The Dubliners - Part II

Waterford chandelier in the castle

I decided I had to split the Dublin adventures up into at least two posts.  There was an awful lot to see in this town, and we did spend quite a bit of time there.  I'm definitely keen for a return visit to Ireland, probably get out more into the country side next time though, maybe try and get across to the west coast area, that seemed quite a bit wilder.

Something we had to visit whilst we were there was the Dublin castle.  As far as castles go it wasn't super impressive, being squashed in quite a bit in the middle of the city.  It is impressively old though, a fort was first built here in the 13th century, and for seven centuries this was the seat of English rule.  The castle is still in use today, and the only way to view it is on a tour.  

The throne, Queen Elizabeth II did not sit here when she visited recently

Justice at Dublin castle

I think the people of Dublin have had a troublesome relationship with the castle, it being a symbol of English rule over them.  There have been a few atrocities committed here by the English as well, which perhaps doesn't help the situation.  This attitude between the English and Irish is perhaps well demonstrated by the below statue.  It is meant to be Justice, she is standing on the castle gateway, but she is positioned facing the castle, with her back towards the city.  And the locals long viewed that they would get no justice from the English.

Queen Elizabeth II was the first British monarch to visit the castle in 100 years, when she travelled to Ireland in 2011.  The last visit was by George V in 1911, though in the intervening period there had been a rebellion, independence and a civil war, so you can understand the reluctance.  

Mirrors so you could see all

The back of the castle, viewed from the Chester Beatty museum

Whilst we were waiting for our tour to start we decided to check out the Chester Beatty museum.  For anyone who loves books this is a must see, it was also named European Museum of the Year in 2002, and there's an awful lot of museums in Europe!  It was a bequest of the collection of American and mining magnate, Alfred Chester Beatty, who died in 1968.  During his lifetime Beatty had collected almost 300 copies of the Koran, there was also a 6,000 year old Babylonian stone tablets, as well as numerous east Asian scrolls.  Unfortunately no pictures were allowed, but the collection was definitely impressive.

Strange sand sculptures at Dublin castle

The ringing (or cacophony)

There's one thing Dublin is not in short supply of (apart from pubs) and that's churches.  It seems that most Christian denominations are represented here, with the Christ Church cathedral being the official church, being home to the Church of Ireland (which is basically the Church of England). Christ Church's is a lovely old building, it was first built by a Norse king, before being rebuilt in 1186.

They do a bell ringing tour every hour or so.  At first we thought it was just a way to get up to see the view from the bell tower.  But no it was an actual bell ringing tour, in that we got to ring the church bells.  But first we had to sit through a 30 minute talk by the head bell ringer.  I never knew there was so much to discuss regarding bells.  Apparently the big thing with bell ringers is to be able to ring the changes.  It was here that I finally learnt what this actually means.  When you have a set of tuned bells then you can ring them in a certain order, each order is called a change, once you have rung all possible combinations of the bells, only then can you say you have rung the changes.

Dave pretending to ring a bell

They do it once a year at the Christ Church cathedral and it takes a couple of hours to complete.  Fun times for the local residents.  The tour guide was certainly a passionate bell enthusiast, and it was kind of fun to be able to ring a church bell for once.

Dessicated cat and rat found in the bell tower

Pretty Christ Church cathedral

Campanile - a 30m bell tower

Another place that is a must visit on every tourists itinerary is Trinity College, particularly the Book of Kells.  Again this is a no-photo venue but the illumination of the manuscript is particularly stunning.  It was created in 806 AD by monks who were fled to Kells from Iona to escape Viking raids.  We turned up a little late and were hoping that we could stay as long as we wanted, but no, the book was shut at 5pm, so we had to follow the crowds around.  It also meant we didn't get to spend as long as we liked in the Trinity College library.  Trinity College was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I, Catholics were only allowed in any numbers after 1970, when the Catholic Church relaxed it's opposition to their attending.

St Patrick's church

Having visited Christ Church cathedral we thought it only fair that we also paid a visit to St Patrick's cathedral.  These two massive churches are literally 500 m apart, but serviced completely different groups of people.  St Patrick's church was more the people's church, it is Ireland's largest church and was founded beside a well where St Patrick is said to have baptised people in around 450 AD.  There's certainly a lot of stuff collected around the place, but I think I preferred Christ Church inside, the outside of St Patrick's was definitely prettier though.

