Ireland - (Feb 16-23) - Day 8 - Dublin

For our final full day we decided to go full circle and head into Dublin.  We started there but went straight to the camper van hire and so never got to look around.  The camper company offered to let us spend the final night in their locked up yard so we could be out early for our flight the next day.  So we left Camac pretty early after cleaning out the van and headed to the camper company on the suburbs of Dublin.  Once we were parked we caught the bus into town.

One of the many Hop-On-Hop-Off buses in Dublin (and not the one we went with - we chose the red one)

As with Belfast, we started at City Hall.  The City Hall was built in 1769 and originally was the Royal Exchange.  It also served as a garrison for the Irish army during the 1916 Easter rising.

City Hall

We also passed the Chariot of Life Fountain on our way in.  It was built by Oisin Kelly in 1977 and unveiled in 1982, the year after Kelly died.  It is said to show a charioteer representing reason controlling emotions.  Unfortunately Reason had a huge splat of bird poo across its face:

Chariot of Life

The first stop on our bus tour was The Custom House, built in the late 1700s it was situation at the site of Dublin's main port.  Eventually the port moved further down river and so the building was used to house the Irish local Government.  It was burnt down in the War of Independence in 1921 by the IRA and was repaired and rebuilt after later using a different limestone.

Custom House

Rear of the Custom House

The Custom House was visible from a fair way down river

Urn and statues atop the Customs House

As we traveled along the River Liffey we passed the Famine Memorial - a series of amazingly detailed statues of starving people heading down river to the boats that were handing out the small amount of available food.  We didn't get  great pictures as we were driving past, but I'd recommend looking up Dublin famine memorial statues on google to see the details.

The famine occurred in the mid-1800s and over 1 million people died of starvation (approx a quater of Ireland's population).  It's believed that the famine was caused by a potato-blight that destroyed potato crops throughout Europe.  This was particularly devastating in Ireland where potatoes were the main food for a third of the population.  The famine was further worsened by political, social and economic factors:

Famine memorial statues

Just after the statues was the Tall Ship Jeanie Johnston, famous for crossing the Atlantic Ocean 16 times to take over 2,500 migrants to North America during the time of the famine.  Unlike other ships of the time, no migrants were lost during the travels, due to good conditions aboard and the presence of a ship's doctor:

Jeanie Johnston

We then crossed the Samuel Becket Bridge, named after Irish writer Samuel Beckett (1906-1989). The bridge was designed to look like a hard lying on its edge.  This is probably a good time to mention the presence of the harp as the emblem of Ireland - Even since the 13th century the harp was a symbol of Ireland, being an important social aspect of Irish life.  The Irish harp is known as the 'O'Neill' or 'Brian Boru' harp.  The Guinness company started using the harp as their logo:

The Guinness Harp

and trademarked it in 1876.

When Ireland's Free State Government took over in 1922, they wanted to use the harp as the emblem of the Irish State, but Guinness had it trademarked.  They asked Guinness for permission to use the harp and were granted it, on the condition that they reversed the way the harp was facing so it wouldn't be confused with the Guinness logo:

The Guinness harp vs the Irish Harp

Anyway, more about Guinness later, here's the harp-like Samuel Beckett bridge:

Samuel Beckett Bridge

Next to the bridge was the Convention Center, built in 2010.  It was the first carbon-neutral convention center in the world, but more importantly it was designed so that the glass center is exactly at the correct angle for pouring the perfect glass of Guinness:

Dublin Convention Center

Next we passed the National Gallery of Ireland, built in 1854 and housing many famous works of art:

National Gallery

Next we passed Merrion Square (Cearnóg Mhuirfean), a square laid out in 1762 and home to a statue of Oscar Wilde, who lived in 1 Merrion Square from 1855 to 1876:

Oscar Wilde

The statue is politically incorrectly nicknamed "The Queer With the Leer")

  We then passed the Dublin National History Museum, nicknamed "The Dead Zoo" due to its collection of taxidermy animals:

The Dead Zoo

Our next landmarks were the Government Buildings:

Government Buildings

and then the Bank of Ireland and College Green

The Bank or Ireland former headquarters (now just a bank branch) is in part of the Government Buildings, the former Parliament house.  The buildings windows are bricked up because of high glass/window tax back in the 1700s and have never been replaced.  It was also one of the design inspirations for the US Capitol Building. To make it cooler, it even has a cannon - that's a perfect way to deter robbers.

College Green is a plaza between the Bank of Ireland and Trinity College Dublin:

College Green and Bank of Ireland

Trinity College

Bank of Ireland

Note the lack of windows

Side view - including the cannon (to the right of the rightmost thick main pillar)

Our next landmark was amazing, The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity - or Christ Church Cathedral.  it was founded in 1030 and was massive!

Top down view from googlemaps (scale can be seen by the cars in the picture)

The cathedral consists of the Tomb of Strongbow, and the Tomb of Bishop Lindsay as well as multiple (4) chapels, a Chapter House, Library, Choir and Baptistery:

View of Christ Church from the east (the right side of the picture above)

View from South East

The west side of the church with Dublina (a viking exhibit building) on the left of the shot (the towered building)

The main Cathedral (west side) from the front

Flying Buttresses on the cathderal

This was closely followed by Saint Patrick's Cathedral, the tallest and largest church in Dublin, with a 43m spire.  This made Dublin one of the few (if not only) cities in the world with two cathedrals.  Jonathon Swift, the author of Gulliver's Travels was Dean of the cathedral from 1713-1745.

