Filed under: Dublin
Saturday we all went into the city center (downtown Dublin). Patrick went to a seminar on Irish Modernism at Trinity College. Sadly only one of us could attend – so I took the dive. The girls and I went to celebrate Open Dublin – a fun weekend event where many building and centers are open up for tours.
The girls and I went to tour The Ark – a fun children’s theater. It is a converted meeting house originally built in 1728. Everything was built for kids. The steps are smaller – the seats are smaller. The kids liked it too.
One fun aspect is that the stage can also open up to the back parking lot – so that they can have the audience outside for a concert or show. It was very cool. I suspect we’ll be back again soon either to see a show or for the girls to take a class.
After the tour we went to the farmers market for a Mars Attack bar, which is an awful lot like a rise krispie bar. The farmers market was fun to see too. It’s not very big – but lots of different kinds of food. Next time I might just get the cheese.
Next we met Patrick at Trinity and went to lunch at the Bad Ass Café. We had to talk the girls into it as they didn’t like the name but it’s a great place for kids. Everyone (well kids) got an ice cream with their lunch so the girls are anxious to got back.
After lunch we trekked to The National Gallery for a kids’ craft event. The girls did a collation called swirling leafs. They got to make trees and people. Even Aine enjoyed it – especially since it required her to get up and down to pick new colors on a regular basis. We got a tiny tour of the gallery – but mostly we did the craft project. It was fun and apparently they have free kids activities every Saturday. So we’ll be back.
After that we took the big double decker bus home.
Saturday Night
Saturday night Patrick and I went out to Ballsbridge – the area where I lived years ago. It was a pretty fancy area back then now it’s a very, very fancy area. It was also completely empty because the World Cup Rugby was happening. It was a lot like being at home when we never really know when the Super Bowl is going to happen.
We enjoyed a nice Italian restaurant and had a pint at the pub where we had one of our first dates.
(pictures to follow soon I hope!)
Filed under: Dublin
Today the girls and I are talking about the difference between houses. The funny thing is that our house in Minnesota is about 50 years older than our house in Dublin.
Difference in the House
- The cookies/biscuits come in a tin here.
- The house in Dublin doesn’t have an attic. The rooms upstairs have slanted ceilings that match the roof. This is particularly noticeable in Lily’s room.
- No basement in Ireland but there is a storage area attached to the side of the house.
- You have to turn on the immersion heater about 30 minutes before you take a bath – if you want a hot bath. (The shower you can turn on immediately – it was added a couple of years ago.)
- The plug-ins are different here.
- In Minnesota there are door knobs; in Ireland there are door handles. Also you can lock every room in Ireland. We removed the lock on the bathroom in Minnesota after an Aine incident.
- The light switched are slightly different here – flatter than back home.
- We unplug certain things at night – such as the TV – as a fire precaution.
Outdoor differences
- In Ireland we don’t have a garage or an alley.
- There is a big hedge in from of everyone’s house. At home there are no (well, few) fences or bushes separating front yards, which does make it easier to play with the neighbors.
- We always lock the door in Ireland. In fact at night we put about 5 locks on the door.
- We dry clothes on the line here – a task we will definitely NOT be bringing back to Minnesota.
Filed under: Boyne Valley
We started the day with lunch at Slane – about 30 minutes north of Dublin.
Then we went to New Grange – unfortunately New Grange was sold out, which came as quite a surprise to us since last time we went to New Grange going there just meant parking in the lot near the structure and walking around.
New Grange is an ancient, mystic burial mound. Now there is a huge visitor center near New Grange, Knowth, and Dowth. You can only see the areas on a guided tour. So we were disappointed – but once we started looking around we didn’t mind at all.
Knowth is the site of one large passage tomb (1.5 acres at the op) and 18 smaller tombs. The tombs are 5000 years old. They were built in the Neolithic period. They are amazing!
They were built in the Boyne Valley – which is a beautifully lush area. There raise a lot of cattle and horses in the area. The Knowth area looks like Telly Tubby land. Around the base of the main tomb are huge rocks with art chipped into them. Some of the drawings are very intricate. The rocks were set up so that on the spring and autumn equinox the sun would shine right in – but later civilization built sous terrains around the edge of the tomb (for storage and protection) and that threw off the measurements.
