06-17-2023, 02:06 PM
May 4- Dublin to Galway
You know, Greg, you could have just stayed in Dublin and seen all the things you wanted to see. First we were coming back to Dublin by the end of the trip. Second, I had a date to meet an acquaintance in Galway who tells Irish Folktales and he only tells them on Thursday nights. May 4 was the Thursday, we could see his show. Except for one slight hiccup.
I first met Rab Fulton back in 2009 on the trip with my father and my nephew. We were staying in Galway and one of the things I read to do was find a Seanchaí or Irish storyteller. As luck would have it, I found a flyer for just such a storyteller appearing that night at the Cottage Bar not far from where we were staying in SaltHill. The room were Rab performed was quite tiny. The room didn’t have to be big because there were only about six of us in the room with Rab. But he left an impression and when The Queen and I were in town in 2011, I took her to the Cottage Inn for another show. The Queen liked him as well and Rab was delighted I had come back for another show. We saw him next on our 2019 trip to Ireland. There was a great coincidence we would be passing through Galway on a Thursday which also happened to be Halloween. Perfect. By 2019, Rab had graduated to a much bigger space at the Crane Bar. Rab was kind enough to comp us tickets and let us in before the crowds and there were crowds. The place was packed with about 100 people. Rab did a great job with his show. In the early shows when we first saw he was fine and the stories he told were quite interesting. Now, he had learned his craft and put on a great show as well.
When I planned this trip, I knew one of the things I wanted to do was be in Galway on a Thursday to see the show and introduce him to The Queen Mum. The trip would cover two Thursdays. I chose the first one because it was good starting out point on our loop through Ireland. I made our hotel reservations accordingly.
Here was the hiccup. In the week before the trip, Rab told me he wouldn’t be performing that Thursday in the Crane Bar. His father was flying in on May 4th. In order to be with his father, he decided he would perform on May 3. Every other week, he would on stage on the Thursday. Just not this week. Rab did ask if we could come out on Wednesday, but I had, as you have seen, already booked tickets for Wednesday. Plus, traveling to Galway on the day the Queen Mum arrived would be a bit hard on the Queen Mum.
So, I was racing out of Dublin to Galway for a show that wasn’t going to happen. My plans are like tissue in the face of reality.
Originally, I was going to race out of Dublin to get to Galway. But then I realized there was no rush so I decided we might as well tour Kilmainham Gaol before headed. But Kilmainham doesn’t open until 9am. Plenty of time for another huge walk through the city.
Once again I headed east to the docklands but I stayed to south side of the Liffey. I took pictures along the way but my first stop was Bindon Blood Stoney’s Diving Bell. The Diving Bell allowed workers to work under the Liffey to build the Quay walls. The bell went into operation in 1871 and was used up until 1958. The only real reason to tell this story is to name check Bindon Blood Stoney. Once I got to the Diving Bell, I was less than impressed. It’s just a big metal rectangular box you could pump air into.
From their I went to Windmill Lane studios to see where U2 recorded some of their albums. I stopped at the actual Windmill Lane street as well but the studios moved further down the docks and I went there. I was hoping the advertisements on the building from U2’s latest album would still be on the building but they were not. From the outside, it is just another sort of nondescript building. Still took the picture, though, to say I was there.
That was as far as I was going into the docklands. I turned and headed back in the direction of the hotel with a long list of places I wanted to see before I arrived back at the Hampton by Hilton. I went over to the McMahon Bridge which crosses the Alexandra Basin so I could see the Boland Mills and the Chairman’s former building. When I visited the Chairman for the first time, the building was pointed out to me as the Hershey Building because it was a dark brown color. “Couldn’t miss it”. Missed it plenty. It used to stand by itself down in the docklands but the Hershey building sits among a big crowd of taller buildings now. What a difference ten years makes.
The next stop was Merrion Square and the former home of Oscar Wilde. I was hoping I would pass by the former home of Patrick Pearse but I had to turn towards Merrion Square before I ever saw it. Since I was in kind of a hurry, I missed several things in Merrion Square Park but I did get to see the statue of Oscar Wilde sitting on the rock. Opposite the rock and Oscar Wilde are two more sculptures. On the bases of the sculptures can write messages.
Through the fence, I could see Oscar Wilde’s house. There is a plaque for Oscar on the side of the building as well as plaques for his mother and his father. His father, William Wilde, list about twenty of his occupations on the plaque. The one for Oscar’s mother, Lady Jane, gives her nom de plume ‘Speranza’ which she used when she wrote poetry and articles for the Young Ireland movement and were published in The Nation.
