a wealthy and powerful chieftain or king.

I spent a lot of time viewing the bone and stone artefacts from the Neolithic Age (having recently visited many Neolithic sites in the northwest of the country), and I was struck by the beauty of two polished jadeitite axe heads from 4000-3800 BC. The stone originated from quarries high in the Italian Alps (!), and it is thought that they had a ceremonial use as they show no signs of wear.

I also spent a lot of time in the “Viking Ireland” section,

and I definitely had to revisit two gorgeous artefacts in the Treasury exhibit, a tiny golden ship exquisitely crafted in the 1st century BC, and an 8th century silver chalice.

There were also exhibits relating to Saint Comcille (a long distance walk tracing his voyages begins in Glen Colmcille, one of my favourite places in Donegal), and to the monastic settlement of Glendalough (a “must see” for anyone visiting Ireland. It is not far from Dublin in County Wicklow. See my post here: https://christineswalkabout.com/2016/07/21/glendalough/). I learned about “shrines”, highly decorated boxes made to contain holy manuscripts. The one below, the “Shrine of the Cathach” held a 7th century manuscript believed to be written by St. Columba. It was one of the chief treasures of the O’Donnell clan through the Middle Ages and they carried it into battle to bring good luck.

After my visit to the museum (there was still more to see!) I decided to walk through Iveagh Gardens before returning to my accommodation. Like St. Stephens Green and Merrion Square Park it was an oasis of green in the city and featured a treed perimeter walk, expansive lawns, large fountains, a yew hedge maze, and a lovely rose garden.

I returned to my accommodation for dinner with Therese and then a quiet evening in my room resting. The next day, I visited the Kilmainham Jail which is the number one top visited site in Dublin according to Tripadvisor. Operated by the Office of Public Works who provide the excellent guided tours, this notorious jail and symbol of British rule and oppression is now an important history lesson. Before my tour, I spent time in the comprehensive museum where there were displays and artefacts detailing the history of the jail and the conditions and circumstances of those imprisoned here, including many hundreds of women and children, especially during the years of the Great Famine, when the prison population swelled. One floor of the museum focussed on the history of political prisoners held in the jail from as early as the rebellions of 1798 and 1803 (the jail opened in 1796). On display were letters, photographs, newspaper articles, explanatory text, and a collection of political posters that chronicled the fight for Irish indendence.

The one hour tour was excellent and was presented in a straight forward, accessible, sensitive, and even-handed manner. We started in the West Wing, the oldest section of the jail, which is gloomy, dark and cold, with no windows, heating, light, bed or chair provided for the prisoners. We heard several stories here and entered several cells and rooms. Later we moved on to the East Wing which was built in the 1860s and some Victorian-era prison reforms were put in place. A key element of the design was to have every cell door visible to the jail’s guards.

We heard more interesting stories and facts pertaining to this wing of the jail and about some of the people who had been imprisoned here.

From the East Wing, the tour moved on to the Stonebreaker’s yard where fourteen leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were executed by firing squad. A cross in a corner of the yard marks the spot where Joseph Connolly was tied to a chair and then shot. He had been badly injured during the uprising, was transported to the jail from his hospital bed, and was unable to stand. The manner of his execution, as well as the execution of the other rebel leaders, stirred wide public support for the goals of the rebellion and the fight for Irish independence.

I had been reluctant to visit Kilmainham Gaol but was very glad that I did. In a contemplative mood, I left the jail to begin the three kilometre walk back to my accommodation but I was drawn towards the nearby 17th century Richmond Tower which led me into a large and very historical green space that I had not previously known about. You find history in Dublin even when you’re not looking for it! To my left, behind a long high stone fence and iron gate was Bully’s Acre, a burial ground associated with St. Maigneann’s monastery. I read that the cemetery was in use from 606 AD until 1832 and that monks, knights, princes and Dublin citizens of all ranks, including traders, merchants, the wealthy and the very poor, were buried here over those twelve centuries. Through the gate I could see the 10th century decorated granite cross shaft that was associated with the monastery. It is said that the son and grandson of the High King, Brian Boru, were buried near the cross after the famous Battle of Clontarf in 1014. A groundskeeper mowing the lawns behind me saw my interest in the cross and the burial grounds and he kindly unlocked the gate and let me wander through the site for a few moments.

