Trip to Ireland and France - Day 12, Monday February 23rd

Paula and Orla took Aisling out shopping and to a movie, so Gordon, Nan and I went to see some sights in Dublin. This is not Aisling's favorite activity, so it seemed like a good way to go. We decided to go see Dublin Castle. I don't remember ever going to see Dublin Castle when I lived in Ireland, although my Dad told me that he took me there when I was a little girl, I just don't remember. It is a functioning government building, however, and I do remember going here in the early 80s when I worked for IBM in Ireland to hand over a tax check that was due.

There's a lot of history about Dublin Castle. There was a Viking settlement in Dublin and then a Norman settlement later, with the castle being built in 1204 by King John. It apparently burnt down in 1684 in a big fire and was rebuilt then. It was home to the Viceroys of Ireland who represented the monarchs of England until 1922, when we gained our independence. This includes Cornwallis who was made Viceroy of Ireland after he lost a major battle in the American Revolutionary war. I assume it was a demotion. The tour of the castle was excellent and we got to walk through the state apartments, which were used by the viceroys and visiting monarchs and are now used by the Irish government for some state affairs. The most notable event held in the castle now is the swearing-in of the president of Ireland. Some of the major items of interest include: the James Connolly room, where Irish rebel James Connolly was treated for a gunshot by the British (who had turned the castle into a hospital) so that he could be executed for his part in the Easter Rising of 1916; a mirror from Versailles, one of two that were stolen following the French Revolution (the other one's in Munich) and somehow ended up as the headboard on the bed of some wealthy Irish farmer, before being sold from his estate to a collector for the princely sum of 5 pounds; a huge throne built for the very large King George the IV when he was visiting and which had six inches of it's legs sawed off by the very petite Queen Victoria when she had to use it; some of the original Norman and Viking walls which were re-discovered in 1986 when the River Poddle flooded, leading to the destruction of a building on the site.

Before we went through the State Apartments, we had a little time to kill so we visited two smaller museums in the castle. One is a museum to Revenue Collectors, which I found to be hilarious. It included displays of contraband seized by revenue collectors, including knock-off Gucci bags and much drug paraphernalia. It also displayed a special toilet used by revenue collectors to help in the "collect evidence" from suspected drug mules. The second museum was a museum to the Irish police force, the Garda Siochana. I thought that was pretty boring, but it was in the remaining Norman Tower, the records tower, so it was worth going in to take a look at the tower itself.

We had lunch at a little restaurant called Gruel, and then headed down to Trinity College to see the Long Hall, Book of Kells and the oldest harp in Ireland, which is often connected erroneously with King Brian Boru, who died at the battle of Clontarf in 1014. However, the harp itself is "only" 500 or 600 years old, so it actually isn't Brian Boru's harp. The image of the harp is used in much of Ireland's official documents etc. and also on our currency. When we got home, my father reminded me that in the 1970s, it was stolen and held for ransom by the IRA, and that one of the ringleaders of this crime was my swimming teacher when I was a little girl!

That evening, we went to dinner at the home of some college friends of mine. They live in a lovely old late Victorian or Edwardian house on the South Circular Road. We had a nice time reminiscing about college. When we left, we had some excitement with the rental car. The clutch and transmission had apparently been treated pretty badly by renters, and it really had a hard time going into reverse. Getting out of our parking spot, we held up a couple of taxis while we got out of our parking spot!