Oddly, several blocks away on Harcourt St lies the home of Lord Edward Carson, the man who defended the Marquess of Queensbury against Oscar Wilde’s criminal libel charge. Carson and Wilde knew each other at Trinity. The trial and Carson’s defense led to Wilde be charged and convicted of Gross Indecency for the crime of Homosexuality. Carson would later go on to be a staunch unionist and helped with the formation of Northern Ireland.
From Merrion Square I made my way to College Green with a quick trip down Dublin’s best known shopping area, Grafton Street. Supposedly Grafton Street is one of the top three most expensive shopping thoroughfares in Europe. My destination for this segment of the trip was Bloom’s Hotel. Once again I needed some before and after pictures. My father and I stayed here in 1993 and the Queen and I also stayed here in 2001 at the tail end of our trip. Since I was here last they have spruced up the place with murals celebrating Ulysses. Just so you know, when I booked the hotel for those two trips I vaguely knew about James Joyce and I certainly didn’t know who Leopold Bloom was. I booked the hotel because of the hotel’s location in the middle of Temple Bar.
The previous day I searched up and down Crane Street for signs of Micheal Collins and the Shields. Last night I checked the inter-webs and found out I really should have been looking for Crow Street. The big give away should have been the fact that there wasn’t a giant Urban Outfitters at the end of Crane Street. The Urban Outfitters used to be The Medical School of the Catholic University of Ireland. I did find the fabled 3 Crow Street but there was still no indication of the buildings hidden fame. And from now on, I will remember that Crane Street was the Street that still had a Merry Christmas banner hanging across the street in the middle of May.
I should have headed back to the Hampton from there before we set out on the rest of the day’s adventures but why would I want to do anything sensible? Instead, I crossed back over the Liffey, taking pictures of the Sea Horse Street Lights on the Grattan Street bridge before heading over to the Fruit Markets on St. Michan’s Street. I needed a few shots of the building in the daylight. And since I was right there, I might as well take a peak at St. Michan’s Park.
Why a children’s playground? This children’s playground sits on the site of where Newgate Prison used to stand. The walls surrounding the park are the old walls around the park are the walls from Newgate Prison. Newgate prison was where the prisoners from the 1798 United Irishmen Uprising were held. Too far into the weeds? Probably. But there is more. Before Newgate prison was here on the north side of the Liffey, Newgate was one of the gates in the old Dublin City walls on the south side of the Liffey. When they were pulling the walls down this gate was moved here and turned into a prison.
I took cobblestone covered Cuckoo Lane back towards Mary Street and then to the Hampton by Hilton where I had breakfast number two of the trip.
The first stop on the day’s itinerary was Kilmainham Gaol just a mere fifteen minutes from the hotel. I toured the Gaol back in 2014 but I had to leave the tour halfway through because parents. We had something scheduled and I needed to get back to our hotel which didn’t leave me time to finish. This trip would make up for that failure. Ha!
Our tour started at 9:45. If we left at 8:45, I could drop Queen Mum and Queen at the Gaol by 9. Parking was down the road so I would have a ten minute walk to get to the museum. Plenty of time. God laughed.
I left the Hampton and walked the five minutes over to the Smithfield ParkRite at 8:30, so much time to get back to the hotel in order to leave by 8:45. So much time. I was halfway down Queen Street when I sensed there would be a problem. Google Maps kept altering my arrival upwards. There were two lights to navigate before I could make a left turn on to Arran Quay. One was at the Luas Line and the second was Arran Quay itself. I spent an interminable time at the light at the Luas line watching one car at a time make the left at Arran before the light would go red. All the traffic on Arran was so packed there was no room once that traffic went through to allow us on Queen to make the turn. Yes, Greg, traffic is at 9 O’Clock worldwide. Google Maps kept changing my arrival time. Red letters were bad and they were always red. I eventually forced my onto Arran after hitting the curb.
There were only two lanes on Arran and one of those was the dedicated bus lane. No cars in the bus lane. But I made it. I crawled along Arran for most of my adult life until Arran Quay turned into Inns Quay in front of the Four Courts Building. I think it was after 9 when I found the problem. There was an accident in front of the Four Courts blocking the car lane. Everyone had to merge into the dedicated bus lane to get by. I just stayed in that lane until I made my turn on Chancery Lane and straight to the hotel.
