Day 48 3rd April 2017 Dublin
I am little confused by Dublin in that it does not appeal by beauty and as you can see from the example above construction seems to be everywhere.However the people and the history and indeed the pubs make it what it is.The people we found to be helpful and friendly starting with our host at the East Park Lodge, bus drivers and basically everybody we met.Also the delight in taking the piss about almost everything is engaging.
However one thing which is not a joke to the Irish is their history.To better understand we took a Historical Walking Tour (http://historicaltours.ie/ )which started at Trinity College and then prowled around trying to make sense of the UK/Irish relationship,James Joyce and the fact that Dublin had been a Viking settlement.Our guide was charming, opinionated and definitely had a bias which he tried vainly to keep under control.We finished the tour at Dublin Castle which had been the British HQ and it left us with a keen sense of wanting to understand more.One of the events that you can’t escape is the Easter Rising of 1916 which is featured so prominently everywhere you go(see Notes about the 1916 Rising featured in Dublin Pubs).Our future days in Ireland were partially spent in trying to learn about the actual event and thereby understanding its relevance and importance to the Irish people today.
After a a good lunch at the Ivy Pub and a craft beer made by the Franciscan Wells Brewery in Cork (their Friar Weisse beer was excellent) we ambled around the dock area before having dinner at the Duke before our Literary Pub Crawl.The Pub Crawl which has been going for 16 years was conducted by two actors who were excellent.It started in a small room at the Duke and then pottered around Trinity and several pubs that claimed literary credentials.They presented pieces from Joyce, Oscar Wilde and GB Shaw as well as local stories and songs as we reached each destination.All in all a wonderful night. http://www.dublinpubcrawl.com/
