Our last full day in Ireland

Just yesterday Mark said, "I think our friends and family are tired of hearing about Ireland." Well, if you have read/looked at even haf of my posts, I'm sure you are tired, too. If anyone made it all the way through, I owe you a hug or at least a piece of Halloween candy!!

Our last full day in Ireland was a Wednesday and we made great use of the day.

The picture below is the Custom House in Dublin. The "new" building was started in 1781 (that makes me laugh -- new and 1781). Each of the sides of the building has a different facade. The building overlooks the River Liffey. The main reason we took pictures of the building was because of the UNICORN. Our 5 year old granddaughter wants a unicorn! If you are interested in reading more about the Custom House, check out the info here.

The streets of Dublin are heavily traveled. There are double decker city buses everywhere and there are tour buses and some private cars PLUS lots of folks on bicycles. The buses were so colorful and happy.

Our first stop of the day was at St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was built next to the well where Patrick baptized converts on his visit to Dublin. The building is now the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland and it is Anglican. I think this is the church that may have changed denominations over the years.

This is not just a "plaque" in the cathedral -- this is actually (supposedly) the grave of Jonathan Swift - you remember him? He wrote Gulliver's Travels!!

In 1789, John Wesley led a large number of Dublin Methodists to the Cathedral for the administration of Holy Communion. As you can see below, the chairs are spaced for social distancing. . . covid.

Below photo - Mark is standing by the rock that supposedly

covered Patrick's well.

This is the Tree of Remembrance. It allows visitors to remember anyone in their lives affected by conflict. 

This is straight from the brochure about the door below (yes, that is a door). The medieval cathedral played a central role in many historic events. In 1492, a feud between the Butlers of Ormonde and The Fitgeralds of Kildare led to the families seeking refuge in the Cathedral. After arguing through the Chapter House door, Gerald Fitzgerald thrust his arm through a hole in the door as an offer of peace. The Butlers accepted and peace was made, giving rise to the phrase "to chance your arm" which must be an Irish phrase. I don't think I've heard that phrase used in the US. Have you?

Below is a photo of the steps to the cathedral organ, which accompanies the choir during services. That is pretty fancy, isn't it?

The architecture is amazing.

This is fascinating to me (below). Look at the faces on the tile. Throughout the cathedral, the floor tiles resemble quilts and it is quite unusual and beautiful but I love the ones below.

Below is the Lady Chapel. It was added in 1270 (and redone in 2013) and was used by the Huguenots from 1666 to 1816. It is used for worship and also quiet reflection.

photo below - I think we have this same fabric in our church. I need to compare it.

We found (below) fascinating. The Knights of St. Patrick were founded by King George III in 1783. Their names, banners, and hatchments are above their seats.

(below) I literally stepped back to see the Knight's seats better and saw the note before and started laughing and read it out loud. Covid has affected worship all around the world. Do you see the note? It reads, "Have you switched on the livestream?"

St. Patrick's is beautiful.

The pulpit below belonged to Jonathan Swift. He was not only an author but the Dean of the Cathedral from 1713 to 1745.

Our next stop was Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church. This was the first Methodist chapel in Ireland.

I told y'all a couple of days ago about our friend, Don, dying while we were gone. Mark and I lit some candles and knelt and prayed for his wife, Debby, in this church where people have been praying for years.

I think these raised pulpits are so interesting.

There are relics of St. Valentine in this church, too.

We stopped the bus to get a couple of quick photos. These row house or townhomes were originally built for Ireland's elite. They didn't have a yard so each neighborhood had a private park. Some of the parks are still private today. See the sign on the gate below.

Almost as soon as the neighborhoods were completed, the Earl of Kildare chose to build his home (palace?) on the northside of Dublin . . .across the river . . .the great divide. The upper classes made a mass exodus to the other side of the river and these row homes became tenements for the poor. The buildings finally fell into horrible disrepair. The homes are Georgian architecture, red brick, flat front. Some have been refurbished into offices and some have been refurbished as homes. They look so much alike that people now paint the front doors all sorts of colors to distinguish one from another and some have this ivy (plant?) growing on the front. This picture doesn't do justice for the fall colors.

We hopped back on the bus and headed to our fun lunch spot. We ate at the Church Cafe. Work began to build this church (St. Mary's) and was finished in 1702. 

If you look in the middle of the picture above, there is a bust of Arthur Guinness
at the end of the bar (look at Gail in blue coat - go to her hair and look slightly
up and to the left)

The founder of Guinness Brewery married his wife, Olivia, at St. Mary's church in 1761. Supposedly they had 21 children and 10 survived until adulthood. Arthur II also wed in this church - his bride was Ann Lee. I actually think the statue below is back at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The Guinness family evidently gave a lot of money to a lot of places.

After lunch, we headed back toward our hotel. The harp is the national symbol for Ireland and the Samuel Beckett bridge (below) is shaped like a harp on its side.

This (below) is the Jeanie Johnston - a tall ship

moored on the River Liffey. It is a replica of a ship that transported

emigrants to Canada during the Great Famine. During 1848-1855, this ship transported 2500 people to Canada. During this time frame, 1,000,000 people left Ireland due to the famine and 1,000,000 people died because of the famine.

The bronze sculptures below are the 

Famine Memorial.

We then walked to EPIC, the Irish Emigration Museum. It was a powerful experience.

I'm the granddaughter of Pearl Murphy so

I guess that classifies me as part Irish.

We were each given a passport to travel through the museum and there were stamping machines after each exhibit. The history is fascinating.

I loved the exhibit below. They had videos of people singing traditional Irish folk music and then they had a person singing country music today . . . and the likenesses were amazing.

After the museum, we headed to the hotel to freshen up for dinner. We boarded our bus and drove about an hour to a pub.

We sat down and everyone was given a shot of Irish whiskey and then everyone did a toast together. I ended up mixing my whiskey (after the initial toast) with cranberry juice and it was good!

Lisa, Mark, and Gail toasting!

Gail had told her sons that she was going to drink a dark beer while in Ireland so Mark talked her into trying his new favorite. I'm not sure she liked it but she drank some of it!

We were served dinner and there was fun entertainment - Irish dancing, music, and a little comedy.

Our meals ended with Irish coffee!

This was a trip both of us had on our bucket list and the trip did not disappoint. First of all, traveling with EO is a good thing - they have everything lined up and you just board the bus each day. We made lots of new friends. We ate great food and had good drinks. We laughed. We learned. And yes . . . we had jet lag. Speaking of jet lag, I have to give a shout out to American Airlines.

First of all, we had this really unusual thing to eat (below) on the flight from Dublin to Philadelphia but it was good. Also, it was really strange to leave Dublin in the mid morning . . .and as we flew back to the US (up over Nova Scotia, etc.) it became night time again. God's creation is pretty amazing, isn't it? Last but not least, when we landed in Philadelphia we found out that our plane was going to be delayed an additional two hours which was going to make us fly out of Philadelphia very late in the evening . . .and what if it got cancelled. We made a dash to the American Airlines help desk (after sitting in the massage chairs where you put coins in - really!) and they put us on standby for a 3:35 flight to Birmingham. Not only did they get us on the flight but we ended up getting moved to First Class. We weren't even sitting together - Mark was literally on the front row of the plane and I was on the back row against the bathroom. We had nice seats together in first class and the flight attendant gave us lots of wonderful attention. We got home several hours earlier than planned! What a way to end our trip!

Thank you for joining me on my chronicles!!