We have too many bags for the capacity of the car. I fit them in anyway. One bag ends up in the back seat strapped in by the seat belt, sitting up right like a real boy. Only a lot of swearing was involved.
To get to Kilmainham, you guessed it, I have to go back down Queen Street. One way streets make this the only way. I don’t have to get into the left turn lane, thankfully, because that lane still moves slow. I dropped off The Queen Mum and the Queen at what I thought was the front entrance because it was the front entrance last time I visited and headed for the Park Rite at the Museum of Modern Art. Google wanted me to take this torturous walking route back to the Gaol, but I spotted a path that went right there that Google Maps did not acknowledge.
By the time I made it to the Gaol, it was 10 and my tour was long gone. Hoards of secondary students were waiting in line to do their tour. I went to where I dropped off the other two and found out they had changed the entrance. The entrance was now in the building next to the Gaol. I explained to the Gaol Docents who I was and about the tour and my compatriots. I explained I didn’t need the first half of the tour because I had done it previously. They said they would take me to my party, although they wondered how I only did half the tour the last time. A guide led me to the group who were in the iconic staircase section of the main prison.
I kind of wished I had seen the section where they held the uprising prisoners as I am much more familiar with that cast of characters than I was in 2014. But I did get to see Robert Emmet’s cell. Chances are good you might have seen Kilmainham Gaol in a film. The two that come right to mind are Sins of the Father and The Italian Job. I was surprised when I saw the Italian Job recently and immediately recognized the prison that was standing in for the British Prison. To be clear this is the 1960s Italian Job, not the remake.
I did however finally get to the Stonebreaker yard were the Sixteen leaders of the uprising were executed. Fifteen on one side of the yard and James Connolly on the other side. Connolly was so badly wounded in the Uprising, he couldn’t stand. Doctors only gave him a day or two. Still the British brought him in, tied him to a chair, and shot him. It’s hard to believe the time between the end of the Uprising and the executions was only about two weeks.
My big question for the guide was what about other bodies from executions buried in the yard. I had recently heard about some flagstones being moved and the curators finding remains underneath. The guide told me the Gaol has been around since 1798. Bodies were buried everywhere on the grounds.
Clocmacnoise could be The Queen and I’s favorite spot for photographs. The site holds nine ruined churches, two round towers and many High Crosses. Clonmacnois sits almost in the center of Ireland athwart two different passageways through Ireland. The first is the Shannon River. The second is the east west land route known as the Eskar Riada. Plenty of picture potential.
I was thinking we would stop in Athlone either before or after Clonmacnoise but I couldn’t really come up with any reason to go there again. It would have been nice to have lunch at Sean’s Bar, the oldest pub in Ireland dating from the 900s, only they don’t serve food and I don’t need any more photos of the exterior. Athlone was off the itinerary.
It’s about a ninety minute drive from Kilmainham along the M4. The most exciting thing along the way was the signpost for a town called Kilcock. Yes, I’m still twelve years old in my head. As Google Maps did in 2016, we were directed away from the main entrance of Clonmacnois and to this strange entrance. In 2016, it was disconcerting to arrive in this cul de sac, staring at a six foot tall stone wall with Google Maps telling us we had arrived at our destination. We finally noticed the steps to one side climbing up the wall to a small gate. Arriving at the back entrance the last time didn’t matter. We didn’t want to go to the visitor center. So, we popped over the back wall. I was kind of glad Google Maps took us here again so we could show the Queen Mum the secret entrance, but there was no way I was going to make the Queen Mum go up those uneven stone stairs. Plus, the High Crosses were in the visitor center. So, I backed out and headed to the regular entrance.
In the visitor center, they showed us a quick movie about the history of Clonmacnois and then we were free to inspect the two and a half High Crosses. They also have reproductions, right down to the weathering of the High Crosses out amongst the churches exactly where the High Crosses originally stood. The last two times The Queen and I visited, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. This time plenty of people walked the grounds with us. The Queen Mum had her fill of walking after the Kilmainham Gaol tour. She opted to find a bench. With the sun shining upon us, we probably could have spent hours walking the grounds but we didn’t want the Queen Mum to be bored out of her mind.
