Ireland

We recently had another weekend away, this time in Ireland!

Justin and I finally got some bad luck on a Ryanair flight (they've been surprisingly non-terrible this year, all things considered) and got into Dublin much later than we planned, so we pretty much took the bus into town and went to bed (we were at our AirBNB for a total of 7 hours!), then headed back to the airport to meet up with our friends and pick up the rental car. In a change from the rest of the year, Justin was the chauffeur for the weekend and drove our butts all over the Emerald Isle!

This is basically the only picture we got on our first 'day' (few hours) in Ireland. This pedestrian street near our AirBNB really reminded me of Roald Dahl Plass, which we saw last fall in Cardiff

The first lesson we learned while driving around Ireland was the prominence of a certain musical instrument in art and architecture:

We saw the Irish harp everywhere! It's not only the national coat of arms - it's on their Euro coins, their passports, many of their beautiful old buildings, and of course at least two of their beers!

("No, no, our logo will be completely different! It's a slightly shorter harp!")

And, unless I'm crazy, I even saw a harp in this weird tree! The horizontal branch is definitely attached to both vertical trunks. I found it oddly mesmerizing.

This bridge also seems harp-related to me. Or maybe now I'm just stretching.

We headed down to the south coast and started our weekend at Blarney Castle in Cork. I didn't know much about the castle other than the famous stone that you have to kiss, but it has a really stunning set of grounds and gardens to explore, and we were lucky to enjoy very atypically sunny and beautiful weather all weekend. The gardens have a lot of sites which were supposedly inhabited by  witches and fairies, but even if that's not your personal thing they were still very cool to see.

 

There was also a cool topiary-tunnel that Justin and I had some fun with:

Moving on to Blarney Castle - there has been a building on this site since the 1200's, and this castle was built in the mid 1400's and changed hands many times over the years. It was built to be imposing and easily defensible - they built it on top of its own quarry, so the 8 meter cliff of vertical rock added to its height and protection.

The ornate window/balcony on the right would have been the bedroom of the lord of the castle. The sloped openings in the middle of the building were the openings the chamber pots were dumped out of. Watch out below!

We walked through the Poison Garden, which had dozens of toxic plants. They ranged from the obvious (foxglove, nightshade, ricin) to the more Harry-Potter-like entries (mandrake and wolfsbane) to the less obvious (did anyone else know that boxwoods are toxic?).

As you enter the ruined castle itself, they warn you, not once but twice, that if you trip and fall it's your own dumb fault. Also that 'you are on a premises', which clearly carries some special legal meaning other than the obvious.

You reach the top of the castle (and the Blarney stone) by weaving your way through a maze of ruined bedrooms, great halls, and fairly terrifying staircases.

Ye olde graffiti

When you reach the top of the castle, they are clearly set up for long lines (or, I suppose, queues) - but we were there on a quiet day and basically had the place to ourselves to admire the view! Despite the utter lack of other people around, the poor men whose job it is to help tourists kiss the stone yelled and hustled us along like there was a 3 hour lineup and there was only 30 minutes until closing time. I guess old habits die hard?

Hurry up! Keep the line moving! Who's next?

The Blarney stone is really just a stone in the outer wall of the castle. The legend states that anyone who kisses it is forever granted the gift of the gab, a silver tongue, and all manner of eloquence. Reality states that before they worried about silly things like safety, some people would have definitely fallen to their demise trying to lean way out and kiss this thing, as it's very awkwardly situated and several stories off the ground. They apparently used to dangle people by their ankles on the OUTSIDE of the castle wall before some safeguards were installed and they knocked out the floor to help you reach it in a more reasonable manner.

Follow the line of the central windows upwards to the bottom of the battlements. See the little bit of daylight there? That's the cutout to reach the stone, and it's behind and below you when lying on the ground. Thank god they installed some bars for safety, that's a long drop!

 

Apparently the people who help tourists to kiss the stone have some interesting stories - from the groups of people who came up naked after a strange nudist photo shoot on the castle grounds, to a group of 17 year old girls who came up and pulled off their shirts revealing only shamrock pasties, to people who expect the workers to remember that they held them years before.