Afterwards, I walked along the paved path, beneath a few scattered afternoon thunderclouds that dropped rain on my umbrella, towards a brightly lit patch of blue sky and the 17th century Royal Hospital Kilmainham with its beautiful formal gardens. The hospital now houses the Irish Museum of Modern Art and I was tempted to enter and have a look but my brain was full and I decided to save that experience for another visit to Dublin.

Continuing my walk home, I passed by Christchurch Cathedral and Dublinia, a museum which showcases Dublin’s Viking-era history. I had visited these two sites on my first trip to Dublin and and I recommend them highly. I would love to revisit them, yet another reason to visit wonderful and historic Dublin.

I returned to my accommodation and was again invited to have dinner with Therese and Pearl, a lovely way to spend my last evening before my flight home. I hope that you’ve enjoyed travelling along with me to Dublin, and to the gorgeous Irish countryside with its historic towns, deep green forests and fields, mountains, beaches, rivers, castles, museums and monasteries, etc., etc., etc., … and even Ireland’s (and Europe’s) oldest pub. Thank you, dear readers, and thank you Ireland!

Ireland, 2023 – A Dublin Day

National Art Gallery of Ireland, Jeanie Johnston Famine Ship, Docklands and River Walk

June 1, 2023

On my last full day in Dublin I had five stops planned but only managed three of them. This is definitely a city to spend some time in as there is so much to discover and do. I will stick with my assessment from one of my very first travel blog posts which was called “Dublin in One or Two Days? I Don’t Think So!” https://christineswalkabout.com/category/ireland/dublin/

My first stop was the National Art Gallery of Ireland. I walked up steps that advertised a special exhibit of works by Lavinia Fontana and then visited the collection of “European Art from 1850-1950”. Some of my favourite pieces in that collection were (clockwise from the right) “Le Corsage Noir” by Berthe Morisot, “Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat” by Claude Monet, and “The Terrace, Saint Tropez” by Paul Signac.

Next I visited a series of rooms featuring Irish paintings from 1660-1965 and I took my time there to observe the works that appealed to me and to read the brief but informative write ups that accompanied each one. The top left photo is of “Carting Seaweed on Sutton Sands”, by Joseph Malachi Kavanagh, and the bottom right is “A View of Lower Lake, Killarney” by Jonathan Fisher (Killarney is where I am now). The top right photo is “Lady Lavery as Kathleen Ni Houlihan” by John Lavery which was commissioned as a design for the first banknotes of the Irish Free State. The painting is a reworked portrait of his wife Hazel, posed in front of the Lower Lake, Killarney, and cast as Kathleen ni Houlihan, the mythical heroin of a play by W.B. Yeats. The notes were issued from between 1928 and 1977.

For the centre left photo above, entitled “The Liffey Swim” by Jack B. Yeats, I listened in on a school tour group and learned that this painting is a depiction from 1923 of a very popular two-mile competitive swim down the Liffey that occurs each year in Dublin. This painting was entered in the first-ever modern Olympic Games that took place in Paris in 1924 when there were medals awarded for sport-themed fine arts submissions. “The Liffey Swim” won a Silver, Ireland’s first Olympic medal.

The Gallery’s largest painting is “The Marriage of Strongbow and Aoife” by Daniel Maclise which depicts the marriage in 1170 between the Norman invader, Richard de Clare, known as Strongbow, and Aoife MacMurrough, daughter of Dermot, King of Leinster. Their marriage is seen as a key moment in the beginnings of Anglo-Norman rule in Ireland. The couple are in the centre, with Norman soldiers as shadowy figures in the top right while the goddess Eriu, after whom Ireland is named, is the anguished figure with arms upraised amidst a group of vanquished Celts. And, to the left of her, the harp of Brian Boru, also a symbol for Ireland, is held by a downcast harpist and has broken strings. (I listened in on a school tour here too and learned a lot!)