After a quick foray to Clonmacnoise Castle which is adjacent to the grounds, we headed off to find lunch and the next visitor center, the Battle of Aughrim. We never did find lunch but we found what would have been a great place to have lunch, Luker’s in Shannonbridge. The restaurant had a great view of the Shannonbridge and the Shannon. The place was closed for maintenance. As I dredge my mind, I don’t think we ever did stop for lunch. We did stop at the Aughrim Visitor Center. Just like the website advertised, they were closed. I wanted to visit the Aughrim Center because this area was where one of the three big battles of the Irish end of the Jacobites wars were held. The first one was the Battle of the Boyne, which William of Orange won. The second was the Battle of Aughrim which the Jacobite forces were winning until General Chalmont de Saint-Ruhe, who was leading what he thought would be a victory charge, took a cannonball to the head. Things fell apart for the Jacobite forces after that. Despite the Visitor Center being closed, there was a giant park that had been turned into a reproduction of the surrounding land to show how the battle was fought.
Next stop Galway and our Eyre Square Townhouse. My goal is always to get as close to the city as possible. I’ve erred in the past by taking hotels further from the city center and you spend too much time getting to the city rather than being in the city. Eyre Square Townhouse was a stone’s throw from the actual Eyre Square, which is the heart of Galway.
Eyre Square Townhouse was a pain to get to. Galway near the center is comprised of tiny streets based loosely on the medieval street pattern. There was no parking at the Townhouse either. Street parking was full. I did an emergency parking in a handicap spot to unload the bags. I dumped all the bags in front of the building marked Eyre Square Townhouse only to find out as we checked in that our actual building was across the street. And just to make the Queen Mum cry, there was a long flight of stairs to get to our room.
This wasn’t a traditional B&B, it was more like a rental apartment where we had two bedrooms and a large kitchen dining area. But we were right above, according to the guides, one of the best places to have breakfast in Galway, the Revive Cafe. As we checked in with our lovely hostess who was on her second day on the job, she informed us the Revive Cafe was closed for repairs. I am batting a million.
I parked the car at the Dyke Road Car park which was about an eight minute walk from the Townhouse. The car park was part of a shopping mall. I had the feeling upon leaving the car for the walk back to the Townhouse, I would never see the car again. Or if I did see the car again, it would not be in the shape I left it.
For dinner, I wanted to go to a pizza joint that had been voted Best Pizza in Ireland, Dough Bros. This rise in pizza places in Ireland makes me mad every time I think about it. The only place to get pizza in Limerick was from a chain of just horrible pizza purveyors called Pizza Land. I ate there once and never again. Towards the end of my stay in Limerick in 1981, a restaurant called Islands opened behind where I worked at Burgerland. They had sort of a pizza but still not quite pizza. I was disappointed. Flash forward to 2014, they served pizza at the Strand hotel in Limerick and it was pretty good. It was very close to pizza. Naturally, the next time I’m in the Strand, they had stopped carrying. But on the 2019 trip, plenty of good pizzas. For 2023, pizza joints are everywhere. It seems like the entire country went to Naples to learn how to make Italian style pizza. One of my many missions was to check out these ‘Best in Ireland’ pizza places.
Upon leaving the Eyre Square Townhouse with The Queen, rain started falling. Rain had finally found us. It was fun walking through town and actually recognizing places from previous visits. For instances, walking by the flags of the fourteen main merchant families displayed on the side of Eyre Square is where all the executions used to be held outside the Galway city walls. Galway translates into city of the foreigners or strangers. Currently, one of the best places to see the old city walls is in the Corbertt Court Shopping center next to the Dunnes Store. We didn’t stop in there tonight.
Because everything is about me, I chose the path to The Dough Bros to lead us by Lynch’s Castle. The Dough Bros lies on the opposite side of the block from Lynch’s Castle. After ordering our pizza in the packed place, we had time to kill. Might as well hit all the Lynch spots while we were out. We headed to St. Nicholas’ Church to see the historic Lynch window where the notion that Lynching meant hanging came to be. The Lynch Window makes up part of the wall surrounding St. Nicholas’ Church. Walking inside the wall on previous visit, I saw just how fake that wall is because on the inside it’s just smooth concrete. On the street side, the wall looks to be made of brooks. Since we circled the block, we came by Lynch’s castle one more time. I did another recreation photo of one I took of my father standing in front of the castle in 1981. At that time, cars could still drive in front of the building. Now, the medieval quarter of Galway where Lynch Castle and The Dough Bros sits has been pedestrianized and cars are banned.
We took the pizzas back to the Townhouse and had a lovely dinner in the dining area. The garlic knots were very tasty and the pizza tasted like pizza. The meats are bit different from what you find in the USA, but they were edible.
The bedrooms were not en-suite and we shared a bathroom across the kitchen from the bedrooms. There was a built in nightlight in the overhead lamp that cast a wierd glow across the kitchen. I saw that light many times.
