Matt and Mum Do Ireland, Part 9

PART NINE: The Heart and Soul of The Republic

2016-04-05 to 2016-04-09

Dublin's Spire reaches to the heavens.

Well, it had been a pretty full on five weeks, touring around Ireland and Scotland. And what better place to finish off for the last few days than in the well-known capital of the Republic of Ireland: a city with a history almost as long as Ireland itself, Dublin.

Our accommodation: Durban Residence.

After flying back from our time in Edinburgh, we arrived to Dublin airport around 4pm on Monday 5th April. There's a few options for getting into the city from the airport. We opted for the standard public bus, taking the number 16 which goes straight down Dublin's main artery, O'Connell Street. The ride took a little over an hour, but this was likely due to the peak hour traffic more than anything. Alighting just in front of the GPO, we walked to our hotel, Durban Residence on Gardiner Street Lower. The guys running the place were very friendly on arrival, and the room, while snug, was quite nice.

We visited the pub directly across the street from our hotel, O'Shea's, for an evening meal and a drink. I'd only had it once throughout this entire trip, so I though it was about time I had another go at the Bacon & Cabbage - you can't go wrong with thick slabs of pork in a creamy sauce!

Our local watering hole, right across the street from our hotel.

Good old Bacon & Cabbage!

The next morning, we enjoyed a very nice included continental breakfast at the hotel. Cereals, yoghurt, toast and toppings, coffee and juice. A great way to wake up and set yourself up for the day.

A nice array of breakfast options at Durban Residence.

We planned a route across Dublin, with our first planned stop for the day being Kilmainham Gaol. Originating from the early years of Dublin itself, the Gaol has gone through many phases and renovations over several hundred years. However, the most notable events at this Gaol relate to the Easter Rising in 1916, when seven ordinary Irishmen rebelled against British Rule and took control of Dublin for the best part of a week. While the rebellion essentially failed at the time, it was the events that followed that started Ireland on the road to Independence. The leaders and several others were imprisoned at Kilmainham Gaol and, by the middle of May, all had been executed by firing squad. It was these executions that started to change the minds of the general Irish population and eventually led to the War of Independence and the eventual split from the UK. A tour around the Gaol takes you through all the main areas and past some of the cells where the more famous prisoners were housed. It was a fascinating tour, and very much worth a visit - but get there early, or be prepared to wait!

A look into life inside Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin.

The newer, East Wing of the Gaol.

On these spots in 1916, more than a dozen freedom fighters were put to death.

From the Gaol, we walked to one of Dublin's biggest tourist attractions: the Guinness Storehouse. With the delicious Guinness stout brewed on site, the Storehouse is a 7-storey building shaped like a big Guinness pint glass (but you can't really see that) which takes you through the the story of Guinness, from brewing and history to advertising and brand evolution to learning how to properly taste the black stuff. Finally, at the top, you can enjoy the panoramic views over about 270° of Dublin city while sipping on your complimentary pint of Guinness. Delicious!

Mum eyes off some tasty Guinness at the "how to taste a Guinness" class at the Storehouse.

Those crazy folks at Guinness somehow worked out this would be a good advertising medium. He pedals, too!

Sliánte! A free pint of the black stuff at the top of the Storehouse.

After Guinness, we walked down to the Temple Bar area, just to the south of the River Liffey. Famous for its restaurants and nightlife, Temple Bar is the place to go for a good feed or a bit of entertainment. Continuing our trend of hunting down tasty Irish pub food, we found ourselves in front of Quays Irish Restaurant. There were a couple of different dishes on offer here compared to what we had seen around the rest of Ireland. I decided to go with the Traditional Dublin Coddle - essentially Bangers & Mash served with Irish Stew. Two for the price of one! And it was a good choice, because it was fantastically tasty.

Dublin Coddle, as served up by Quay Irish Restaurant.

