8.15.08 (Friday) _ Dublin

Friday, August 15^th

Forecast: 65/54 - 70% chance of Light Rain

This morning we were up by 7am and to the airport by 9am. At the airport, we had to go through passport control to get our passports stamped out of Sweden. After a short delay on the tarmac, we finally took off around 11am destined for Dublin, Ireland!

In Ireland, we went through passport control again and after a conversation with the guard about our last name and how if you add an E in the middle it would mean jail (or something like that) we had our passport stamped and were on our way. From the airport we took the Airlink Double Decker Bus (10€/pp roundtrip) into the city center. The ride lasted about half an hour. Entering the city we were quite surprised by the buildings and appearance of the area. In both of our minds we had pictured Dublin in a quite different way than what we saw. The city is much smaller than we had anticipated and some of the buildings looked a bit run down. However, we were not disappointed with the number of pubs that we saw.

The Airlink bus dropped us off a couple blocks from our hotel. During our stay in Dublin, we had a private double room at Kinlay Hostel. Our room was nice, with a view of a center courtyard. We did not have a TV in our room, but there were two TV rooms in the hostel as well as a lot of computers with free internet capabilities.

Once we organized our belongings into our room, we headed down the street to the Dublin Castle. The only way to tour the Castle is through a guided tour. Since we had about 20 minutes before the tour would start, we walked to the Dublhinn Gardens. The grass in this center garden was such a vivid green.

The tour of Dublin Castle started through the state apartments and then down to the undercroft which was discovered in 1986 after flooding hit the Dublin area. All of the castle’s chandeliers are made of Waterford Crystal and sparkle brilliantly in the light. The state apartments are still used today for government purposes. The current Irish President, Mary McAleese (Independent) uses the rooms on a regular basis and had a small concrete pathway lain in the cobblestone entrance so that her high heels would not get stuck in the cobblestone walkway making her fall.

After touring the State apartments, we went outside and under the arched walkway where a tax inspector wrote Dracula. Then, we went down a small staircase heading for the undercroft. This is where the city walls joined the Castle. The archway allowed smaller feeder boats to land provisions at the postern gate, from larger boats moored on the Liffey (the water that runs through the center of Dublin). The double archway and postern gate are still visible. Also displayed here is one of the view Viking walls that are still standing today. What makes the Viking walls so special is that, though Vikings were excellent warriors, they were not good at building walls. A key problem with their walls was the mortar they used. Vikings would build their walls using a mortar of ox blood, egg shells and horse hair – no wonder their walls never went straight up.

Dublin Castle is situated in the very heart of historic Dublin. In fact the city gets its name from the Dubh Linn or Black Pool (dubh = black), on the site of the present Castle Gardens and Coach House.

The Castle stands on the high ridge, the highest ground in the locality, at the junction of the River Liffey and its tributary the (now underground) Poddle, which formed a natural boundary on two sides. It is very probable that the original fortification on this easily defended strategic site was a Gaelic Ringfort, which guarded the harbor, the adjacent Dubhlinn Ecclesiastical Centre and the four long distant roads that converged nearby.

In the 930's, a Danish Viking Fortress stood on this site and part of the town defenses is on view at the Undercroft, where the facing stone revetments offered protection against the River Poddle. Their settlement of Dyflinn (a corruption of Dubhlinn) quickly became the main Viking military base and trading centre of slaves and silver, in Ireland. The Norwegian and sometimes Danish rulers had control of the Irish Sea and forayed deep into the centre of Ireland, where monasteries, with their precious ornaments and vessels, were easy targets. Eventually their power was broken, when they and their allies were heavily defeated by an Irish army under the command of King Brian Boru, at the Battle of Clontarft, 1014.

Neither the Irish nor the Vikings could withstand the Norman invasion of 1169. The Vikings were ejected and the Normans became the next occupiers of Dublin. They strengthened and expanded the existing town walls. It is assumed that their first fortification was an earth and wooden, motte and bailey, on the site of present day Dublin Castle. There is archaeological evidence of a wooden and stone castle there in the 1170's.

In August 1204, King John of England commanded the erection of a (larger) strong castle, with strong walls and good ditches, for the defense of the city, administration of justice and safe custody of treasure. It was completed by 1230 and the Great Courtyard (Upper Castle Yard) of today corresponds closely with the fortification.

In 1565, thirty years after Henry VIII brought the Reformation to Ireland, the new Lord Deputy Henry Sidney moved his household into Dublin Castle. From then on the Castle became the control centre for the vicious wars and religious persecution against the Irish Chieftains and the 'Old English' Catholics, many of whom were of Norman stock. By the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the whole island of Ireland had been conquered and new English landholding, political and social structures imposed.

Following the terror that accompanied the 1798 rebellion, the Irish parliament was extinguished, and its legislative powers transferred to London. The brass chandeliers in the Throne Room, of the Castle, commemorate this event - the Union of Great Britain and Ireland (1800). Dublin Castle's role as policy maker virtually ceased and the post of Viceroy degenerated to that of figurehead. The city lost its economic momentum and unemployment, poverty and population increased significantly.

The most important social period was the six festive weeks of the Castle's balls, levees and lavish dinners, which came to a climax on Saint Patrick's Day. The Castle was highly decorated for the duration. All staff were attired in state livery and all guests dressed in richly ornamented clothes and splendid uniforms. Unfortunately, this Viceregal entertainment continued undiminished throughout the Great Famine of 1845-1849 and the lavish life style of the privileged was unaffected by the destitution of two million people outside the gates.

