We saw many interesting sights in Ireland. We didn't expect to be greeted by palm trees when we arrived in Kerry. How many people can you fit into your wedding car? There are endless signs to encourage tourists to stay on the right (left) side of the road and not get in over their heads driving the interesting Irish roads. We enjoyed our host Adah's collection of funny objects. We did not expect to meet these animals in Ireland. Can you say a little over the top in the decorating department? You are never too young here to start hanging out in bars. Matthew found a post office box in an interesting location. They can turn anything here into a sport. There are a million 'op shops' for every kind of cause possible. What was he diving for? There are some rather interesting ways to see Dublin. And lastly, we don't know what to make of this except it did get our attention.
The Irish are very proud of their Gaelic roots and so the signs are often bilingual which makes for some real tongue twisting attempts to read.
Ireland may be known for its 'greenness' but we found every downtown (all roads, even highways, run through the middle of towns) has the most colourful buildings. We loved driving through the many small rural communities and taking in the incredible colours of their shops and bars.
Ireland is home to two unique sports - hurling and Gaelic football. Both are definitely on the extremely rough end of the spectrum since all the players wear little or no equipment while physically abusing each other. At least in hurling they now wear helmets but they still do lots of wacking with the hurley stick. Gaelic football is basically a hybrid of football and soccer with an interesting scoring system and, again, no real protective gear. Irish athletes are a tough breed indeed!
We wandered through the Irish capital for two days and really got an appreciation for its rich history. Matthew and I took in a free walking tour which introduced us to many of the colourful characters from Ireland's past. There were also many stories about the Irish struggle for independence and it is hard to not wonder how the Irish can get along at all these days with their former occupier - the British. We visited most of the tourist sights starting with the main street which is O'Connell Street (with the Spire) and Post Office (site of the 1916 Easter Rebellion). The Spire was supposed to be called the Millenium Spire but it was completed in 2003, three years too late. Dubliners don't know what to make of it and have lots of nicknames for it which are too colourful for me to print here. There are lights on top of it so it is often called a multi-million dollar homing device for 3 AM drunks. We also wandered through Temple Bar (where all the tourist pubs are located), Grafton Street (high end shopping), St. Stephen's Green (a beautiful downtown park), and St. Patrick's and Christchurch Cathedrals.
One interesting story about Temple Bar is that a local teenage band called the Hype won a battle of the bands in 1979 and wandered down the street to the Clarence Hotel to celebrate. For some reason (underage, boisterousness, etc.) they were thrown out. As the manager tossed the lead singer out onto the street, the feisty singer yelled, "One day I'm going to come back and buy you out" in a slightly more colourful way. Paul Hewson (later known as Bono) did come back and now U2 owns most of the pubs and hotels in Temple Bar.
Trinity College is home to the ancient Book of Kells which is interesting to see but the real highlight of the tour was spending some time in the Trinity Library. It was very impressive to wander through.
You cannot travel through this part of the world without noticing that EVERYTHING has a Guinness label on it in some form. There is no other drink that comes close to challenging its number one ranking. Budweiser and Molson would kill to have this kind of a hold on their respective countries.
Ireland is an amazing country for many reasons. The green countryside, the incredible coastline, the fascinating and often troubling history, the gazillions of castle and towers, and most of all, its warm and friendly people. We were fortunate to get to know some of them. We stayed outside of Dublin with Mennonite Your Way hosts Martha and Bradley who have lived in Ireland for four years and are raising their children to appreciate the rich Irish heritage all around them.