You know, Greg, you could have just stayed in Dublin and seen all the things you wanted to see. First we were coming back to Dublin by the end of the trip. Second, I had a date to meet an acquaintance in Galway who tells Irish Folktales and he only tells them on Thursday nights. May 4 was the Thursday, we could see his show. Except for one slight hiccup.
I first met Rab Fulton back in 2009 on the trip with my father and my nephew. We were staying in Galway and one of the things I read to do was find a Seanchaí or Irish storyteller. As luck would have it, I found a flyer for just such a storyteller appearing that night at the Cottage Bar not far from where we were staying in SaltHill. The room were Rab performed was quite tiny. The room didn’t have to be big because there were only about six of us in the room with Rab. But he left an impression and when The Queen and I were in town in 2011, I took her to the Cottage Inn for another show. The Queen liked him as well and Rab was delighted I had come back for another show. We saw him next on our 2019 trip to Ireland. There was a great coincidence we would be passing through Galway on a Thursday which also happened to be Halloween. Perfect. By 2019, Rab had graduated to a much bigger space at the Crane Bar. Rab was kind enough to comp us tickets and let us in before the crowds and there were crowds. The place was packed with about 100 people. Rab did a great job with his show. In the early shows when we first saw he was fine and the stories he told were quite interesting. Now, he had learned his craft and put on a great show as well.
When I planned this trip, I knew one of the things I wanted to do was be in Galway on a Thursday to see the show and introduce him to The Queen Mum. The trip would cover two Thursdays. I chose the first one because it was good starting out point on our loop through Ireland. I made our hotel reservations accordingly.
Here was the hiccup. In the week before the trip, Rab told me he wouldn’t be performing that Thursday in the Crane Bar. His father was flying in on May 4th. In order to be with his father, he decided he would perform on May 3. Every other week, he would on stage on the Thursday. Just not this week. Rab did ask if we could come out on Wednesday, but I had, as you have seen, already booked tickets for Wednesday. Plus, traveling to Galway on the day the Queen Mum arrived would be a bit hard on the Queen Mum.
So, I was racing out of Dublin to Galway for a show that wasn’t going to happen. My plans are like tissue in the face of reality.
Originally, I was going to race out of Dublin to get to Galway. But then I realized there was no rush so I decided we might as well tour Kilmainham Gaol before headed. But Kilmainham doesn’t open until 9am. Plenty of time for another huge walk through the city.
Once again I headed east to the docklands but I stayed to south side of the Liffey. I took pictures along the way but my first stop was Bindon Blood Stoney’s Diving Bell. The Diving Bell allowed workers to work under the Liffey to build the Quay walls. The bell went into operation in 1871 and was used up until 1958. The only real reason to tell this story is to name check Bindon Blood Stoney. Once I got to the Diving Bell, I was less than impressed. It’s just a big metal rectangular box you could pump air into.
From their I went to Windmill Lane studios to see where U2 recorded some of their albums. I stopped at the actual Windmill Lane street as well but the studios moved further down the docks and I went there. I was hoping the advertisements on the building from U2’s latest album would still be on the building but they were not. From the outside, it is just another sort of nondescript building. Still took the picture, though, to say I was there.
That was as far as I was going into the docklands. I turned and headed back in the direction of the hotel with a long list of places I wanted to see before I arrived back at the Hampton by Hilton. I went over to the McMahon Bridge which crosses the Alexandra Basin so I could see the Boland Mills and the Chairman’s former building. When I visited the Chairman for the first time, the building was pointed out to me as the Hershey Building because it was a dark brown color. “Couldn’t miss it”. Missed it plenty. It used to stand by itself down in the docklands but the Hershey building sits among a big crowd of taller buildings now. What a difference ten years makes.
The next stop was Merrion Square and the former home of Oscar Wilde. I was hoping I would pass by the former home of Patrick Pearse but I had to turn towards Merrion Square before I ever saw it. Since I was in kind of a hurry, I missed several things in Merrion Square Park but I did get to see the statue of Oscar Wilde sitting on the rock. Opposite the rock and Oscar Wilde are two more sculptures. On the bases of the sculptures can write messages.
Through the fence, I could see Oscar Wilde’s house. There is a plaque for Oscar on the side of the building as well as plaques for his mother and his father. His father, William Wilde, list about twenty of his occupations on the plaque. The one for Oscar’s mother, Lady Jane, gives her nom de plume ‘Speranza’ which she used when she wrote poetry and articles for the Young Ireland movement and were published in The Nation.
