Our Irish Adventure – Dublin

People often ask why I keep going back to places I’ve been before … such as Ireland. I just love this country! Once you have been, you will understand.

I believe this was our sixth trip to the Emerald Isle. I had a specific festival I wanted to attend (the Galway Oyster Festival), and a few friends wanted to go who had never been to Ireland (by the way, that is a sure fire way to get me to go). Our travel buddies for the trip were Susan, Dave and Laura, and their friend (and now my friend) Julie from Atlanta. We were in Ireland for 14 nights and visited Dublin, Galway, Killarney, and Kilkenny.

We flew out of Chicago O’Hare on Aer Lingus directly to Dublin. This is such an easy flight! It took us only 6.5 hours of flight time, and we landed in Dublin at 4:30 a.m. It wasn’t even midnight in Illinois! Getting through Passport Control was a breeze, and there was no traffic on the roads, which made it easy to get to our hotel.

We chose to stay at The Mont which is close to Trinity College and across from Merrion Square. I have stayed there two other times, and they have really updated the hotel and bar – very impressive! We decided to have breakfast at the hotel each morning, and it was wonderful and a great way to start the day.

Since we arrived so early into Dublin, I thought there would be no way we would be able to check in to the hotel – but I was wrong! For 40 Euro (which I thought was cheap) we were able to get into our room and freshen up a bit. We had a short night, very little sleep, and a long day ahead of us!

Since we were right across the street from Merrion Square and the Oscar Wilde statue, we took a little walk in the park just to stretch our legs. The parks in Dublin are just beautiful!

Normally I like to do a food tour on the first day in a new city, so we scheduled the Delicious Dublin Food Tour with Ketty Quigley. I had taken this tour back in 2018, so I knew it was good! It started at 10:45 a.m. and was the perfect amount of food for lunch. Favorites from the tour included the scones from Tang, the Irish Coffee from Vice Coffee, and the ice cream from Murphy’s. Unfortunately Julie’s plane from Atlanta was delayed so she missed it – but I was able to bring a scone back for her.

This may be the time to talk a little about Irish Coffees and what makes them so good. We drank a lot of them on our trip, and the consensus was that you need good coffee (not instant), good whiskey, and a good ratio – you don’t want the drink to be too much whiskey or not enough whiskey. In my opinion Vice Coffee in Dublin had the best Irish Coffee in Ireland – hands down!

We went back to the hotel for some much needed rest before embarking on our evening excursion. And now for my first faux pas of the trip – and a lesson I hope to learn – do not schedule too many walking tours on the first day. Although, the Dark Dublin Tour was worth all of the blisters on my feet 😂. Our tour guide Cathal was great, and we had so much fun hearing stories about murderers and those who had been murdered, and who may still be lurking around.

Two stories stand out – the first one was about how the ancient Celts would suck each other’s nipples as a sign of respect (kind of like how we shake hands). I can’t even remember in what context Cathal used this information, but it really stood out for me – it was a real head scratcher, and I was for sure just a legend. More to come on this …

The second story was about Billy in the Bowl, a handsome man with jet black hair that was born without legs and got around Dublin in a large iron bowl. His sole income came from begging, but he liked to drink a lot and gamble, so he resorted to violent robberies and even murder to get more money. Supposedly you can still hear the clanging of his bowl in the streets of Dublin.

It was raining on our second day in Dublin – the start of a pattern for the whole trip. Sunny one day, rainy the next. And even a little rainy on the sunny days! No problem though – the temperature was mild and it was not really cold.

We started the day at the National Museum of Ireland Archaeology, not far from our hotel. A cool thing about the national museums are that they are free! And this museum in particular had something I really wanted to see – the Bog Bodies. There were a lot of artifacts in great condition that dated from 2200 BC through Viking times.

The Bog Bodies are in an exhibit titled “Kingship and Sacrifice”. The bodies are the mummified remains of people who were killed and then buried in the peat bogs. The bogs have a unique composition of acidic water, low temperature, and lack of oxygen that preserves the skin, hair, and nails, and sometimes even clothing, of these individuals. Peat is used in Ireland as fuel, and while harvesting the peat many of these bodies are being discovered.

