"Native Irish"
Today was our last day in Dublin with Erica and Marko and im so sad about it. They have been wonderful company.
Today gram and I took the bus downtown and shopped at Carroll’s. Next we met Erica and Marko at the Guinness brewery and they graciously helped me wheel gram to kilmeinham gaol, the old jail.
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SO after drinking all night last night I passed out after those three paragraphs. Oops!
Yesterday (5 Aug) gram and I had breakfast, she tried the boiled egg this time. We went downtown by bus and stopped at Carroll’s to get some things before we left Dublin. Next we walked all the way from O’Connell street to Kilmeinham Gaol, which is basically all the way across the city centre. We met Erica and Marko outside the back of the Guinness Brewery and the three of us wheeled gram up and down hills and over curbs to the jail (Kilmeinham Gaol - gaol is Irish (Gaelic) for jail).
There was quite a line at the jail but we may have gotten in a bit early due to gram’s chair. The tour starts and ends with the museum, which is just outside the jail and contains information on both the prisoners and the jail, and also on the politics in Ireland at that time - which is information quite pertinent to the tour and in general while visiting Dublin, as we would find out later.
The tour was very cool, and unfortunately for you all I forgot to take a photo with my phone. It was a guided tour and we were taken through the newer jail first which was built in the Victorian area. It had some interesting features which I will explain with the photos when I upload them on facebook after our trip. Next we saw the old jail, which was much smaller though also three floors. In the time of the famine this prison made to fit 140 prisoners held over nine thousand. Children, the youngest only five years old, were sent to jail for weeks at a time for stealing food. During one of the revolutions there was a free treaty drawn up and it was Michael Collins at the head of it vs. the anti free treaty group, it was about making Ireland a free state. Anyway, a lot of people were thrown in jail for political “crimes,” and one man who was to be executed asked and was granted allowance to marry his fiancé before his hanging. Later she was locked up as well and we were able to see the cell she was kept in. Prisoners were also executed by firing squad and we were taken to where this took place almost one hundred years ago. One man was wounded in battle three days before his execution date and taken to the hospital, well, on his execution date they came to get him and he was so weak they had to put him in a chair to shoot him. Our guide said it was stories like these that finally persuaded the end of execution by firing squad. I also found it interesting that in the 12 bullets for the 12 shooters there were 2 blanks, so no man would know who fired the deadly shot.
As suggested (by a taxi man) we followed our jail tour with lunch/dinner at the Brazenhead, the oldest pub in Ireland. Two of the pictures above include us there with our dinner. The picture without the flash was first, and then I asked for one with the flash, and I can tell Marko was hungry because he was not happy about the second photo. Haha! ;) I did eat meat! the special was corned beef and I said I have to try corned beef and cabbage from Ireland. Well, there was no cabbage but it came with potatoes three ways, mashed, oven baked, and cut up with carrots from the roast. All delicious. I also had a Crean’s beer from Galway, I don’t recommend it!
On our way to the meeting place for the musical pub crawl we stopped at Christchurch Cathedral and Dublin Castle. I didn’t find either that exciting. Dublin Castle is more like Versailles in France, not the old-timey stone castle you think of when you think of Irish castles.
Our pub crawl started at Oliver St John Gogarty’s (“Gogarty’s”) in the Temple Bar area (a downtown area that is very popular with tourists and very overpriced.. Guinness for 6 euro a pint instead of 4 euro and the price goes up the later it gets) and we had drinks on the second floor while the musicians introduced themselves and began to play and talk about their craft. We we’re a little nervous at first but it turned out excellent.. Best night in Dublin, best night ever. The next was called the Ha’penny Bridge Inn and was just a short walk and up some more stairs. We learned more and heard more. The last pub was a bit longer of a walk but first over the river across a bridge of stairs. One of the MUSICIANS carried the wheelchair all the way over the bridge with her fiddle on her back, despite our protests. It was called Branningans. Marko carried the wheelchair up the stairs in every pub and the musical pub crawl people reserved seats for us at every place as well without us even asking. GREAT service and I highly recommend the crawl (www.discoverdublin.ie/musical-pub-crawl/). At Brannigans I tried to get Erica to sing Journey but she was not drunk enough! So instead we sang a John Denver song that some people from Connecticut started, another song that Marko knew that the Australians started, and the last one came from the southern US, I forget what song and where they were from. It was very fun! We also learned that you should always tap your foot instead of clap because the musicians will play for long periods of time without stopping and you’ll get tired of clapping. They also talked about how in Ireland they can read music but they just play notes together and they goby sound. It sounds fantastic, the whole thing.. growing up with it and just having the gift. When the crawl was over they suggested places for us to go. We chose to go to the Cobblestone pub, which proved to be an amazing decision, as we were also talked out of walking by a couple so said a cab would only be about ten euro.
This taxi man, Kevin Agar, was the most fantastic Irishman I have met and probably will meet! He was bloody fekking brilliant, shiat! (all words he used often in his commentary). He was so excited that we were interested in the history of Ireland that he knows so well. He had asked if we’d been to the jail and of course we had today, on recommendation of two other cab drivers. He immediately started speaking a thousand words a minute and drove us all along the roads showing us plaques and telling us all about the politics and the people that we’d just learned about at the jail. It was like an underground tour.. It was AWESOME. I wish I could’ve recorded the whole thing. At the end of it he reset the meter and said don’t mind that, it would’ve been about 10 euro without all that driving around.. which is exactly what the couple had said it would cost to get to the cobblestone. So not only did he give us an amazing free tour, he was completely honest and fair and a very good man. He gave us a great experience!
The Cobblestone was packed with “Native Irish” and there were four musicians playing, a fiddle, the pipes, and two Irish flutes (I think that’s what they were). We did learn during the pub crawl that the pipes, Uilleann pipes, are much different than Scottish bagpipes because they’re played with the elbow and are not inflated by mouth. The skin of the bag is also different as is the sound. Anyway, during our time there another set of pipes and another fiddle joined as well. They just played together and didn’t even all know each other. It was incredible to watch. They had their eyes closed sometimes, tapping their feet, they took turns leading, everything that was described to us about a “session” was true and it was happening right in front of us.
The ONLY thing that could have possibly made the night better was if the pipe player would’ve asked me to come live with him in Ireland, but that’s a bit far fetched so I think I can let it go. The last picture (or first picture, depending on how it shows up) is of the musicians, the two Irish flutes, the pipes (yum!), and the fiddle.