Day 13 Dublin

September 15 2015 - Dublin Ireland

A lazy start to the day but the sun is shining!!

I took a quick walk across the streer to check out Anna Livia as the park was open today.

Anna Livia is a bronze monument located in Croppies Memorial Park. It was formerly located on O'Connell Street.

Croppy (sometimes spelt croppie) was a nickname given to Irish rebels during the period of the 1798 rebellion. Croppies Acre was built as a memorial to Irish rebels executed during the 1798 Rebellion. Croppy was a derogatory title given to Irish rebels who cut (or cropped) their hair in the style of French Revolutionaries.

The monument is a personification of the River Liffey (Abhainn na Life in Irish) which runs through the city.Anna Livia Plurabelle is the name of a character in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake who also embodies the river. In the monument's original location, the river was represented as a young woman sitting on a slope with water flowing past her. Dubliners nicknamed it the Floozie in the Jacuzzi, a nickname that was encouraged by the sculptor. She is also known as the Whore in the Sewer.

Irish people love to poke fun at their monuments, click here is a detailed post I did.

The monument was removed from its site on O'Connell Street in 2001 to make room for the Spire of Dublin. In late February 2011, partly reworked and refurbished, the statue was relocated to Croppies Memorial Park next to the Liffey, near Heuston station and across from our hotel, we could see her from our room.

Across the street from Anna.

Our mission today is the use the Hop On to visit Christchurch, St. Patrick's and Glasnevin Cemetery.
We are lucky our husbands are good sports.
We walk to the stop at Jameson's, so that we don't have to backtrack on the journey. We head towards O'Connell St.

Blue skies behind Daniel.

Merrion Square is considered one of the city's finest surviving squares. Three sides are lined with Georgian redbrick townhouses; the West side abuts the grounds of Leinster House (seat of the Oireachtas), Government Buildings, the Natural History Museum and the National Gallery. The central railed-off garden is now a public park.

Past one of my favourite landmarks - Oscar Wilde. 

The poet, novelist, and satirist Oscar Wilde lived at No. 1, poet W. B. Yeats lived at No. 82, and Daniel O'Connell at No. 58, now home to the Keough-Naughton Center of the University of Notre Dame.

Until 1972 the British Embassy was based at No 39; however, following the Bloody Sunday shootings in Northern Ireland, a crowd of over 20,000 people converged on the site in protest and the building was burnt to the ground.

.

Past the Shelbourne where we started our Shamrock Tour two weeks ago.

Around the corner onto Dawson St. and we pass the city’s smallest pub, the Dawson Lounge. A Dublin institution, you would be forgiven for passing this place by on the street considering its unassuming presence.

More random photos as we meander our way to Christchurch.

Designed for the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) and now the main Garda Station for the south city, Pearse Street Station is a large building in the Scottish Baronial style.

The building originally had separate entrances for the constables and the officers – the triple arch above was for the ‘men’, while the single arch on the left was for officers.

The tall helmets represent the constables, and the officers have caps with flat tops. It looks like there’s a difference in the epaulettes as well, and there’s definitely a contrast in the closures before the busts blend into their surrounds: big round buttons for the men, and ornamental pieces like frogs for the officers.

We get out across from Christchurch and find this charming statue.

This bronze sculpture of three children playing was created by John Behan. It was unveiled on November 8, 2000 by Irish President Mary McAleese. The informational plaque states the statue celebrates the "children of the new millennium."

Ironically, both of Dublin's cathedrals are Protestant. You know I am just going to give you a peak!

These photos are so much brighter than yesterday's with the sun shining.

Before we head to St. Patrick's I make a stop and a purchase at Jam Art Factory.

St. Patrick's Cathedral has a huge garden beside it.

Along the back wall is a literary parade featuring quotes from some of Ireland's best known writers.

Just one example dedicated to Sean O'Casey.

I will take you inside the church another time.

Here sits Benjamin Guinness, born in Dublin, he was the third son of the second Arthur Guinness (1768–1855), and his wife Anne Lee, and a grandson of the first Arthur (1725–1803), who had bought the St. James's Gate Brewery in 1759.

From 1860 to 1865, he undertook at his own expense, and without hiring an architect, the restoration of the city's St Patrick's Cathedral, an enterprise that cost him over £150,000. In 1865 the building was restored to the dean and chapter, and reopened for services on 24 February.

Dublin wags like to say he is pondering the list of expenses for the cathedral.

We now board the blue line of the Hop On to head out to Glasnevin Cemetery.

Glasnevin Cemetery (Irish: Reilig Ghlas Naíon) opened in 1832. Prior to the establishment of Glasnevin Cemetery, Irish Catholics had no cemeteries of their own in which to bury their dead and, as the repressive Penal Laws of the eighteenth century placed heavy restrictions on the public performance of Catholic services, it had become normal practice for Catholics to conduct a limited version of their own funeral services in Protestant churchyards or graveyards.

Established by Daniel O’Connell as a place where people of “all religions and none” could bury their dead with dignity.

This graveyard is huge and so amazing that I will dedicate an entire post to it.

K and B head back to town and we set out to find The Gravediggers' Pub. We had been in it years ago with some cousins.

Founded in 1833 by one John Kavanagh and still in the family, this pub is one of the best in Ireland, virtually unchanged in 150 years.

We head back through the graveyard and take more photos!

 We get the last bus back to town and walk back to the hotel.
I can't believe what I spot!

We meet for dinner in the hotel lounge.

We make our farewells as we have an early morning flight at 7AM to Berlin and K and B are heading back to Toronto aroound noon.