After my visit to the National Art Gallery of Ireland (during which I saw only a small fraction of the works on display), I walked towards the River Liffey which divides Dublin into North and South. From one spot on the south shore I took photos of the Sean O’Casey pedestrian bridge located upstream of me,

and a photo downstream, zoomed in, of the Samuel Beckett Bridge, more commonly known as the Harp Bridge. It is a swinging bridge that can move ninety degrees horizontally in only three minutes in order to let tall marine traffic travel up and down the river.

Behind me I was interested in the integration of old and new in the architecture of the HubSpot building. HubSpot is one of the many high tech companies that have moved into Dublin in recent years, many of them in this part of Dublin that is known as the Docklands, but is also sometimes referred to as Silicon Docks.

And directly across from me, moored on the north side of the river, was the Jeanie Johnston Famine Ship which was my next stop. I consider this museum to be a must-do for any visitor to Dublin.

I crossed the pedestrian bridge and at its end is the relatively new Epic Irish Emigration Museum which won the award for “Europe’s Leading Tourist Attraction” in 2019, 2020, and 2021. It was one of my planned stops but I went to the Jeanie Johnston first and was so moved by what I learned there that I didn’t want to take in anything else today except more walking along the Liffey.

Before my guided tour of the Jeanie Johnston I visited the Famine Memorial, a visceral grouping of tall, gaunt, starving figures sculpted by Rowan Gillespie. During the years 1845-1852 a terrible blight destroyed Ireland’s entire crop of potatoes which were a subsistence food for much of the Irish population, especially in the south and the west of the country. There was little to no relief provided to the Irish from the English parliament whose ruling Whig party attributed the catastrophe as due to a lack of moral character by those suffering. Even though the potato crop had failed, there was enough wheat, oats, and other grains grown in Ireland during the years of the famine to feed the entire population but that grain continued to be exported out of the country by Ireland’s English and Anglo-Irish landowners.

Over one million Irish died of starvation, or from typhus and other famine-related diseases, and over one million emigrated, leaving Ireland’s population decimated by nearly a quarter. Of those that emigrated, 95 percent travelled to North America, mostly in the holds of cargo ships that came to be know as “coffin ships” as so many of the Irish died during the voyages due to unsanitary conditions, disease, and lack of food. All of these tragic facts, and more, were related to us on our tour aboard the Jeanie Johnston, but there were also a few glimmers of light and compassionate humanity as well in the story of this particular ship.

The Jeanie Johnston was a Canadian-built cargo ship that transported timber and other products to Ireland and like many other cargo ships it would typically return to North America empty. During the famine, these ships started transporting Irish emigrants across the Atlantic in their holds. (The ship here is a near-exact replica of the original Jeanie Johnston. It was built in Ireland as a Millenium project using authentic materials and techniques, with modifications made for current sailing safety standards.). After learning about the famine and the ship, we descended to the hold where an average of 200 passengers per trip made the perilous voyage across the Atlantic which took an average of 47 days. On other ships, the passengers, already weakened and ill from starvation, were kept below decks in filthy conditions but on the Jeanie Johnston the passengers came up onto the decks daily while the hold was cleaned and blankets were shaken out over the railings to get rid of disease-carrying fleas and body lice. Food and water were available (though not plentiful) and there was a doctor on board to deal with any illnesses. The Jeanie Johnston made sixteen voyages from Tralee to Canada and lost not one passenger on any of its voyages. As part of the tour, our excellent young guide related the true stories of some of the passengers known to have taken this ship to a new life overseas. They were all absorbing and some moved to me to tears. For example, on each voyage the captain would provide free passage to at least person or family including, once, a widower and his eleven children. Also, one female passenger travelling alone was nine months pregnant and gave birth on the ship the day the passengers boarded. Throughout the voyage, other passengers shared part of their rations with the nursing mother and took turns helping to care for the baby. I could tell more of the stories I heard but I won’t in this space. Please do make it a priority to visit this museum if you ever visit Dublin.