The stone slab covering what was thought to be the well of St Patrick

Dave and the spire of St Patrick's

Can't get away from this guy here - St Patrick

Jameson whiskey - though this was only water

There is one church that I don't have any photos of, but I would recommend a visit purely for it's freaky factor.  This is St Michan's Church and is on the north side of the Liffey.  It is a rather boring looking church, but it's star attraction is what lies in it's crypts.  There are a number of bodies preserved due to the church's magnesium limestone walls.  Their caskets have cracked open and you can see perfectly preserved bodies, with hair and clothes still intact.  In one vault is said to be Hamilton's body, that vault is still in use by the family today, so definitely a no-go zone.  Their star mummy is the crusader knight, a giant man, they cut off his feet to fit him in the coffin.

Out final visit was also our most touristy - the Jamison whiskey distillery.  We had already been put off visiting the Guinness brewhouse and thought we had to try some of their famous whiskey.  It was OK, a very smooth operation, I just didn't really like their whiskey, and there were an awful lot of people crammed in on the tour.

I'll leave you with some final pictures of pretty Dublin

Grafton St, main shopping drag, in the early morning

Molly Malone, without the usual hordes of tourists, as it's before 10am

A canal in east Dublin

Georgian terraces

Distractions

The Grove, Narberth

I know the posting has been pretty light on here over the last month or so.  Dave and I have been busy organising something super special for later in the year.  The location of our super special event is a hotel in Narberth, which is a tiny little village in the south-eastern corner of Wales.  We paid a visit a little while ago to check it out and it didn't disappoint.

I know there aren't many photos here, but we'd tried their tasting menu the night before, and I had over-indulged on their awesome wines.  The waiter there was a massive wine buff and so when I said I was just drinking by the glass and that I was happy with whatever he recommended, he went a bit crazy, in a good way.  Though my body was not thanking me the next morning.  It also meant I missed out on my wonderful boiled duck's eggs.  At least Dave could polish them off.

The view out of our bedroom window

The library and the rolling hills beyond

We did at least make it to the coast that day.  It is about a 20 minute drive away and the weather was fantastic, if only it had been about 20 degrees warmer that water would have looked mighty inviting.  Apparently Pembrokeshire has a heap of beaches that have won blue and green flag awards.  At first I thought perhaps it meant they were really pretty, but upon closer inspection it means that the beaches aren't full of sewerage and chemical waste (obviously it means more than that for those people contemplating a swim :) )

Dave at Saundersfoot, with the sea monster off in the distance

The coast at Saundersfoot, beautiful day, lets hope summer is like this

 I'm loving the Welsh accent too, we stopped in Swansea to pick up a hire car and I was happy wandering around the city just trying to eavesdrop on people's voices.  It seems that they don't get that many visitors from the rest of the UK in Wales either.  A lot of people I've spoken to in London had never been, though it is a three hour train from London to Swansea, which is a massive trip for Europeans.  Even inside Wales it seems that they don't really travel that far, I find that a bit strange as the part we saw, Pembrokeshire, looked really lovely.  When we were picking up our hire car and saying that we were going to Narberth, even the Welsh guy serving us had never been there.

Back in Swansea, with the Swansea castle

Fountain in Swansea

Tate Britain

The quiet streets of Pimlico

I have visited London many times before coming here to live.  I have also visited the Tate Modern many times, never once realising it is actually an offshoot of the Tate Britain.  Having realised the error of my ways a trip out to Pimlico was in order.  It is always fun to take a tube somewhere you haven't been before.  You really find that the different areas of London very much have their own particular feel.  Pimlico was particularly quiet, it's located near the Thames.  It's funny that on the south bank of the Thames there seems to be a bit of life and action, what with the Globe, the National Theatre, the London Eye and a lot of restaurants as well.  On the north bank it seems very quiet in comparison, it's funny that there seem to be so few restaurants or bars overlooking the Thames, I always thought people love water, that it's some sort of deep-seated evolutionary need in us to be close to water.

The impressive Tate Britain

There was going to be no restaurant stops after the museum, so it's time to just focus on the art.  It's a massive gallery, and like all galleries here it's wonderfully free.  It houses the world's biggest collection of British art from the 16th to the 21st century.  And whilst the modern art collection of the Tate has been moved to the Tate Modern, there was still a number of modern art pieces here.  In fact I think the modern art in the Tate Britain could have been better than that of the Tate Modern.

