A walking tour of Dublin (30 October 2024)

November 04, 2024

Dublin Castle

We arrived at breakfast to find there were three other guests at the Airbnb. They were three young women, two who were students and one who worked from Frankfurt. They were rather delightful and opened up once Bev appeared at the breakfast table. They explained that they had met each other through a dancing group which they all belonged to and had spent the week travelling through Ireland together.

Our main event for the day was a two hour walking tour of the city centre of Dublin. Getting there was a breeze - almost. The bus was across the road from our accommodation, direct to downtown but we got off at the wrong stop and then had to do a bit of a brisk walk to get to the meeting point.

Barry, the guide, was a very knowledgeable Dublin resident who delighted in telling us the history of Ireland and the role that Dublin played in it.

Barry in full flight

Our first stop was Dublin castle, a red brick Georgian building that was constructed in the 1600s with the only remnant of the original castle being the tower which had had a number of functions including a jail. It was where British rule began and ended.

The Irish had always resisted the British who had wanted to make them English. They did this by keeping their language. The British treated the Irish as second class citizens who had few rights and were excluded from owning land, having education and participating in politics. Over the centuries these laws changed but they had the effect that in the 1800s the potato famine claimed over a million lives due to many losing their crops and having no alternative crops to plant as their farms were too small. Thus began the great immigration of the Irish to US and Canada with some to New Zealand and Australia. Irish nationalism and the British response left the Irish with no love for the UK. However, more recently the economy has turned around and we were told that Ireland had one of the highest per capita GDP.

GPO with bullet holes

This does not mean all is well in Dublin as we saw a number of homeless people and the city seemed a bit scruffy compared to the other cities we have recently visited, both big and small.

After the tour we went looking for food going to Bewley’s a café recommended by Dermot but found that it was full. We found a nice little alternative place where I could have a salad and Bev a roll.

Trinity College is a university established by Elizabeth I in the early 1600s. It was modelled on Oxford and Cambridge (apparently Dublin was at one stage the second city of the UK). It has some lovely buildings dating back centuries. For most of its existence it was only for protestants but in the 20^th century it was opened to all faiths. For a long time the Catholic Church banned members of the faith from attending and established their own university. We wandered into the university and went to Parliament Square, taking some photos before exiting.

Trinity College

We had been told about a museum housed in the General Post Office which charted some of the history of the 1916 uprising. It was very informative and we spent time looking at the displays before going back to our accommodation to get a bit more warm clothing as we were feeling a bit cold.

The Long Bar had been recommended as a place to have a Guinness. It was very busy but we eventually found a place by the bar where we had a half pint of the dark malty beer that was surprisingly good. Afterwards we found a pub to eat at and enjoyed a good Beef and Guinness stew which had been recommended by our host.