Here is one last amazing fact about the original Jeanie Johnston. In 1858 she stopped taking on Irish emigrants when new legislation made it illegal for cargo ships to transport passengers. That same year, on a voyage from England to Canada, she sank in the middle of the Atlantic after water got into the hold during a fierce storm. The waterlogged timbers on board became heavy causing the ship to slowly sink. Once the water was two feet deep on the deck, the crew climbed the rigging and lashed themselves to the top of the main mast.

The ship continued to slowly sink, and after nine days a passing Dutch ship, the Sophie Elizabeth, saw the mast, barely above water, with its clinging and exhausted crew who had almost surely lost hope, and they were all rescued!

After my visit to the Jeanie Johnston, I walked slowly downstream along the north side of the river towards and then past the Harp Bridge for about a kilometre or two, taking photos of the views and buildings.

I could see no more bridges ahead (though I saw one later on a map) so I turned back and returned to the Harp Bridge to cross over it to the south side of the river. The Harp Bridge is stunning!

I continued to admire the mix of old and new architecture as I walked upstream, and it was truly a pleasure to stroll along the river on such a fine day. I felt grateful to be here, whole, healthy and blessed with good fortune.

I walked by the 1908 Immaculate Heart of Mary church, Parish of City Quay, which was tucked in between two taller, newer structures and I decided to step inside for a few moments. The interior featured beautiful arched wooden beams holding up a steeply pitched roof. Large arched windows added to the overall feeling of lightness and height. It was an unusual design and a really beautiful space!

I continued my walk upriver, past the Sean O’Casey pedestrian bridge, the Talbot Memorial Bridge, the Butt Bridge, the Rosie Hackett Bridge and then the O’Connell Bridge, taking photos all the while.

I was heading to the famous 19th century Ha’penny pedestrian bridge, intending to cross again to the other side of the river, but I just had to stop first for a coffee and pastry. The young server, Daniel, gave me a discount, “just because” he said, and we chatted quite a bit as he worked. He and his husband, both born and bred Dubliners, are emigrating to Pennsylvania soon where one of them has family because the cost of rents has gone “sky high” in Dublin, with prices similar to those in Vancouver. He was friendly and funny and I hope that his move is the right one for him and that he and his husband do not miss Dublin too much. Suddenly feeling that my day had been full enough I decided to head home to my accommodation. I walked through the very busy and popular streets of Temple Bar that were crowded with tourists and large groups of young people enjoying the pubs and bars on their long weekend, and then on to Grafton Street where shopping was the order of the day for many.

Do we stop to think how lucky we are? Of course, the parts of Dublin that I visited on this trip are just a piece of a larger whole and I know from my hostesses and others I spoke with that there is more homelessness, poverty, drug and alcohol addiction and crime in other parts of the city, particularly north of the river. But I am sure that there is community there as well as some despair. Those cheery fellows in Howth that run the ferries to Ireland’s Eye were very proud of being from tough and working class “north-of-the-river Dublin 7”.

This post is getting rather long, and I am about to set out on a 77 kilometre long distance walk on the Kerry Way (in about half an hour!) so I’ll end this now by saying that any day in Dublin is a day that you will see something old and something new, and you will almost certainly enjoy exchanges with friendly and welcoming Dubliners and others. I greatly enjoyed my Dublin Day!

Ireland 2023 – Happy to be back in Dublin, and a visit to seaside Howth

May 29 – June 1, 2023

Hello everyone! I am so happy to be back in fun and fabulous Dublin at the start of a six-week journey across the Emerald Isle. After a mostly sleepless overnight flight, I made my way from the airport directly to my accommodation located in the Camden area of central Dublin. I met my kind hosts, dropped off my bags, and then set out to reacquaint myself with this historic and vibrant city. Close to my accommodation I passed by an inviting little park that seemed to encapsulate the personality of Dublin – that is, to me, a youthful vitality grafted onto strong historical roots. In the park, a fine old ash tree greets visitors near the entrance, and ivy grows wildly over the stone ruins of St. Kevin’s Church which was built in the 18th century on a site where churches have stood since at least the 1200s. Adjacent to the park a quintet of tall blue cranes are evidence of the construction boom that is happening all over the city to meet the demands for new office space and housing. The lawns and benches were filled with hip twenty- and thirty-somethings soaking up the sun and enjoying a mid-afternoon break from work, phones in hand, earbuds in,

while heritage roses were in full and glorious bloom all along the walls and in the garden beds, even though it was not yet June. The overall feeling was both peaceful and invigorating, contemplative and exciting – an interesting mix!

