Weekend in Dublin -- Fry-up and Gold

After a too early wake-up, we caught the 8:20 am flight to Dublin and were headed for our hotel by 10:30 -- gotta love how close everything here is!  My dad's cousin Mary Webb met us at the airport, and her husband John greeted us with a delicious fry-up (eggs, sausages, rashers, black pudding, and brown bread).  Fortified we headed down to the city center to meet Liam's family friend Mary and tour the National Museum of Archaeology.

This museum displays a lot of ancient gold artifacts, as well as impressive artifacts from early life in Ireland, including Viking times.  Here are the photos I took before I noticed the No Photography signs.

Then we wandered down to St Stephen's Green, which is a beautiful park with lots of sculptures -- Rebellion martyrs, poets, Irish nationalists, etc.

Cormac and Declan circle Nationalist, Wolfe Tone

with family friend Mary

my dad and Holly

If you were in my junior English class, you would have read the Yeats' poem Easter 1916.  This poem's repetition of the line "A terrible beauty is born" shows the conflict between the desire for change and the often resulting violence.  Yeats also describes some of the martyrs and how the speaker knew them and thought little of them until they put their lives on the line for their beliefs.  For example, Yeats described the woman below as

That woman's days were spent

In ignorant good-will,

Her nights in argument

Until her voice grew shrill.

What voice more sweet than hers

When, young and beautiful,

She rode to harriers?

After wandering through a very crowded downtown shopping area, we made our way across the Liffey River to O'Connell St and saw the bullet holes from the Easter 1916 uprising outside the General Post Office.

Dinner at Beshoff Chippery based on the recommendation of our friends Kate, John, Connor and Clair who spent a year in Dublin on their own Fullbright trip.  The food was good but not spectacular, but our standards are pretty high after eating many fish and chip meals in Glasgow. And, the location could not be beat!

Connor and Claire, this photo is for you!

Now, Liam and I are off to the hotel's pub for a pint.  And we'll pack in another full day tomorrow (though hopefully with a later start).