Oddly, several blocks away on Harcourt St lies the home of Lord Edward Carson, the man who defended the Marquess of Queensbury against Oscar Wilde’s criminal libel charge. Carson and Wilde knew each other at Trinity. The trial and Carson’s defense led to Wilde be charged and convicted of Gross Indecency for the crime of Homosexuality. Carson would later go on to be a staunch unionist and helped with the formation of Northern Ireland.
From Merrion Square I made my way to College Green with a quick trip down Dublin’s best known shopping area, Grafton Street. Supposedly Grafton Street is one of the top three most expensive shopping thoroughfares in Europe. My destination for this segment of the trip was Bloom’s Hotel. Once again I needed some before and after pictures. My father and I stayed here in 1993 and the Queen and I also stayed here in 2001 at the tail end of our trip. Since I was here last they have spruced up the place with murals celebrating Ulysses. Just so you know, when I booked the hotel for those two trips I vaguely knew about James Joyce and I certainly didn’t know who Leopold Bloom was. I booked the hotel because of the hotel’s location in the middle of Temple Bar.
The previous day I searched up and down Crane Street for signs of Micheal Collins and the Shields. Last night I checked the inter-webs and found out I really should have been looking for Crow Street. The big give away should have been the fact that there wasn’t a giant Urban Outfitters at the end of Crane Street. The Urban Outfitters used to be The Medical School of the Catholic University of Ireland. I did find the fabled 3 Crow Street but there was still no indication of the buildings hidden fame. And from now on, I will remember that Crane Street was the Street that still had a Merry Christmas banner hanging across the street in the middle of May.
I should have headed back to the Hampton from there before we set out on the rest of the day’s adventures but why would I want to do anything sensible? Instead, I crossed back over the Liffey, taking pictures of the Sea Horse Street Lights on the Grattan Street bridge before heading over to the Fruit Markets on St. Michan’s Street. I needed a few shots of the building in the daylight. And since I was right there, I might as well take a peak at St. Michan’s Park.
Why a children’s playground? This children’s playground sits on the site of where Newgate Prison used to stand. The walls surrounding the park are the old walls around the park are the walls from Newgate Prison. Newgate prison was where the prisoners from the 1798 United Irishmen Uprising were held. Too far into the weeds? Probably. But there is more. Before Newgate prison was here on the north side of the Liffey, Newgate was one of the gates in the old Dublin City walls on the south side of the Liffey. When they were pulling the walls down this gate was moved here and turned into a prison.
I took cobblestone covered Cuckoo Lane back towards Mary Street and then to the Hampton by Hilton where I had breakfast number two of the trip.
The first stop on the day’s itinerary was Kilmainham Gaol just a mere fifteen minutes from the hotel. I toured the Gaol back in 2014 but I had to leave the tour halfway through because parents. We had something scheduled and I needed to get back to our hotel which didn’t leave me time to finish. This trip would make up for that failure. Ha!
Our tour started at 9:45. If we left at 8:45, I could drop Queen Mum and Queen at the Gaol by 9. Parking was down the road so I would have a ten minute walk to get to the museum. Plenty of time. God laughed.
I left the Hampton and walked the five minutes over to the Smithfield ParkRite at 8:30, so much time to get back to the hotel in order to leave by 8:45. So much time. I was halfway down Queen Street when I sensed there would be a problem. Google Maps kept altering my arrival upwards. There were two lights to navigate before I could make a left turn on to Arran Quay. One was at the Luas Line and the second was Arran Quay itself. I spent an interminable time at the light at the Luas line watching one car at a time make the left at Arran before the light would go red. All the traffic on Arran was so packed there was no room once that traffic went through to allow us on Queen to make the turn. Yes, Greg, traffic is at 9 O’Clock worldwide. Google Maps kept changing my arrival time. Red letters were bad and they were always red. I eventually forced my onto Arran after hitting the curb.
There were only two lanes on Arran and one of those was the dedicated bus lane. No cars in the bus lane. But I made it. I crawled along Arran for most of my adult life until Arran Quay turned into Inns Quay in front of the Four Courts Building. I think it was after 9 when I found the problem. There was an accident in front of the Four Courts blocking the car lane. Everyone had to merge into the dedicated bus lane to get by. I just stayed in that lane until I made my turn on Chancery Lane and straight to the hotel.
We have too many bags for the capacity of the car. I fit them in anyway. One bag ends up in the back seat strapped in by the seat belt, sitting up right like a real boy. Only a lot of swearing was involved.