The next morning, it was time to visit my version of Mecca: the birthplace of Jameson Irish Whiskey, the Old Jameson Distillery! I have actually visited here on my previous trip to Dublin in 2011. Back then, I put my hand up at the start of the tour to volunteer for what turned out to be a tasting panel: tasting the differences between Jameson, Scottish whisky and American Whisky. This resulted in being awarded a certificate qualifying me as an official Jameson taster. However, since then, the tour has changed so that, now, everyone gets to do the tasting and is awarded the certificate (via email). We'd visited a total of 6 distilleries over the 6 weeks, and learnt quite a bit. It was great to finish up at the original home of one of my favourites!

Ahhh! The home of Jameson!

Whiskey at 11am? Don't mind if I do!

We crossed over the river and found our way to Dublin Castle. With the tour here included on our Heritage Card, we signed up for the 12pm group. Taking in three main sections of the Castle, our guide threw a huge amount of information at us in a very short period of time. It was like an extremely intense history lesson. Including a tour through the base of one of the original corner towers (underground); a look inside the (now, de-consecrated) chapel; and finally a walk around the second floor of the main castle residence where official matters of state still take place today.

The base of the Powder Tower at Dublin Castle.

The steps through which Dublin Castle could be accessed directly from the moat... if the guard liked you.

Dublin Castle's chapel.

St. Patrick's Hall inside Dublin Castle.

Just to the east of the Castle, you can find Trinity College. You can take a tour around the grounds of the College with an active student of the campus; ours was very entertaining as well as informative. However, the main attraction of Trinity College is the infamous Book Of Kells. Reputed as being the oldest surviving book in existence, the book was written by monks on the island of Iona around 800AD. The display rooms leading up to the actual book have a wealth of information about old books and writing styles, as well as the study of how they made these books and what they were writing about (spoiler alert: it's mostly bible-related!). The display can be visited separately without the tour of the College, but at €11 for only the Book and €13 including the tour, you might as well do both (or neither, if it doesn't really interest you!).

Trinity College.

The Long Room library at Trinity College.

We stopped off in Temple Bar again for another meal, this time at Gogarty's. On arrival, there was an old fella going all out with the traditional Irish songs, so that was great to hear. I was served up with the Chicken Hibernia, which was a fragrant and mildly spicy chicken curry. While that doesn't sound very Irish, the name Hibernia comes from Irish folklore, so I suppose the dish must be a little bit traditional! In any case, it was very good. After lunch, we retired to the hotel for a rest, planning to head out in the evening, but when the rain rolled in, we ended up staying in for the evening.

A little Irish folk music from this wee old fella.

Chicken Hibernia at Gogarty's.

Dugout canoe, 15m long from a single tree.

Our final full day in Ireland was a relatively relaxed one. We had basically seen all the stuff we wanted to see. We started the day by jumping on the #14 bus to the south of Dublin. As I have mentioned in other posts, Mum has been studying archaeology and history at university, and through this process, she got into mapping her family history which originates in Ireland. We paid a visit to the Church of Ireland Representative Church Body Library to see if we could find some records of her great-great-grandfather's marriage and birth to help in the mapping. We found the first, but unfortunately not the second. But it was pretty cool to be looking over some records that were actually written down some 200 years ago.

Taking the same bus back into town, we got off near St. Stephen's Green and walked to the National Museum of Ireland (Archaeology). For free entry, you can wander through 10 different exhibits that detail the long history of Ireland through an extensive range of artefacts. Thousands of pieces of jewellery, cooking and storage implements, spears and swords and many, many more examples have been uncovered from Ireland bogs over the years. We had a good look through most of the exhibits, including the boat seen below: a carved-out single pieces of tree trunk that is 15 metres long. Imagine being the archaeologists to dig this up!

Fisherman's Pie for lunch at Bruxelles.

With the past 6 weeks really starting to catch up with us, we were keen to have a bit of a rest in the afternoon, so we chilled at the hotel for a while before heading over to our local pub, O'Shea's for an evening farewell to Ireland.

Decadent desserts were a perfect way to sign off from 6 weeks in Ireland and Scotland.