The Easter Rebellion of 1916 marked the beginning of the end of British rule. The first fatality was a policeman named O'Brien, who attempted to shut the Cork Hill Gate on an advancing rebel party. The Guard House (the site of present day Castle Hall reception and dining facilities) was captured, but the advantage wasn't pressed home. The first rebel fatality was Captain Séan Connolly, who shortly before had shot Constable O'Brien. He was shot by army snipers, from the roof of Bedford Tower, as he raised the rebel flag on adjacent City Hall.

James Connolly, one of the two principal rebel leaders, had been crippled in the fighting. Following the general surrender, he was brought to the State Apartments and held for a week at the site of the present James Connolly Room. He was court marshaled and removed to Kilmainham Gaol where he was executed by firing squad. The series of executions of rebel leaders, which finished with Connolly's death, caused public anger to change to sympathy for the rebels and their cause. A vigorous guerrilla war, the 'War of Independence', got underway with public support.

On 6th December 1921, the Anglo Irish Treaty was signed by which twenty-six (of the thirty-two) counties of Ireland became the Irish Free State (now a Republic) - so ending seven and a half centuries of English colonial rule. The rebel military commander Michael Collins, arrived in the Upper Yard (the Great Courtyard) of Dublin Castle on 16th January 1922 and received the handover of the Castle, from the last Lord Lieutenant FitzAlan, on behalf of the new Irish Government. Remarkably, FitzAlan's coat of arms occupies the final available space in the Castle's Chapel Royal.

We are fortunate that Dublin Castle survived the subsequent Civil War, the transition to Irish nationhood and fall into disrepair. The site has been occupied over the ages and modified to suit its ever-changing functions. All the historic buildings have been restored and the Castle is now fully integrated into Irish society. It now plays host to European Union Presidencies, Heads of State, and leaders of business, industry and government.

After touring Dublin Castle we made our way to the back side of the Castle and into the Chester Beatty Library. Chester Beatty was born in New York in 1875 and after graduating as a mining engineer from Columbia he headed West to start in the mines. Beatty had a lot of success in the mining industry and later in life decided to move to London. The museum holds a collection of: Egyptian papyrus texts, beautifully illuminated copies of the Qur'an, the Bible, European medieval and renaissance manuscripts are among the highlights of the collection. Turkish and Persian miniatures and striking Buddhist paintings are also on display, as are Chinese dragon robes and Japanese woodblock prints. In its diversity, the collection captures much of the richness of human creative expression from about 2700 BC to the present day. The gallery was hosting a Rembrandt exhibit.

Since most places would be closing soon, we decided to just walk around the area for a bit. We walking to the North of the Liffey down Henry Street that is a pedestrian street that has a lot of stores and crowded walkways. We walked down this street until we got to the Spire on O’Connell Street. The Spire is the tallest monument (390ft). Also in this area we walked past the General Post Office (GPO). The building still has visible scars of bullet marks around the building from the rebellions. The GPO was built in 1818 and became a symbol of the 1916 Easter Rising. Members of the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army seized the building on Easter Monday and Patrick Pearse read out the Proclamation of the Irish Republic from its steps. Inside the building is a sculpture of the legendary Irish warrior Cuchulainn, dedicated to those who died for their part in the Easter Rising. Ireland was not considered independent from England until somewhere in the 1930’s and the countries history seems to be scattered with rebellions and uprisings against those who tried to dominate the area. Today though, Ireland is her own free republic, but they are also a country who is a member of the European Union.

As we were walking towards the Ha’Penny bridge to cross back to the other side of the Liffey, we heard a loud BANG. Almost like a bomb exploding, everyone on the sidewalk with us nervously looked around almost with a sense of panic. To our relief, it was just a tire exploding on a truck that was waiting at a red light just a few feet in front of us. After this ‘excitement’ we crossed the Ha’Penny bridge which is one of Dublin’s best known bridges. It was built in 1816 and was the first iron bridge in Ireland. The original name of the bridge was Liffey Bridge, but it is now called the Ha’penny because until 1919 to cross it there was a half-penny charge.

Back on the other side of the Liffey, we walked through Temple Bar for a bit before stopping in at Flannery’s for drinks. Jon ordered a Guinness and I had a Bulmer’s Cider. We enjoyed the relaxed, casual atmosphere that the pub afforded. Since we were enjoying the atmosphere so much, we decided to eat dinner there. Jon had a meal of breakfast meats and fries and I had the Beef and Guinness casserole. Both meals were good and very filling! Jon ate so much meat that he said “honk honk” (trying to sound like a pig – he forgot pigs say oink oink…hehehe).

Full, we walked ourselves back to our hotel room where we took a quick nap and within the hour we were back out on the town walking through Temple Bar. We found another pub where we sat and enjoyed our drinks and atmosphere for quite a bit longer before we headed back to our room to retire for the evening.

Unfortunately for us, our room was not quiet because it faced the center courtyard that had a patio that pub patrons at the pub at the side of the building could relax in. To make the situation worse for us, it was Karaoke night and most of the people could not sing at all! After showering, we were dreading how long the festivities would be going on, since it was only midnight. So, we went down to the reception to try to change rooms to another side of the building where it would be quieter. To our disappointment the reception clerk said that our room is the quietest in the building and that the music should stop within the hour. Sad, we went back to our room and tried to enjoy the music. But around 1:30ish the music died down and we were finally able to fall asleep!