The remains are dated from 400 BC to 200 BC, and are believed to be some sort of sacrifice to the tribal king. And this is where the “nipple sucking” comes in again … One of the men had his nipples cut. According to researchers, this is significant since sucking a king’s nipples was an ancient Irish form of submission, and the mutilation perpetrated on this man would have made him ineligible to be king. The whole exhibit is fascinating and definitely worth spending a few hours doing, especially if it is raining.

After the museum, we headed towards St. Stephen’s Green to catch the Dublin Big Bus. This is a great option if you want to see the whole city. You can hop on/hop off at their various stops, which will save you a few steps. But what sets this bus apart from the other hop on/hop off buses is the live commentary by the bus driver. It is awesome! I heard that the commentary on the other buses was taped. The driver will even chew out unruly passengers (not us of course) which made it even more entertaining 😂!

You can’t take a trip with Susan without hitting up a few churches! And Dublin has a couple of really great ones. The first one we visited was Christ Church Cathedral. This church was originally built in the 11th century, and is notable for having the tomb of Strongbow and the largest cathedral crypt in Britain or Ireland. Definitely worth a visit!

The second church we visited that day, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, is only a seven minute walk from Christ Church Cathedral. St. Patrick’s was founded in 1191, and is noted for having Jonathan Swift as one of its deans, from 1713 to 1745. There is lots of history to be seen here as well.

After so much history, we headed to another historic place – The Brazen Head, Dublin’s oldest pub – for lunch. This place is definitely worthy of a visit, either for a meal or just a pint. Julie’s favorite Irish Coffee of the trip came from here.

After lunch we got back on the Dublin Big Bus to tour the rest of the city.

That evening we had scheduled the Literary Pub Crawl – one of my favorite things to do in Dublin! The works of Joyce, Beckett, Behan, Wilde, and others are brought to life by your tour guides, and you walk (and drink) in the streets that inspired them. It was a great way to spend an evening, and to top it off Laura won the trivia contest!

The next day our group split up – Susan, Dave, Tim, and I went one way, and Laura and Julie went another way.

Our first stop of the day was the GPO Witness History Museum located in the General Post Office (GPO) on O’Connell Street. This was my second time visiting the museum, and it is one of my favorite things to do in Dublin. I love reading about the history of a place before I visit, and I have read a lot about the Irish people and their fight for independence. This museum is dedicated to the Easter Rising of 1916, and was seized by the rebels and used as their headquarters for six days. The aftermath of this event eventually led to the Irish War of Independence. The film Michael Collins, and the series Rebellion and Resistance on Netflix, will give you a good general idea of the history behind the Rising. If you have time, visiting Kilmainham Gaol is also very worthwhile and will complete the story of the Easter Rising.

We had lunch then headed to our appointment at Pearse Lyons Distillery. Since I had been to the Guinness Brewery and Jameson & Sons Distillery many times, we decided to try one of the new distilleries. Pearse Lyons Distillery is located close to Guinness in what is known as The Golden Triangle, and is housed in an old church, St. James. See, here we killed two birds with one stone – visiting a church and drinking whiskey! We had a great time learning about the history of this place and the labor of love that went into the restoration. Oh, and the whiskey was awesome too! We also learned there is a connection to Kentucky Bourbon, since Pearse Lyons also owns Lexington Brewing & Distilling Company (also known as Town Branch).

While we were drinking whiskey, Laura and Julie were close by drinking Guinness and visiting the Brewery. And guess what – Laura won the trivia contest here as well!

Our last night in Dublin, and we had tickets at The Gaiety Theatre to see “And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie. First we had dinner at Drury Buildings, a nice change of pace from pub food. Then we were only a few minutes walk to the theater. The production and acting was really well done, and if you saw the movie you may be somewhat shocked by the ending of the play!

The next day we headed by train to Galway – see you there!