Dublin is rapidly climbing the ladder as one of my most favourite world capitals. There is an energy here that I search for when we travel and so much culture and history is embedded here it might take several trips to drink it all in and that is excluding the Guinness which I am still trying to avoid like the infamous potato famine of the 1840s.
An aside. Every person we have met still talks about this horror in Irish history as if it were yesterday. An episode in the past that fully devastated a country and a people. One million souls died and another four million emigrated out of a total population of only eight million. There are more Irish descendants living in other countries than there are in all of Ireland today. The country is just now rebounding to its full footing one hundred and eighty years later.
We are blessed with two full days in Dublin. It is giving us an opportunity to take in so much more than a normal port of call and it is affording us a great gift of sampling two evenings in the Irish capital.
I knew that when The Husband and Twin Son first started talking about this trip, there would be a healthy number of distillery tours on the itinerary. Marriage is a give and take after all, so I was down with the idea in theory as long as we could combine the tastings and corporate mingling with a fair bit of art, history, and culture. The literary lineage of Ireland, and Dublin, in particular, is rich and varied. I have already stated my affinity for Maeve Binchy, (I feel like I am actually walking in the footsteps of her characters from Tara Road, Circle of Friends, or Dublin 4 as we wander the old cobblestoned streets that mix easily modern restaurants and architecture) but just passing by the old haunts of Wilde, Shaw, Joyce, Yeats, Synge, and Swift is almost too much for this English literature student to bear.
I totally geeked out at the Book of Kells exhibit at Trinity College. I will admit that Christian iconography is really not my thing, but this manuscript is fascinating. Dating back to the 9th century, it is one of the oldest and most complete books finds in the world. I couldn’t have cared one whit that it is a rendition of the four Gospels. The calligraphic pages with their medieval colourings are stunning and the preservation and study of it have been meticulous. Trinity College Library itself is a glorious place and you can almost hear the ghosts of greatness that roamed these halls. Their portraits line the stone parade of literature at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and their works are forever etched into the hearts and minds of Dubliners.
But, eventually, all good trips to the British Isles must turn toward the amber liquid. The boys had been itching to visit Teeling’s and I did promise, after all. It was fun to view them in their natural habitat and while the distillery tour was fun for the amateur, it is old hat for them and they were anxious to get to the tastings. I will leave their impressions of the wares for them to expound upon, but for me the subtitles of whiskeys (apparently the Irish keep the “e” in whiskey for the sole purpose of sticking it to the Scots. They also age their barrels for a day longer for the exact same reason. Cheeky buggers, aren’t they?) is totally lost on this heathen palette.
We ended our day with a visit to a traditional Irish pub for a house party. I was desperate to hear some folk music and found this really cool experience on Trip Advisor. The musicians were phenomenal and while we had to suffer through Danny Boy yet again, listening to their skill and experiencing a few new instruments (I could do without the whine of the Irish pipes but they are fascinating) was everything we’d hoped for and more.
I think that I could be happy in Dublin if it weren’t for the weather, the affinity towards ale, and driving on the left.
Another day is still to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment