I have a thought I’ve voiced about Europe. It’s so much easier to get there from there. What I mean is that with a little planning you can get from one major, cool, historic city to another and return for very little money. For example Glasgow to Dublin and back can be done for £30 or less. I didn’t have the luxury of preplanning and I had checked baggage not simply carry-on so my flight to Dublin was £70. Still not too bad from a Yank POV. Unfortunately with 30 minutes before my flight was to take off I was told I had missed it. Net, net I had 5 hours to chill in Glasgow airport so I pull out my iPad and read a book along with paying another £70. By the time I passed customs in Ireland, technically my 6th country (Iceland France, England, Wales, Scotland & Ireland) around 5 PM it was dark. Quick aside. Having been at Notra Dame and close to where the horror occurred and seeing the coverage on BBC etc, it struck closer to home than had I been back in CT. I last passed through Glasgow airport a few years back, one week before a suicide bomber drove through the same door I had walked through and unsuccessfully attempted to blow up a car full of explosives. I was in the air heading back to the States on 7/7 when buses were blown up in London. I hope when I do return to The States nothing untold occurs.
Anyway back to the story. I booked a shuttle to Dublin, then a tram and a walk with my kit trying to find my hotel in the dark with directions that were “it’s behind the shopping center”. The room in the Plaza hotel is very nice and the bar offered more new beers to try. (I’ll give a beer tasting summary once I’m done tasting.) I went to Tesco to grab supplies and ate in the room as I needed to chill. Anyway the Friday morning after a good rest I wandered the capital of The Republic of Ireland. While my hotel was sort of outside the city, the tram was only €6.80 for a hop on hop off on both tram and bus. And, unlike Glasgow, Dubln is relatively flat.
I sat with a guy from Hungary who explained to me that his fully understandable English was learned from watching American movies with subtitles. The Duke was his favorite teacher! Who knew?
Anyway, my first stop was the National Museum of Ireland. There are 3 branches of the museum in Dublin and the first is housed in the Collins Barracks. Originally built in 1702 The Barracks, then The Royal Barracks was handed over to the Irish Free State and renamed after the hero of Ireland, poor Michael, as the guard called him.
“Michael James Collins (Irish: Mícheál Séamus Ó Coileáin;[2][3] 16 October 1890 – 22 August 1922) was an Irish revolutionary leader, politician, Minister for Finance, Director of Information, and Teachta Dála (TD) for Cork South in the First Dáil of 1919, Adjutant General, Director of Intelligence, and Director of Organisation and Arms Procurement for the IRA, President of the Irish Republican Brotherhood from November 1920 until his death, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Subsequently, he was both Chairman of the Provisional Government and Commander-in-chief of the National Army.[1] Collins was shot and killed in an ambush in August 1922 during the Irish Civil War.”
It now houses the Decorative Arts & History. Here are a few of the many photos I grabbed. Lets start with
Military
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WWII soldier’s kit
And one from the late 1800’s
The Irish fought for and against Britain over the years and of course, amoung themselves. Here are some various outfits
The Bown Bess was a rifle used in the 1700’s. This shows human flesh when it’s bullet entered
From the military exhibit I wandered through an eclectic aray of stuff:
Like this crazy hat. A fascinator I think it is called
St. Molaise of Leithglenn b. 639. His face captured my attention. I need to find out how to eliminate reflection when taking phots through glass.
Some chairs
While not as amazing as he oldest one at Salisbury Cathedral, this pendulum clock was pretty cool
Even the urinal was old!
In a separate building the Asgard is located. This ship was used in a gun running mission in 1914.
Having been to beer breweries before, I saw no reason to tour the Guinness brewery for €20 I’d rather spent the money drinking the stuff.
But it is huge!
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The boat looks like it was a gaff rig. Neat.
Brewery egad. Huge is an understatement.