Exploring Dublin

Jail Fail

This is our only full day in Dublin and we had to make the most of it.  Heading out about 0915 after a full hotel breakfast, it was cool and I had an extra layer on.

We too the tram to Kilmainham Gaol (Jail), which is noted for holding Ireland’s political prisoners.  Unfortunately, there were no slots left for us to visit but we were able to get tickets for 1530.

We wandered across the road to the Modern Art Museum instead.  It wasn’t open till a bit later but the grounds and buildings were nice enough.

Guiness & Cathedrals

From there, we took the tram back towards the city and alighted near the Guiness factory at St James’s Gate.  We didn’t have enough interest to pay EUR22 (minimum) for a visit and just saw the premises from the outside.

Walking towards the city centre, we passed by the Christ Church Cathedral and again, we didn’t have enough interest to pay to enter.

We thought we would pay for entry into the Castle though but it was closed for 6 months.  There was a lot of security around in preparation for the EU Presidency (whatever that means, probably some kind of meeting).

Nearby, was the St Patrick’s Cathedral with a lovely garden where we rested briefly.  Dublin, strangely, has two cathedrals for historical reasons. Christ Church Cathedral (of Norse origins) was already in existence when the Anglo-Normans arrived in the late 1100s, but they established another one, St Patrick’s.

To add to the complexity of the situation, both historic cathedrals came under the Church of Ireland (basically Anglican) during the 16^th Century Reformation.  That’s despite the republic mainly Catholic.

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By now, the weather had become hot.  We took a bus back to the hotel for a rest.  We only had an hour before we had to take the tram back to Kilmainham Gaol.

Kilmainham Goal

Visits to the jail was by guided tour only.  We got tickets for the 1530 session which started with an introduction in the jail’s chapel.  Unfortunately, the echo was so bad there I understood very little.

In the remaining areas, the guide was excellent with her explanations of the history of the jail and some of the key political prisoners that had been kept at Kilmainham.

One of the biggest surprises was that some of the prisoners and martyrs were in their late teens or early twenties!

The jail was abandoned for many years after independence before being restored by volunteers.

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From the jail, we went to the Emigration Museum by tram.  We hadn’t booked in advance as we weren’t confident that we would make the last slot of the day at 1715.  We managed to get there in time but there were no tickets left.

We took the tram to the Temple Bar area and had a beer before having a Sub of the Day at a chain fast food outlet called Supermac’s.  We finished the day with a tram ride back to the hotel and grabbing a wrap to ensure we didn’t go to bed hungry later.