In Dublin’s fair city

Where the girls are so pretty

I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone

As she wheeled her wheel-barrow

Through the streets broad and narrow

Crying, “Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!” – The Dubliners

Woolly says – Dublin, the capital and largest city of Ireland is situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey. A settlement was established in the area by the Gaels during or before the 7th century, followed by the Vikings. As the Kingdom of Dublin grew, it became Ireland’s principal settlement by the 12th century, following the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. Dublin expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire and sixth largest in Western Europe.

Following independence in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, renamed Ireland in 1937. It is also the birthplace to many incredible people including, Bono lead singer of the rock band U2, Chris De Burgh singer-songwriter known for the hit “Lady in Red”, Bob Geldof lead singer of The Boomtown Rats and organizer of Live Aid. Colin Farrell award-winning film and television actor, Brenda Fricker Academy Award-winning actress (My Left Foot). Michael Gambon renowned stage and screen actor famous for playing Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films. James Joyce author of Ulysses and Dubliners (one of Ireland’s most famous literary figures) and Oscar Wilde playwright, poet, and author of The Picture of Dorian to name just a few, it must be the Guiness!

It had taken forever to get out of Belfast so we arrived a little later than I had expected into the capital, having parked the car into our prebooked space and sorted out the time to collect the keys for the accommodation I was keen to get moving as we had at least two places to go to plus seeing what else we found on our walk.

Jo hadn’t got the memo on the speed needed part and insisted on stopping every ten to fifteen minutes to have a break, if I had had time I might have actually been concerned at this is not Jo behaviour and I think we all knew that she wasn’t well. Ignoring this however we steamed across the river shooting up side streets until the smell of roasting barley in the air told me that we had arrived at our first destination.

The Guinness Storehouse is a tourist attraction at St. James’s Gate Brewery and since opening in 2000, it has received over twenty million visitors, looking at the crowds of people, it appeared that another million were seeing it today.

The building in which the Storehouse is located was constructed in 1902 as a fermentation plant and was the first multi-storey steel-framed building to be constructed in Ireland. The building was used continuously as the fermentation plant of the Brewery until its closure in 1988.  In 1997, it was decided to convert the building into the Guinness Storehouse, replacing the Guinness Hop Store as the Brewery’s visitor centre. Having taken a few pictures of the impressive structure and wondered about the gangway that was way above our heads we headed towards the queue to get in. Within moments a young lady asked for our tickets and we all looked at her and smiled telling her that we were paying on the door, she shook her head and explained that the tickets were sold out for the day, in fact they were sold out for the next week and beyond!

My small friends face dropped as he realised his error in not booking online although to be fair, we didn’t know what time we would have wanted the tickets for given the car journey to get here. With nothing to do about it we had to content ourselves with a final sniff of the air as we set off for the next place on the list.

Woolly says – it was obvious that Jo wasn’t going to make it across town and having checked with Zoe we grabbed the first taxi to get us there instead. Ten minutes later we arrived at The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, known as Trinity College, the University of Dublin.  As Ireland’s oldest university, Trinity contributed to Irish literature during the Victorian and Georgian eras and played a notable role in the recognition of Dublin as a UNESCO City of Literature.

It is famous for its former students but also for housing the Book of Kells, an illustrated manuscript and Celtic Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament, it is believed to have been created around 800 AD. Having barely acknowledged the university we were straight into the queue to get into the Book of Kells, leaving Jo and I together in the masses Zoe went to check we could get in.

We couldn’t, was the answer, the next available tickets were at 4pm on the following Thursday which wasn’t going to work for us as our ferry was leaving on Sunday!

I’m not sure who was more disappointed at this outcome, it appeared that Dublin was out to get me and it was winning hands down, trying to put a brave face on it the humans suggested a little look round the university grounds with its most imposing buildings.

The place was swarming with tourists and students, as we wandered, we debated what it must be like trying to study there with millions of people walking past your classrooms all the time and falling over them as you went from one building to another, did they get let off if they were late to a lecture? Or had the staff factored in the delays in getting past the hordes that wandered the grounds.

Having arrived back into the streets of Dublin itself we wandered along trying to spot the cathedral we had spied in the taxi ride over, it probably required to have booked six months in advance, but we could look at the outside.

Much to everyone’s delight especially the mammoth’s we entered the lovely building and were able to buy tickets, hallelujah at least it was something.

Woolly says – I quickly scanned the information sheet they had given us to find out where we actually were.

Christ Church Cathedral, more formally known as The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, is the cathedral of the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough and the cathedral of the ecclesiastical province of the United Provinces of Dublin and Cashel in the (Anglican) Church of Ireland. It is the older of the capital city’s two medieval cathedrals, the other being St Patrick’s Cathedral. The cathedral was founded in the early 11th century under the Viking king Sitric Silkenbeard, which is a brilliant name. It was rebuilt in stone in the late 12th century under the Norman potentate Strongbow, and considerably enlarged in the early 13th century, using Somerset stones and craftsmen. A partial collapse in the 16th century left it in poor shape and the building was extensively renovated and rebuilt in the late 19th century, giving it the form it has today.

Inside it had huge domed ceilings and high windows surrounding the main part of the church making it very light.

Parts of the building were much older with the organ appearing to be almost brand new.

There were all sorts to catch your eye from the skull and crossbones on the floors, a heart shaped flagon, carvings and brass memorials, it was all rather lovely.

Small side chapels were plentiful, and the floors were stunning and worth seeing just on their own.

The altar was small but set beautifully under the arched ceilings with a lovely carved wooden entrance.

Steps led us down into the crypt which had the classic spooky feel to it, this area was much older than anything we had seen upstairs.

Marble memorials have been placed in there along with the Nuremberg Chest which had once contained valuable items for the cathedral.

Several display cases gave us gold and silver platters, goblets and candlesticks, the treasures of the building.

Timed had passed to quickly and with more folks arriving to join our merry group we needed to get back to the digs to meet up with them, hopefully tomorrow would allow us to see some of the places I had planned!