The cathedral was in need of major reconstruction work in the 1800s, so  Benjamin Guinness (the grandson of Arthur Guinness, who founded the Guinness brewery) paid for the renovations.  His son, Arthur, also donated a stained glass window with the motto "I was thirsty and ye gave me drink" (a bible quote- Matthew 25:35 - but slightly ironic coming from a famous brewer of Guinness).

St Patrick's Cathedral

Statue of Arthur Guinness

We then moved on from churches to the two major places of worship in Dublin - the whiskey and Guinness districts.

First up came the Teelings Distillery.  This was a new distillery, founded in 2015,  but with a sense of history.  It was the first new distillery to open up in Dublin in 125 years and also it is built in the former famous distillery area of town.

In 1875 the district was filled with distilleries, until a fire started at Reid's malt house and Malone's bonded warehouse.  The fire ripped through The Liberties (housing rows originally outside the city walls - thus providing more liberty from city rules) and 1800 barrels worth of whiskey and £2000 of malt poured down the streets on fire.  The flames spread rapidly and were almost impossible to extinguish (water doesn't work well on alcohol fires).  In order to fight the fire, the fire brigade broke up streets and shoveled in sand and manure to try to create firebreaks.  No-one was killed by the flames, but in true Irish style it is believed that 5-13 people died of alcohol poisoning from drinking too much of the flowing (and often burning) whiskey.

Teeling's Distillery

We then moved on to the towns true love - the Guinness brewery.   The Guinness storehouse was opened in 2000 at the St James Gate Brewery and is a seven floor exhibition.  The storehouse itself was built in 1902 as a fermentation house for the brewery.

Guinness itself was developed by Arthur Guinness (1725-1803) who started brewing ale at the St James Gate Brewery in 1759.  he started with a drink called Porter based on a dark beer brew, calling it Double Stout (with stout referring initially to the strength of the beer).  In 1759 Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease on the land for the Brewery, agreeing to pay £45 a year for the lease.  By 1886 Guinness was shipping 1,138,000 barrels a year and now produces 50.7 million barrels (or 82.9 million hectolitres - Hl is 100L).  The site consisted of its own hospital for staff as well as vadrious other recreation areas:

Looking down the side of the Storehouse to the tanks

St James's Gate Brewery

Brewing tanks visible over the walls

More tanks and a converted church

Brewery gates and yet more tanks

View from over the river

Guinness brewery

Another delivery on the way

After the brewery we headed past the Kilmainham Gaol, built in 1796 the gaol housed and (executed) the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising and held hangings on the hill outside the gaol.  The prison did not segregate men, women or children and was known for its poor conditions:

Kilmainham Gaol

While I was not much of a Guinness drinker, the next stop did excite me, the Jameson Irish Whiskey Distillery:

Jameson's

Old Whiskey Still

Unfortunately the low light ruined this shot of the barrels aging

Different bottles of Jameson through the ages

A very cool (and only slightly tacky) Jameson Bottle Chandelier

My official Whiskey taster certificate

Our nest stop was Phoenix Park, a 1,750 acre park (one of the largest enclosed parks in a European capital city - with 11km perimeter fencing).  It also houses the Wellington Monument, a 62m tall obelisk (the largest obelisk in Europe) commemorating Wellingtons victory over Napoleon:

The Obelisk is visible from the city, even though the park is 2-4km west of city centre

The Obelisk

We then passed the Croppies Acre Memorial Park.  A croppy was a reference top cropped hair, which was the opposite of the powdered wigs worn by the aristocrats - hence croppies were anti aristocratic.  The park memorializes the revolutionaries that formed the republican movement in Ireland:

Croppies Acre Memorial Park

At the end of the park was the Anna Livia statue, created in 1988 it was formerly located on O'Connell Street but spent from 2001-2011 in storage to make room for the Spire of Dublin (otherwise known as the "Stiletto in Ghetto", "The Binge Syringe", "The Nail in the Pale", "The Pin in the Bin", "The Stiffy at the Liffey" or "The Erection in the Intersection") before being refurbished and reinstalled in the Croppies park.

It is also known by many, not terrible appropriate names, like the Floozie in the Jacuzzi, The Bitch in the Ditch, the Skank in the Tank or the Hoor (whore) in the Sewer, Bidet Mulligan (a play on the traditional song Biddy Mulligan) and Viagra Falls.

Anna Livia

Floozie in the Jacuzzi

Our final main sight was the Ha'penny Bridge, was built in 1816 over the River Liffey to replace the ferries over the river.  It was named Ha'penny Bridge as crossing it cost a toll of a half penny (until 1919).

Ha'Penny Bridge

Here's a few more random shots from around Dublin from our collection:

Coat of Arms outside the Four Courts

Viking boat sculpture commemorating that Dublin was original a viking city

Gargoyle on a wall

Coats of Arms on Grafton Street

Bronze doors on the New Ireland Assurance Building

At the end of the tour we had dinner in Dublin and then headed back to the camper.  We had a final night sleeping in the carpark and then were shuttled to the airport in the morning.  We got all the way into security with plenty of time to go, when Alana realised that she didn't have her iPad.  I called the camper company and they went to look to see if it was left in the shuttle van, but since I was between the security gates and the scanners I was told to get off my phone.  I called them again when we got through but they weren't able to find it.  Kris suggested that she may have left it at the checkout counter so the two of them got a security escort back to the counter where they managed to recover it.  So all was good, except (in a flashback to the start of our trip) we now had a 15 minute walk to the gates and the flight was already getting ready to board.  Somehow we got there in time and after a two hour flight we were back in Copenhagen, ready to cross the bridge back to Malmö.

Day 8 Drive

Distance driven - Day 8: 30km
Total Distance: 1660km