The title says it all really

The real selling point of the Tate Britain is the Turner galleries.  A lot of the works were left by Turner himself in 1851, and they really are the feature of this gallery.  Kind of like the impressionists gallery in the Musee d'Orsay of Paris.  Unfortunately this gallery was under renovation when we visited, and whilst a lot of the works were still on display, some of the ambience seemed to be lacking.

I love the galleries here, with included art

This was my favourite statue, with one of my favourite paintings in the background

A chandelier - why not

Palm trees as installation art

The Coral Reef : a room 

I have to say something about this last work.  It's called The Coral Reef and it's by Mike Nelson.  In fact we may have been very lucky to even see it as I think it may have finished at the end of last year, after 10 years at the Tate Britain.  It's this weird labyrinth of rooms, where the doors all close at different rates, and different creaking frequencies.  It gives you a real sense of foreboding as you walk through, that you might be lost, or that eventually you'll open a door to see a crazed serial killer.  It's the feeling you get from a good horror movie, there's nothing overt, it's just this feeling you have.  It would be awesome to have a massive mansion, just so you could devote 5 rooms of the place to these crazy art installations.

Another room from The Coral Reef, there were too many to count

Flying bunny in the main gallery

Hampstead Heath by Constable

I think Constable may have to be one of the more famous residents of Hampstead, and whilst he was living here he painted many scenes of the Heath.  I have to say I don't recognise the location though.

Dubliners - Part I

Flowers in Merrion Square Gardens

I've finally found the rest of my Dublin photos, and in doing so have also learned a valuable Lightroom lesson.  Never move your photos around external to Lightroom, if you want to rearrange the location, create new folders, move photos etc. do it within Lightroom itself.  Otherwise you are just setting yourself up for a world of pain!

So Dublin, it's a funny old place.  Ireland is still very much a young country, formed only 100 years ago, as an independent nation it has certainly struggled a bit under the yoke of English rule.  I think the

Oscar Wilde in Merrion Square - you can't escape him here!

thing which left Ireland open to occupation was that it never really seemed to unite under a single ruler, there were always separate clans fighting each other for land and power and they were never slow to bring in outsiders to provide extra muscle.  Ireland really does have a fascinating history, a book we read on it, which I recommend, is the Story of Ireland by Neil Hegarty.  It is a comprehensive description of Ireland from 400 AD through to present-day.  I found it really good as someone who basically knew nothing about Irish history, though he perhaps rushes a bit through the last century.

Homeless person sculpture in St Stephens green

Statue in Merrion Square Gardens

It seems that everyone in Ireland has an opinion on their history, which must make it really hard to write an unbiased book.  Whilst in Dublin we did a walking tour on the 1916 revolution, which was perhaps aimed at people who knew more history than us.  The tour guide must have a tough job though as walking the streets talking means everyone hears what he is saying and pull him up on it if they happen to disagree.  He was talking about Wolfe Tone, who actually seemed like he didn't really do much, though he has a massive statue in the main gardens, they call it Tone-Henge, which is the photo above.  This random passerby interrupted the tour simply to reiterate the point that Wolfe Tone was a hero and courageous.  I would certainly say he didn't lack courage.

Tone was again someone of the belief that Irish independence would only be achieved through armed resistance and was part of the very short-lived 1798 resistance.  I think about 80 people rose up in Dublin, attempting to take over the city.  Tone was captured and committed suicide in prison.  The thing with Wolfe Tone was that he was a protestant, fighting for Catholic emancipation, so it certainly wasn't true that the protestants and catholics were always at each others throats.  That came later, following atrocities on both the English and Irish sides.

Dave alongside the Liffey

You gotta photo the doors here 

One thing I noticed walking through Dublin and seeing the different monuments to the famous people is that the majority of them seemed to be people aged in their twenties when they died.  I guess people didn't live as long back then, but it seemed interesting that the history was shaped so much by these very young people, and it also happened to be violent, whether there is a correlation I'm not sure.  But I know when I was 22 I wouldn't say I had much of an idea as to good governance and the best way to achieve it through politics.  I think at that age the easiest and quickest way does seem to be revolution, you want what you want, now.  I'm not saying that youth can never achieve anything, just sometimes perhaps they need older people to help guide them, though perhaps that's the voice of an old person speaking :).