I continued on to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and here too many people were relaxing in the park and enjoying the warm afternoon sunshine, tourists and locals alike.

Saint Patrick’s Cathedral is a large Gothic cathedral that was built between 1220 and 1259 near the site of a well that was reputedly used by Saint Patrick in the 5th century to baptize pagans into the Christian faith. I joined a guided tour and then listened to the excellent audio tour, both of which provided a wealth of information about the history of this 800 year old cathedral. Here is a photo of the altar,

and from here I took a photo looking back past the choir and down the long nave to the western door, as well as a photo looking up at the heraldic flags and ornamental knights’ helmets arranged above the choir seats.

The Cathedral is filled with hundreds of historic items including statues, plaques, books, war memorials, banners, flags, and even a cannonball that hangs from a chain to mark the burial place of a military commander, Lord Lisburn, who was killed by that same cannonball in 1691 during the siege of Limerick. In the gallery of photos below, the stone slab is one of six 8th century Celtic grave slabs that were found during excavations in the Cathedral park, while the bottom photo is of the original Queen Anne Patent, dated May 6, 1713, appointing Johathan Swift to the Deanery of the Cathedral. Swift, the author of Gulliver’s Travels and other works, was Dean of the Saint Patrick’s Cathedral from 1713 until his death in 1745, and he is buried beneath its floor.

So many stories in every corner and crevice! And of course the soaring architecture and the stained glass windows were beautiful, but one of the design elements that I most enjoyed in the cathedral was the gorgeous floor tiles, based on early medieval designs, that were laid down when the cathedral received a much-needed and massive interior renovation in the 1860s. Those renovations were overseen and funded by Benjamin Lee Guinness, the grandson of Arthur Guinness, at a cost of about 15 million Euros in today’s dollars!

I enjoyed my time in the Cathedral, and I learned a lot, but I was beginning to feel very tired! I carried on to the nearby Dubhlinn Gardens at Dublin Castle where, once more, people were enjoying the beautiful sunshine.

My plan had been to revisit the Chester Beatty museum which was one of my favourite museums on my first visit to Dublin, but I was definitely feeling whoozy with fatigue so instead I just strolled slowly around the gardens and appreciated the combined beauty of the flowers, fountains, sculptures, historic buildings and a blue sky. It felt wonderful to be back in Dublin.

The following day was, again, bright and sunny and I headed off early to visit the seaside fishing village of Howth, about 30 minutes northeast of Dublin on the Dart train. I enjoyed the half hour walk from my accommodation to the Dart station, walking along with Dubliners young and older as they strode purposefully to their job sites for a nine a.m. start. A goodly proportion of Dubliners are champion jay walkers and I happily followed suit! I cut through St. Stephen’s Green Park and later along the edge of Merrion Park where I stopped to visit a statue of Oscar Wilde who once lived nearby. Central Dublin has many green spaces and they are very very green!

The Dart ride was fun, and it was exciting to arrive in Howth right beside this lovely beach where I spoke for a while with a very elderly gentleman who had just finished his daily morning swim.

I walked to the west arm of the harbour pier and out to its end, past seafood shops, marine supply stores, and restaurants on one side and moored fishing vessels on the other. The morning was perfect, with a bright sky, invigorating ocean breeze, and that wide-open, happy and optimistic feeling that you get from being by the sea.

At the end of the pier there was an excellent view of the lighthouse and of a beacon at the end of the eastern harbour arm,

as well as a great view out to Ireland’s Eye, a small uninhabited island with the ruins of an early church and a Martello tower, built by the British during the time of the French Revolutionary Wars.

