On to Dublin

We left Cork and traveled to Dublin via Waterford and County Wicklow. We stopped at the Waterford factory for some quick shopping, stopped at Cobh,  and then cruised through the garden of Ireland, County Wicklow. We saw a number of small towns we have put on our list for the next trip and finally made our way to Dublin, where we quickly dumped the car and prepared to be city people for a few days. As city people we did lots and lots of walking. We checked out the shopping on Grafton Street and then took several walking tours (heartily recommended). our first was a history tour of Dublin by a graduate student of history at Trinity. He truly had the gift of gab and we enjoyed the 2 hours of Irish and Dublin history. We also went on the Easter Uprising tour, which was a highlight of our trip. We met at a pub off of Grafton street, got a pint and retired to the basement where Malachy, our guide, started off with some history of the uprising. We then took off for a walking tour of Dublin, hitting the places where significant encounters occurred. One interesting fact Malachy told us was that Dublin was a predominately Protestant city but tolerated Catholics. He pointed out a Catholic church hidden in plain view, explaining that the Catholics didn’t want to bring attention to themselves. He mentioed another similar church off Grafton Street. We ended up at the Post Office and Malachy recommended that we visit Kilmainham Gaol.

In Gaol

When we got toKilmainham Gaol we were given timed tickets. Since our time was more than an hour away and we hadn’t had lunch we popped into a local pub to grad a bite. One old fellow at the bar regaled us with stories of the owners, staff and most of the others at the bar. After a good story and some lunch we went back to experience the gaol.  I recommend this tour to anyone who has an interest in Irish history and the tour continued the story of the Easter Uprising well.

Irish flag at kilmainham gaol

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