We got to go into large tomb. The guide we had was very good. She started by telling us that we should stick to the paths. Then 5 minutes later she asked us to follow her – off the path. Naturally we all balked – thinking maybe it was a test. She explained that the path comment was really just for show – we could all walk wherever.
Sunday Night
I met up with Sheila and we hit just about every pub in the City Centre. But we wisely drank only half pints so the damage wasn’t too bad.
Filed under: Dublin
On Saturday Patrick and I saw two plays. Well actually I saw two plays – Patrick saw a movie and a play.
First we met at Bewley’s for lunch. Bewley’s is kind of an institution in Ireland. (Side note: one time years ago, Sinead O’Connor talked to us at Bewley’s.) Then I went to Trinity to see James Son of James. (See the picture of Patrick at Trinity below – by the tree.)
James Son of James was amazing! It’s the story of a man who comes home to Ireland (from Abu Dhabi) for his father’s funeral. While he’s in Ireland he touches the lives of his entire community. He saves the life of the merchant’s daughter. He helps the policeman’s wife get pregnant through breathing exercises. He helps the farmer meet and marry the foreigner. Everyone loves him and he seems like a very good guy – but then things start to fall apart. Just as the community credited him with their good luck they start to blame him for their bad luck.
(Spoiler alert) The final straw is when James is framed for a burglary. He is arrested and killed.
The staging was very visual – not elaborate but creative. The actors were dancers and the scenes were very well choreographed and fun to watch. The play was a musical and the songs were very upbeat with a retro flair.
It was fun to see this as part of the festival as so many themes were mirrored in other shows. The connection between this and the Playboy of the Western World were clear – especially with the festival production of Playboy where the visitor was also the only black actor on stage. Although in this play James brings a whole new morality to the community and in Playboy the visitor lacked morality.
One of the best characters in James was the wife of the politician – and she was very much like Lady Macbeth. She is the one who underwrites her husband’s career and is the only who orchestrates the killing of James. The actress who played her was so good. She looked like a super skinny Parker Posey – and she had a very quirky way of moving.
Anyways – it was a great show.
Then we walked around Dublin. We went to a couple of art galleries. I bought a cute new dress (on sale!).We had dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant – way too much food. And at 10:00 we went to see The Grand Inquisitor.
The Grand Inquisitor was directed by Peter Brooks – a big time director. I remember reading a book of his in college (maybe The Empty Space.) It reenacts a scene from The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky. Patrick happened to meet him earlier in the day.
The play was very good, very intense. I was very tired. The other pictures below are from the park near St Patrick’s Cathedral and by Mother Redcaps – I used to work at a cafe in the market there. It’s closed now.
Filed under: Dublin
On Friday night Patrick and I saw the Idiots. Our favorite part was the beginning – while we were sitting in the lobby/bar the house manager announced that the door was open for “The Idiots … and everyone else.”
I can’t really say much more than that about the play in a family-friendly play. I can say that it was a remake of a Danish film that was apparently banned in Ireland – that tidbit might have been helpful to me BEFORE we saw the show. The lead character looked like Conchubar, who some of you may remember as Patrick’s friend from Ireland at our wedding.
Filed under: Dublin
Yesterday Sheila and I saw The History Boys, which is part of the Dublin Theatre Festival. It was good. It’s kind of a racy Dead Poets Society or Goodbye Mr Chips. They did a good job of adding in a lot of multimedia. As scenery changes happened, they showed brief videos with great 80s music (Madness, Duran, Duran). The videos showed various scenes from around the school and gave you a sense of what the school was like.
It was a matinee show. So the only other people in the full house were retired people and students. I was a little surprised that there were so many students as the themes from the play tended to get very racy.
After the play we went shopping and had a pint. It was fun afternoon/evening in town.
Filed under: Dublin
It was another great day in Dublin weather-wise. So we went out on the road with Irish Grandma and Uncle Fearghal to Glendalough [pronounced glen-da-lock] in County Wicklow – about 45 minutes from the house. (Thankfully no buses or trains today – Fearghal is very very nice to pick us up and tour us around!)
Glendalough is beautiful. I’ll leve Patrick to post the history of Glendalough as a comment when he visits the blog – but I’ll tell you about our day and post the photos.
