Of Guinness, The Gaol, and Gaelic Dublin 7/17-18

Our taxi was due at 5:45 am, so I had to get up really early to leave Dalkeith. I tried to be super quiet, in order to let my roommates sleep in, but when I went to meet with Maegan and she wasn’t there, I panicked and woke her roommates. Oops. As we walked up the road to meet our taxi, I was sad to say goodbye to Dalkeith Palace and Scotland. Hopefully, I’ll be back someday.

We arrived at the airport before they’d assigned us a gate, but, naturally, we ended up at the furthest, so we should have just started walking from the get-go. In just over an hour, we were in Dublin. As we went through passport control, the woman asked me to prove that I was eventually leaving Ireland, by showing my departure ticket. It’s the first time I’ve had that question. Interestingly, when I flew back into London, I came into a domestic terminal, so I didn’t have any kind of passport control or customs, at all. The sliding standards really confused me.

 

Maegan and I asked the information desk at the airport about the best bus option for our time in Dublin, and they set us up with three day passes on the Hop On Hop Off tour. That was pretty cool at first, because we got to hear the history of a lot of the sites in Dublin. After a while, though, hearing the description of the Molly Malone statute got pretty old (she’s the “Dish with the Fish,” the “Tart with the Cart,” the “Dolly with the Trolley,” and the “Trollop with the Scallops”).

After we checked into the hostel, Maegan and I made our way to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. The display for the Book incorporated history about monastic life, illuminated manuscripts, and the various materials and techniques used in their creations. The display was interesting, but I don’t think the Book of Kells lived up to its hype. It’s possible that all of the ancient materials I was privileged to see on my trip has made me jaded.

From Trinity College, we made our way to on the bus (past our friend, Molly!) to Kilmainham Gaol. The jail was the primary political prison for Dublin for over a hundred years, and it was restored by volunteers as a historical site over the last few decades. I learned a lot about Irish history there, particularly about the Irish revolution. It was fascinating to learn about how the brutal English reaction to the Irish revolutionaries during WWI changed the uprising from an unpopular one to a widespread movement. I learned how the Irish revolution helped fast forward the fight for women’s rights in Ireland, placing them years ahead of England and the United States. The jail wasn’t just for political prisoners, and contained all kinds of men, women, and children. 8 year olds were regularly jailed for theft, and the youngest prisoner on record was a 5 year old sentenced to two weeks for stealing. Think about that.

Almost every major political prisoner was kept in Kilmainham Gaol. When it reopened as a historical site, the first visitor to the jail was the last political prisoner to have left it. When he returned, he did so as the Irish Prime Minister.

I really enjoyed the Gaol tour, particularly as a history buff. But then it was time to move on to the next highlight of Dublin: the Guinness Storehouse Tour.

We made our way through the tour, learning how barley, hops, and water are turned into Guinness. There was a room with just a giant container of barley, and another filled with the equipment used in the brewing process. There were a ton of school kids on the Guinness Tour, which really surprised me. Is it like going to the Museum of Science and Industry?

 

By the time we made it to the tasting room, I was able to identify some of the flavors I’d just learned about, though I still thought Guinness tasted more like bitter caramel than anything else. Maegan and I both learned how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness and became certified Guinness pourers. I’m putting that qualification right next to my chainsaw certification on my resume.

Then we took our glasses of Guinness up to the antigravity bar on the top floor of the Storehouse. I’ve learned that apparently, nothing in Dublin can be constructed higher than the Guinness

 factory. I’m not sure what that says for the city, but it made for some fabulous views. If you didn’t have to pay for the whole tour to get up there, I bet it would be the most popular bar in town. As it was, it was already packed. When we finished our pints, we caught the last bus of the day back to our hostel, where we properly checked in before heading out to an Irish pub for dinner while listening to live Irish music.

The next morning, I went to a history site called Dublinia, where I learned about the historical foundation of Dublin, from the Vikings through the Middle Ages. Then I went on a quest to find Harry Potter in Irish. After trying several bookstores, I was finally pointed in the direction of the Irish Heritage Centre. When I got there, I asked after Harry Potter, and received the only copy in the store, the one on display! Elated, I met back up with Maegan, and we grabbed lunch at this perfect carbon copy of Chipotle. We actually thought it might be the international version of the restaurant, but it was just a knock off. Still, the food was right on, down to the corn salsa, yum.

We finished our stay in Dublin by finishing the hop-on, hop-off tour, and then bonding with our Romanian and Argentinian hostel mates. Maegan had to get up at three am to catch her flight, and with the oppressive heat, we were beat early.