Also, there's a rumour that locals go up to pee on the Blarney Stone. The people who run the attraction swear it isn't true - that the castle is locked at night, that the stone is cleaned several times per day, and that it's all perfectly hygienic. All I know is that Justin was wickedly sick for several days after we got back. Maybe he caught a touch of the Blarneys?

After spending time at the castle, we headed over to the lovely coastal city of Cork (Corcaigh), which at 120,000 people is the 3rd largest city on the Island of Ireland (after Dublin and Belfast), and whose name refers to the marshy land it was built on. We wandered around seeing the sights and had a lovely dinner followed by drinks on a riverside patio, then checked out the downtown core the next morning.

St. Finbarre's Cathedral

Classiest McDonalds ever!

Here Jessica is trying to catch some Pidgeys. I don't think that's how Pokemon Go works!

Ireland tried to break free from England dozens of times (as our tour guide later in the trip was fond of repeating 'We fought for independence... we lost.... everybody died. Twenty years later, we fought for independence...we lost... everyone died."). They were very ahead of their time with beliefs in universal suffrage and equality. This is one of their declarations, blown up to enormous size to cover a building! It makes Justin and I really stop and consider how lucky Canada was to be coming of age in a time and place where we could basically politely ask for our freedom. Cork was a hotbed of rebellion for centuries, and to this day is proudly called 'Rebel Country' and 'The Real Capital'

The Irish language is absolutely bonkers. Luckily for us, every single person we met spoke English, and most street signs were in English as well.

We then moved on to Kilkenny, which is a smaller inland town of about 25,000 people, dating back to the 1600s. Before that (in the 1200's) it was the site of a Franciscan (hey, we know about those guys!) abbey. Since the monks had difficulty getting fresh, non-polluted water from the nearby river, the monks started brewing it into a weak beer which was safer to drink. The St. Francis Abbey Brewery is the oldest brewery in Ireland, and was founded in 1710 on the site of the old abbey by the Smithwicks family, who made Smithwicks and Kilkenny ales. There is a lot of interesting history there - the Smithwicks were Catholics, which was not a great thing to be at the time. King Henry the VIIIth, angry that they Pope wouldn't let him annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, created the Church of England (Anglicans) and outlawed Catholicism throughout the United Kingdom, which included Ireland at the time. No Catholic person was allowed to own property or a business. John Smithwick therefore found himself a Protestant business partner, who allowed his name to be on the paperwork in exchange for what I'm sure was a tidy sum, and never had anything to do with the business again. Although they basically moved all of the brewing from St. Francis' to Dublin in 2013, they still have a great visitor's centre there. It's worth your time even if you don't like beer (Justin is still disappointed that after nearly a year in Britain, I'll drink draft cider but not an actual beer), as the tour is really interesting.

 

Richard Cole, John Smithwick's Protestant business partner, rented the land on which the brewery was located for, specifically, "two fat turkies" and a few shillings. I'm sure this was more serious and less amusing back in the day?

Justin really enjoyed his beers (and mine, too)!

Kilkenny itself is just a really pretty town. It reminds me of the Maritimes with such brightly coloured buildings, and I loved the old preserved storefronts that you could see while walking around town.

Although we arrived too late in the day to visit Kilkenny Castle, it was neat to see this 800-year-old castle in the centre of town. Awesomely, as it occupies such a large and centralized piece of real estate, the property was transferred to 'the people of Kilkenny' for £50 back in 1967 (even with inflation, that's a really good deal!) and the grounds are open to the public. It seems very similar to NYC's Central Park - a lot of manicured grass for picnics, suntanning and games, with specific areas for parks, vendors, etc. The former stables across the road have been turned into shops and galleries for local artists.

We had a drink on this patio. The view was pretty decent.

More pretty buildings in Kilkenny!

Another declaration of independence

I think this building wins for oldest pub we've eaten in on this trip! The mistress was accused of being a witch by her jealous competitors, and they play up the happy fact that she was able to escape and get out of town thanks to powerful friends. Less happy is the fact that other people, including her maid, were 'whipped through town and burned at the stake' in her place.