We had a nice lunch at the Glendalough Hotel. The dessert was particularly notable. Then we walked through the graveyard – the oldest grave we noticed was from 1798. We saw a church called Kevin’s Kitchen and then walked to the lake and to see the waterfall. We got at least a few miles in. The girls did a great job trekking through the area. It is really breathtakingly beautiful. (Sadly due to an Aine-related camera issue we don’t have pictures of the lake or waterfall.)
Even the drive up was amazing. We drove right by Sugar Loaf – a mountain we can see from the house – and it seems to have a cloud around the base of it. Also we saw lots of sheep, cows, and horses.
Filed under: Dublin
Saturday Patrick and I went to the Palace Bar to meet two old friends. We hadn’t seen John Newcombe in 7 years. John is currently working at a home for adults with intellectual issues. It’s a perfect job for John – as he’s very patient.
Sheila is really just in Dublin for a couple of weeks – then she’ll be returning to St Paul. It was a very fun night – and the best news is that we actually made the last bus home!
Saturday was the longest day of our lives! We were all tired. Lily had been to a sleepover party the night before. We left the house around 1:00 – before we ate lunch. We took a bus from the house to Dun Laoghaire, which was about 30 minutes. Then we took the DART (train) from Dun Laoghaire to Howth.
The DART goes around Dublin Bay. Dun Laoghaire is close to the southern tip – Howth is the northern tip. So it is fun to take the train – but not so fun to take Aine on the train – because she’s not to interested in the scenery.
So I pretty much chased Aine for 45 minutes throughout the train. We got to Howth and the weather was great but we were starving. So we went to a restaurant that had great food – but that took an hour to get all of us our food.
But the food did give us a second wind to walk around Howth a little bit – and we actually got to see seals. You can see the picture below. The unfortunate detail about HOwth is that the pier is 15-20 feet about the water – and there is no fence or anything to keep a naughty 3 year old from jumping right in.
So my day in Howth was spent wrestling with Aine to stay with me and not to run or go close to the edge. I actually this it was worth it to see the seals – but it was the longest day ever!
Filed under: Dublin
On Friday night Patrick and I went to see the Playboy of the Western World at the Abbey. It’s part of the Dublin Theatre Festival.
Originally by JM Synge, Playboy debuted at the Abbey Theatre in 1907. The story is set in a pub in Mayo. The excitement sets in when Christy Mahon enters; he’s a young man running away from his farm, claiming he killed his father. The people in the town are more interested in vicariously enjoying his story than in condemning the morality of his murderous deed. He captures the romantic attention of the bar-maid Pegeen Mike, the daughter of Flaherty.
When it first ran, the play caused a riot because Irish nationalists thought it was an insulting commentary on Irish culture. The riot really began when on stage 2 characters try to disguise Christy in a women’s slip (shift) to sneak him out of the town. (You can get more history from Wikipedia – for the interested minority.)
I relay the whole play because the version we saw on Friday was a rewrite by Roddy Doyle – who wrote the commitments and a Nigerian playwright.
The new version is set in a pub in West Dublin. The Playboy comes from Nigeria. The language was like that of the Commitments – not like early 1900’s Western Ireland. It was great.
It was interesting to see what remained from the original and what was changed. Some said they went too far with the language and that the poetry was lost. But I didn’t think so. Or if it was lost, it was lost to the wit of pub talk today. Also I don’t mind poetry that’s a little rough – I love Brendan Kennelly and he uses lots of words I don’t want to hear Aine repeat. In fact, you even hear those words on TV and radio here. So for better or for worse that is the poetry of today.
I loved when Pegeen told Christy that she has “done the Google” on his name and town to see if there are any stories about his murdered father.
The play is an interesting commentary on life in Dublin today. Pegeen’s father is connected and they talk of various gangs and gang members. (Coincidently many of those gang members are not looking to sell their memoirs!) I think the only way to make the playboy seem exotic was to make him Nigerian. There are so many non-nationals living here that American isn’t exotic, nor is Romanian, Polish, or French. English is rarely the primary language on the bus!
I suspect that this show will play in Dublin for a while and perhaps tour. It was a great show.
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