Dublin, Ireland - 04/06/17

"The Obedience of the citizens produces a happy city"

We arrived at the capital of Ireland, Dublin, what is strange, since Belfast also was? Quickly enough did we learn that Ireland is divided in Northern Ireland, with Belfast being recognized as capital, and Republic of Ireland, whose capital is Dublin. Most of the north portion of the country identified themselves as UK and not Irish, and were mostly Protestant/Anglican, while those from the south were predominantly Roman Catholic, being finally separated in 1998 in the Good Friday Agreement. We will try to learn more about these events which shaped the country, which were called 'The Troubles'.

Dublin used to be a walled city, and was much smaller in the medieval age. The site was founded as a viking settlement, and was invaded by Normans by 1169 and expanded rapidly from the 17th century onwards.
The city is listed as a Global city, with an Alpha- ranking, staying among the top 30 cities in the world, what is no small feat when you consider the over 4037 cities with more than 100.000 inhabitants in the world.
Dublin is the economic capital of Ireland, being listed in 2009 as the fourth richest city by purchasing power and 10th by personal income. By this information one could conclude that the cost of living in Dublin was also very high, but fortunately that is not the case. Dublin ranks 58 in Mercer's Worldwide Cost of Living survey and 13th in Most Expensive City in the European Union.
Many technology companies, such as; Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Ebay, Paypal, Yahoo!, Facebook and Twitter, have their European headquarters based in Dublin, as well as International financial firms; banks and insurance companies.
On the cultural side, Dublin is also very rich, producing several writers and musicians of international success, including the writers; Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, William Butler Yeats, James Joyce and many others, in honor of the unlisted names, we are visiting the writers museum in Dublin. As for bands, the following were born here; The Dubliners, Thin Lizzy, U2, Boomtown rats, The Script among others (full list here)

Although we don't drink alcohol, because we are too self conscious and responsible (☺), we are pretty excited to learn that the Guinness Beer was created here, back in 1759, by Arthur Guinness. Today there is a kind of museum showing the brewery's history and the brewing processes, called Guinness Storehouse.

Interesting Facts:

• Guinness Brewery was founded in Dublin, in 1759 by Arthur Guinness.
• Dublin City University is the oldest university in Ireland.
• Dublin was European Capital of Culture in 2012

The stops are a bit farther away here in Ireland, an average of 100 miles each, but we won't let that stop us. We got here in 4 days.

We arrived by O'Connell street, following the unmissable sight of the Monument of Light, a 120m (390ft) stainless steel spire, which was shining brightly like a giant light saber. Taking quite an unusual route through the city.
The spire was completed in 2003 by a design from Ian Richte architects and manufactured by Radley Engineering from Durgavan.



Since being founded in 1759 the company has grown to be the largest brewery in the world, by 1886, though it no longer is.That was one of the first things we learned at Guinness Storehouse in James Gate.
Guinness remains the best selling alcoholic drink in Ireland, selling many varieties of beer, around 10 in fact, being: Drought, Stout, Harp Lager, Guinness Original and other types of beer.
The exhibition takes place over 7 floors, in the shape of a glass of Guinness (14 million pints, in size) on the final floor, called Gravity Bar, it has an almost 360° panorama over the city.
This visit was very strange to us, since we don't drink. On the last floor they were offering pints of 'the black stuff' and there were people drinking everywhere, it's mind boggling the amount of people willing to change their mental and psychological functions and be under the influence of harmful external substances.
After learning about the city's heritage at Guinness Storagehouse, we headed to a library.
For some reason, being at such a place provoked philosophical thoughts in us and we ended up with an insatiable thirst for knowledge.

We arrived at National Library of Ireland after a 1.8 mile walk.
NLI is a reference library, what is fine with us, since we are just passersby.
It was established in 1877 by the Dublin Science and Art Museum act.
We hoped to find collections from Dublin writers, but it turned out that the National Library's collection was incomplete. Not because it is small or expendable, far from that, it has millions of Irish content, including documents magazines and genealogy services, but because there is another building in Dublin which focuses on writers from Dublin. We are heading there now.

Our adventure took us to Dublin Writers Museum at Parnell Square, 1.1 miles from the library.

Dublin Writers Museum was opened in 1991 in an original 18th century house. The museum is composed of exhibition rooms, a library, galleries and an administration area. Though it has annexes both behind and next to it; respectively a coffee shop and bookshop and Chapter one Restaurant, and meeting rooms and offices for writers and associations.

Here we could experience the phenomenon of Irish writing from the classics to contemporary writers
We also retraced Bram Stoker's footsteps! Remember when we read his book, Dracula, back in Birmingham library, and then visited Whitby, a town mentioned in the book? Author Abraham "Bram" Stoker was born here in Dublin.

Our next cultural visit will be to National Museum, but we don't expect to spend much time here, though the construction is amazing, mostly because of the large space and the right angles, which make our heads turn unexpectedly.

Broghter Gold

The museum has plenty of prehistoric displays, including; early work in gold, church treasures, objects from viking and medieval periods, special exhibitions of items from Egypt, Cyprus and the Roman world.

Tara Brooch

Some items we saw in the Archaeology area were; famous examples of early Celtic metalwork and prehistoric pieces 

Fonthill Vase

In the Decorative Arts and History gallery we saw displays of furniture, silver, ceramics and glassware, folk life and costumes, money and weapons.

Our exploration stopped here, but we learned that there are at least two other buildings in Dublin which are an expansion of the National Museum; the Country Life, self explanatory, and the National History Museum, with specimens of animals from all around the world.

On our second day in the city we headed first to Kilmainham Gaol, a former prison, now a museum.
The prison was built in 1796, managing incarcerations and hangings in the city until 1891. Public hanging took place at the front of the prison, and in 1891 a hanging cell was built inside of it.
Kilmainham Gaol was used by the British to imprison and execute rebels from the Easter Rising in 1916, which was a separatist insurrection against the British rule in Ireland.
Men, women and children were imprisoned without segregation, up to 5 people in each cell. Children were sometimes arrested for theft, the youngest is said to be a seven year old.
The prison was decommissioned in 1924, and reopened as a museum in 1971.
Kilmainham is very large, sometimes turning into small claustrophobic ringed corridors with tiny windows on one side and many doors leading to small cells on the other side.
The atmosphere was crushing, even knowing that it was just a tour we couldn't stand being there for long, I wonder how we would feel if we someday visit a concentration camp.
We lament the inhumane conditions the prisoners had to experience, and that they had to endure what this place forcefully brought upon them, and the ones who lost their lives here. Let's make it so it doesn't happen again.

Our next visit will help us clear our heads before heading to the next city.



On the road to St Stephens Green, we went through Grafton street, one of the two shopping streets in Dublin, the other being Henry street, where we have been twice; once because of the spire and again on our way to Dublin Writers Museum.
Grafton Street was the fifth most expensive main shopping street in the world and 16th in 2016, luckily we don't need to buy anything here, but the rogues are here for a reason, right?
The square was pedestrianized by 1988, after delays due to objections, with exception of the north end of the street, but there are recent plans (2017) to make it a public space.

• US President, Barack Obama, came to College Green in Grafton Street in 2011.

We arrived in St Stephen's Green after a 2.6 mile walk, to find peace and comfort in the largest park in Dublin.
The current park was designed by William Shepard and opened in 1880.
Stephen's Green has a long story, having been used for grazing, then enclosed by the forward thinking government which reformed the area, and restricted to local residents until 1877.
The park was also where the insurgents of the Easter Rising took position. They numbered between 200 to 250 and used vehicles to make road blocks around the park.
The park features many memorials and statues.