Newly greened letter box

Back to the walking tour, the 1916 was again a very short-lived revolution, which was harshly dealt with by the English.  But at least it seemed to set the stage for the final act of rebellion which led to their independence in 1921, and then quite quickly to civil war after that. Perhaps that was always going to happen though, what with the many attempted revolutions prior to independence.

One interesting point the tour guide made was that following Irish independence they didn't go around blowing up the relics of British rule.  The only act they did as a sign of their new-found freedom was they painted all the letterboxes green.

Dublin is a really pretty city, I would recommend a visit on that alone.  The streets in the south-eastern

You can buy postcards of Dublin's doors

quarter were these wonderful old Georgian terraces.  One of the houses had been turned into a

The rotunda - the entrance to the National Museum.  Based off a museum in Berlin

Georgian house museum by the electricity board.  Though this was really an act of penance on their

A bog body, got munched by a tractor so only the top half survived

part, having ripped out almost an entire city block worth of these old houses to put up a 1950's style concrete office block.  We actually saw a play the other night, Juno and the Peacock, at the National Theatre.  As an aside it seems that the National Theatre is going through a bit of an Irish phase, in that the only two plays we have seen there were Irish.  Anyway this play was written in the late 1930's and was set in one of these Dublin Georgian mansions, after the civil war, when many families were living in these houses.  It was funny to see the life cycle of this part of Dublin, from mansion, to slum and now to housing small businesses.

The area around the castle in the south-west is full of the old lane ways and old buildings.  Which is quite attractive in it's own way.  Though it is around here that you get the sense that the GFC is hitting Ireland harder than London.  The area north of the Liffey is not so attractive, having a more industrial feel.  But then we didn't spend much time over the river at all.

Three-faced stone carving from 0-100AD

One of the best places we visited had to have been the National Museum of Archaeology, again I would say perhaps go to Dublin just for this!  The artifacts there were amazing, it seemed that the golden age of Ireland was really the neolithic and dark ages, and the things from that time were incredible.  We even went back to this museum twice it was that fantastic.  It is not that big either, but everything there is stunning, no filler at this museum.  It also seemed that the British Museum hadn't pillaged this area so they still had all their winners.  

In particular there were a lot of bog bodies, and they were all incredibly conserved.  There was also an awful lot of gold jewellery and artifacts.  

Bronze horn from 1 BC, the craftsmanship is amazing

It's hard to imagine nowadays, what with the UK being completely pillaged of it's natural resources, that there used to be so much gold just lying around.  Some of the necklaces were these massive, twisted gold chains, torcs they call them.

Cross of Cong made in 1123 to encase a fragment of the true cross

The ceiling was something else here.

We also saw the old Irish parliament, which was the first purpose built parliament in Europe, though now it is the Bank of Ireland.  It was built in 1739, but the Irish parliament was dissolved by the British in 1800 and the Irish parliamentarians were forced to go to Westminster.  At the time though parliamentarians at Westminster had to swear an allegiance to the Church of England, which made things difficult for the Catholic MPs from Ireland.  Whilst the House of Commons was removed at the command of the British, the House of Lords still remains, with it's wonderful ceiling.

The senate table with amazing tapestries

Samuel Beckett

We then had a slightly strange interlude where we visited the National Wax museum.  This place started out well, with a collection of famous Irish people, then we go through a bit of the Irish history, the major players and events surrounding them.  There was also an interesting section on Irish mythology, but it then got a bit weird, with the house of horrors.

Oscar Wilde, of course

The Norse invaders

Irish mythology

Effects of the Irish famine

Now it starts to get weird

Even stranger - popes in the stairwell

Pheasant? Don't Mind if I Do

My whole pheasant, yum yum

Doing our weekly shop at the local waitrose we spotted pheasant sitting alongside the steak and roasts.  I'm talking whole birds sitting in their plastic dish, covered in bacon, as if it's an everyday type meal.  Now I haven't been in England long enough to be able to just blithely walk on by when there's pheasant on offer, and after seeing they were only 5 pounds each, we knew we had found our dinner for that evening.  Throw in some brussel sprouts with pancetta and a bit of roast veg, and we were pretty set.  It was certainly wild pheasant too, as halfway through I found some shot in the wing.  I think a whole pheasant each was too much though, next time I think a half would be plenty.  Delicious!

Careful of the bullets