I chatted for quite some time with a group of gentlemen who ferry tourists out to the island and also around the base of the Howth Cliffs, but the sea was “too rough today” for any morning journeys. They were very cheery fellows who liked to tease and who definitely had the gift of the gab! From the pier I walked back to the main road, headed up a steep hill behind a row of houses, and found a trail through a wood that was thick with ivy.

Then I walked across a large meadow and through more woods (after consulting twice with local dog walkers) to arrive at Howth Castle. The castle buildings here date from the 1450s onward and are part of a 470 acre estate that covers much of the Howth peninsula. This estate was first founded in 1177 when Almeric came to Ireland with John de Courcy and was granted the land. From that date, the estate remained in the hands of the same family for 840 years until its recent sale in 2018 to an Irish development company.

I walked around the castle’s estate for a while, looking for its rhododendron gardens, but without any luck until I was aided (and escorted) by another helpful local. The gardens were wild and unkept but very beautiful with mature rhodos in every colour sweeping up and onto a high rocky outcropping. I climbed a steep trail through a tunnel of rhodendrons, gorse and other vegetation to arrive on top of the outcropping with great views in all directions.

From there I explored a confusing maze of trails and got a bit turned around. Dog walkers again came to my aid, several times, and I was encouraged to visit a small and pretty lake and also an ancient dolmen, the Howth Portal Tomb known locally as Aideen’s Grave. The large capstone, which has fallen off of its original eight supporting stones, is estimated to weigh 75 tons!

Then, I got lost again (with a map this time, and I am usually great with navigation!) trying to find a trail that crossed a large golf course and would connect me to a coastal path. Long story short, after much walking in circles and a good deal of exasperation, I gave up and took a very rare taxi ride to a trailhead where I was finally able to connect with one of the clifftop paths that circle much of the Howth peninsula. It was a wonderful trail, with views down to a lighthouse,

and so many of my favourite coastal plants to admire and to remind me of previous happy coastal walks – bracken, gorse just coming into its bright yellow bloom, purple heather, white sea campion, and honeysuckle.

The air was warm, the wind was invigorating, and the views were spectacular with raucous gulls wheeling over the sea and around their cliffside nesting sites. And then there were even more of my favourite coastal plants – tiny white wild roses, pink sea thrift, cranesbill geranium, and a very tiny and pretty flowering sedum clinging in small patches in rock crevices.

After several kilometres of very happy walking, the trail circled west towards the town of Howth, with views overlooking the large harbour with its long piers.

The path descended to a seafront road which passed a beach and a house that was once the home of W.B. Yeats. Then, feeling quite tired, and with sore feet after a full day of walking, I debated whether to walk the long distance of the harbour’s west pier.

The answer, of course, was “yes”, and thankfully there were many benches along the way for taking short rests.

Then there was yet another jetty that cut into the centre of the large harbour so I walked that one too, drawn forward by the waving mallows, moored sailboats, and sparkling water.

I returned to the harbour-front road and was passing a row of pubs with outdoor seating when I heard a cheerful “Christine!” It was Evan, who had escorted me to the rhododendron gardens, having a pint with several of his friends so I sat with them for a while, happy to chat and rest my feet. All day long friendly locals had helped me out and each one had asked where I was from and where I was travelling and they told me whether or not they had ever visited Canada. One old gentlemen had said, “You’re very welcome to Ireland,” which such genuine sincerity that I felt truly honoured to be welcomed by him. My last stop in Howth was at the remains of St. Mary’s abbey, built in 1235 and rebuilt in the late 14th century on a stunning site overlooking the sea. The earliest church here was founded in 1042 by Sitric, the Viking King of Dublin!

The Dart ride back was quiet, and then I had a 30 minute walk back along Dublin’s exciting streets. I cut through St. Stephen’s Green Park which was filled with people yet still somehow restful and then I had a simple sandwich and apple dinner on a bench in St. Kevin’s Park near home. I was definitely happy to be back in Dublin. 🙂