Cute medieval alley with a funny name!

What do they think people are doing in the Butter Slip? Also, that's a lot of different fonts.

This was a wall around a construction site that the city hired a famous local graffiti artist to decorate. He even incorporated the viewing holes into the design!

 

This is all that's left of the old city walls.

On Sunday morning, we woke up and Justin drove us back to Dublin. What terrible scenery to endure!

We only had a few hours until our flight, so we found a walking tour to learn about some of Dublin's history. Our guide, Ciaran (Keer-on), was hilarious. If you're ever in the city and want to be both amused and educated, we highly recommend taking a Sandeman's walking tour and trying to get him as your guide!

Dublin, like Kilkenny, has its fair share of gorgeous buildings

Check out the stained glass awning at this old theatre!

Dublin Castle dates back to the 1200's, although only the circular tower in the centre of this picture is original; the rest burned down in a fire. Due to Ireland's complex political history, it hasn't had much of a 'royal' function for centuries. Today it is used to inaugurate the new President of Ireland after elections, and for state visits. Our guide told us an excellent story about the Queen visiting here a few years ago - they were all really pleased that she a) wore a green dress, b) said a few words in Irish, and c) wasn't assassinated by any IRA members. I bet the Queen was pleased too!

I've never seen a technicolour palace before, but I like it!

How cool is this? There is a park adjacent to the castle that is the official helipad, but since it is so infrequently used it's a public space the rest of the time! Ciaran is telling us about the Queen in this picture

Even in a public park/helipad, there have to be rules

It's not easy to see, but I loved the name on this hotel: The Czech Inn

We stopped for a break (and a drink) in this interesting and eclectic pub

The structure in the background is officially called the Dublin Spire, and it's a 212 meter tall tapering metal structure in the middle of downtown. It was built to replace a monument that was destroyed in an IRA bombing and to help beautify the main street. Apparently it cost 4 million Euros, and serves no purpose other than being decorative, and 'helping drunks navigate home from the bar' - according to Ciaran it is not well regarded in the city! Derogatory local nicknames include The Erection at the Intersection, and the Stiffy By The Liffey (the river through the downtown core).

Photo credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DublinSpireDusk.jpg

Front Gate at Trinity College (now we've been to two Trinity Colleges in Europe!)

This is a statue of Molly Malone, who was said to be a fish merchant in Dublin, and has a famous and bawdy pub song about her. The stories say she was also a prostitute by night. Our guide also says there's no evidence that she ever existed, which means the city spent money to erect a statue to a fictional fishmonger-whore. He told us that to rub one of her breasts brings good luck, but if you're greedy and try to take with both hands you'll get nothing at all!

We were excited to see some of our favourite British staples, the red Royal Mail Boxes, in Ireland - although something was different about them...

Queen Victoria

Bad picture - George VI, I think?

After Ireland gained its independence once and for all in 1922, they started building their own mailboxes and painting over the old ones. The letters on this one are Irish and stand for An Post, their Post Office. In the airport, the Irish keychain souvenirs were hilarious because they were just a colour swap of the British ones - double decker buses, phone booths and mailboxes, all painted green instead of red. I'm sure there's a factory in China somewhere that changes the paint from red to green on Thursdays and wonders why.

   After our tour we had time to see a few quick things on our way to the airport:

This has got to be one of the nicest storefronts of an H&M store worldwide

I just love when old buildings are maintained and kept in use

Check out the glistening 'night deposit' slots on this gorgeous old bank that's become a restaurant!

At Trinity College we paused to watch a cricket match on the green. Even after watching, and reading up on the rules on the flight home, I still can't wrap my brain around cricket at all.

If you want to see a very odd-looking pitch, I took a quick video:

Interesting pitching style?

We had no issues with the return flight, and because there is a border treaty between England and Ireland, we went through no screening or border control, meaning we were at home quite literally 25 minutes after our plane doors opened. I will definitely miss this aspect of easy travel through Europe!