Dubliners

Nick and I spent a few days in Dublin, Ireland this week! Other than a flight delay getting home, some rain and a cold I can't shake, we had a great trip. Many of you will recognize the title of this post as an allusion to a literary work by James Joyce (a collection of short stories). The above statue is of Joyce; he is just one of the many literary giants to have called Dublin home. My favorite writer from Dublin is Oscar Wilde, and I particularly enjoyed the statue of him in the city. (I love the expression on his face!)
According to our bus tour guide, Wilde is the most quoted person in the English language, and right in front of his statue are 2 monuments with some of his quotes; the statue is in a park across the street from his childhood home. It was a lovely little pilgrimage because I love Wilde's work so much.

Another interesting monument in Dublin is the Dublin Spire, the tallest structure in Dublin (120 meters/387.4 feet). It was created in 2003 to replace a famous sculpture destroyed in the 60s. Our tour guide gave us 5 nicknames for the Spire. I'll only give you 3 here because the other 2 are a little vulgar (you can email me for them if you really want to know). The spire is known as: "the rod to God," "the pole in the hole," and "the stiletto in the ghetto." Many Dubliners were not excited about the spire and their tax euros spent to create it.

We really enjoyed our guided bus tour, especially John, our guide/driver. He sang a few Irish songs and gave some interesting facts. We also visited Dublin Castle, which is still used as government offices. We went to the Trinity College library to see the famous Book of Kells, a 7th Century illuminated manuscript of the four gospels. And we spent a few hours in the Irish Museum of Modern Art, where we saw exhibits by Janaina Tschape (whose paintings we loved and whose photography we ... saw) and Ulla von Brandenburg, as well as a variety of commissioned works of modern art.

Here's a photo of Nick in front of the most photographed statue in Dublin: Molly Malone. We wish we could share John (the bus tour guide) singing the song, but we found one on YouTube we liked. Click here for a great version of "Molly Malone" by Barry Dodd.
Thursday we took a coastal bus tour to the south of Dublin. We stopped at the beautiful Powerscourt Gardens, where we enjoyed the breathtaking scenery in the rain. We also enjoyed some of the over-the-top inscriptions on the gravestones in the pet cemetery. A photo of the memorial to Doodles Chow is below.


A few more photos in closing: the adorable shamrock motif of the light posts throughout the city; the Custom House, famous for its architecture; and Aras an Uachtarain, the house of the Irish President. (Look familiar? The inspiration for this facade--the Leinster House in Dublin--also inspired the design of the north portico of the White House, which was designed by an Irish immigrant to America.)