To get to Kilmainham, you guessed it, I have to go back down Queen Street. One way streets make this the only way. I don’t have to get into the left turn lane, thankfully, because that lane still moves slow. I dropped off The Queen Mum and the Queen at what I thought was the front entrance because it was the front entrance last time I visited and headed for the Park Rite at the Museum of Modern Art. Google wanted me to take this torturous walking route back to the Gaol, but I spotted a path that went right there that Google Maps did not acknowledge.
By the time I made it to the Gaol, it was 10 and my tour was long gone. Hoards of secondary students were waiting in line to do their tour. I went to where I dropped off the other two and found out they had changed the entrance. The entrance was now in the building next to the Gaol. I explained to the Gaol Docents who I was and about the tour and my compatriots. I explained I didn’t need the first half of the tour because I had done it previously. They said they would take me to my party, although they wondered how I only did half the tour the last time. A guide led me to the group who were in the iconic staircase section of the main prison.
I kind of wished I had seen the section where they held the uprising prisoners as I am much more familiar with that cast of characters than I was in 2014. But I did get to see Robert Emmet’s cell. Chances are good you might have seen Kilmainham Gaol in a film. The two that come right to mind are Sins of the Father and The Italian Job. I was surprised when I saw the Italian Job recently and immediately recognized the prison that was standing in for the British Prison. To be clear this is the 1960s Italian Job, not the remake.
I did however finally get to the Stonebreaker yard were the Sixteen leaders of the uprising were executed. Fifteen on one side of the yard and James Connolly on the other side. Connolly was so badly wounded in the Uprising, he couldn’t stand. Doctors only gave him a day or two. Still the British brought him in, tied him to a chair, and shot him. It’s hard to believe the time between the end of the Uprising and the executions was only about two weeks.
My big question for the guide was what about other bodies from executions buried in the yard. I had recently heard about some flagstones being moved and the curators finding remains underneath. The guide told me the Gaol has been around since 1798. Bodies were buried everywhere on the grounds.
Clocmacnoise could be The Queen and I’s favorite spot for photographs. The site holds nine ruined churches, two round towers and many High Crosses. Clonmacnois sits almost in the center of Ireland athwart two different passageways through Ireland. The first is the Shannon River. The second is the east west land route known as the Eskar Riada. Plenty of picture potential.
I was thinking we would stop in Athlone either before or after Clonmacnoise but I couldn’t really come up with any reason to go there again. It would have been nice to have lunch at Sean’s Bar, the oldest pub in Ireland dating from the 900s, only they don’t serve food and I don’t need any more photos of the exterior. Athlone was off the itinerary.
It’s about a ninety minute drive from Kilmainham along the M4. The most exciting thing along the way was the signpost for a town called Kilcock. Yes, I’m still twelve years old in my head. As Google Maps did in 2016, we were directed away from the main entrance of Clonmacnois and to this strange entrance. In 2016, it was disconcerting to arrive in this cul de sac, staring at a six foot tall stone wall with Google Maps telling us we had arrived at our destination. We finally noticed the steps to one side climbing up the wall to a small gate. Arriving at the back entrance the last time didn’t matter. We didn’t want to go to the visitor center. So, we popped over the back wall. I was kind of glad Google Maps took us here again so we could show the Queen Mum the secret entrance, but there was no way I was going to make the Queen Mum go up those uneven stone stairs. Plus, the High Crosses were in the visitor center. So, I backed out and headed to the regular entrance.
In the visitor center, they showed us a quick movie about the history of Clonmacnois and then we were free to inspect the two and a half High Crosses. They also have reproductions, right down to the weathering of the High Crosses out amongst the churches exactly where the High Crosses originally stood. The last two times The Queen and I visited, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. This time plenty of people walked the grounds with us. The Queen Mum had her fill of walking after the Kilmainham Gaol tour. She opted to find a bench. With the sun shining upon us, we probably could have spent hours walking the grounds but we didn’t want the Queen Mum to be bored out of her mind.
After a quick foray to Clonmacnoise Castle which is adjacent to the grounds, we headed off to find lunch and the next visitor center, the Battle of Aughrim. We never did find lunch but we found what would have been a great place to have lunch, Luker’s in Shannonbridge. The restaurant had a great view of the Shannonbridge and the Shannon. The place was closed for maintenance. As I dredge my mind, I don’t think we ever did stop for lunch. We did stop at the Aughrim Visitor Center. Just like the website advertised, they were closed. I wanted to visit the Aughrim Center because this area was where one of the three big battles of the Irish end of the Jacobites wars were held. The first one was the Battle of the Boyne, which William of Orange won. The second was the Battle of Aughrim which the Jacobite forces were winning until General Chalmont de Saint-Ruhe, who was leading what he thought would be a victory charge, took a cannonball to the head. Things fell apart for the Jacobite forces after that. Despite the Visitor Center being closed, there was a giant park that had been turned into a reproduction of the surrounding land to show how the battle was fought.
Next stop Galway and our Eyre Square Townhouse. My goal is always to get as close to the city as possible. I’ve erred in the past by taking hotels further from the city center and you spend too much time getting to the city rather than being in the city. Eyre Square Townhouse was a stone’s throw from the actual Eyre Square, which is the heart of Galway.
Eyre Square Townhouse was a pain to get to. Galway near the center is comprised of tiny streets based loosely on the medieval street pattern. There was no parking at the Townhouse either. Street parking was full. I did an emergency parking in a handicap spot to unload the bags. I dumped all the bags in front of the building marked Eyre Square Townhouse only to find out as we checked in that our actual building was across the street. And just to make the Queen Mum cry, there was a long flight of stairs to get to our room.
This wasn’t a traditional B&B, it was more like a rental apartment where we had two bedrooms and a large kitchen dining area. But we were right above, according to the guides, one of the best places to have breakfast in Galway, the Revive Cafe. As we checked in with our lovely hostess who was on her second day on the job, she informed us the Revive Cafe was closed for repairs. I am batting a million.
I parked the car at the Dyke Road Car park which was about an eight minute walk from the Townhouse. The car park was part of a shopping mall. I had the feeling upon leaving the car for the walk back to the Townhouse, I would never see the car again. Or if I did see the car again, it would not be in the shape I left it.
For dinner, I wanted to go to a pizza joint that had been voted Best Pizza in Ireland, Dough Bros. This rise in pizza places in Ireland makes me mad every time I think about it. The only place to get pizza in Limerick was from a chain of just horrible pizza purveyors called Pizza Land. I ate there once and never again. Towards the end of my stay in Limerick in 1981, a restaurant called Islands opened behind where I worked at Burgerland. They had sort of a pizza but still not quite pizza. I was disappointed. Flash forward to 2014, they served pizza at the Strand hotel in Limerick and it was pretty good. It was very close to pizza. Naturally, the next time I’m in the Strand, they had stopped carrying. But on the 2019 trip, plenty of good pizzas. For 2023, pizza joints are everywhere. It seems like the entire country went to Naples to learn how to make Italian style pizza. One of my many missions was to check out these ‘Best in Ireland’ pizza places.
Upon leaving the Eyre Square Townhouse with The Queen, rain started falling. Rain had finally found us. It was fun walking through town and actually recognizing places from previous visits. For instances, walking by the flags of the fourteen main merchant families displayed on the side of Eyre Square is where all the executions used to be held outside the Galway city walls. Galway translates into city of the foreigners or strangers. Currently, one of the best places to see the old city walls is in the Corbertt Court Shopping center next to the Dunnes Store. We didn’t stop in there tonight.
Because everything is about me, I chose the path to The Dough Bros to lead us by Lynch’s Castle. The Dough Bros lies on the opposite side of the block from Lynch’s Castle. After ordering our pizza in the packed place, we had time to kill. Might as well hit all the Lynch spots while we were out. We headed to St. Nicholas’ Church to see the historic Lynch window where the notion that Lynching meant hanging came to be. The Lynch Window makes up part of the wall surrounding St. Nicholas’ Church. Walking inside the wall on previous visit, I saw just how fake that wall is because on the inside it’s just smooth concrete. On the street side, the wall looks to be made of brooks. Since we circled the block, we came by Lynch’s castle one more time. I did another recreation photo of one I took of my father standing in front of the castle in 1981. At that time, cars could still drive in front of the building. Now, the medieval quarter of Galway where Lynch Castle and The Dough Bros sits has been pedestrianized and cars are banned.
We took the pizzas back to the Townhouse and had a lovely dinner in the dining area. The garlic knots were very tasty and the pizza tasted like pizza. The meats are bit different from what you find in the USA, but they were edible.
The bedrooms were not en-suite and we shared a bathroom across the kitchen from the bedrooms. There was a built in nightlight in the overhead lamp that cast a wierd glow across the kitchen. I saw that light many times.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm