IRISH MEMORIES AND TRIVIA

                                    Fun Moments

            Between the walking and sightseeing in Dublin we stopped late one morning at Bewley’s Oriental Café for Irish coffee and a pastry. Bewley’s coffee and tea was founded by Quakers in 1842. Stain glass windows and marble top tables decorate the café on Grafton Street. The place was crowded, but we were lucky to find a small round table for two just as a couple was leaving. The pastries in Ireland were scrumptious and I really enjoyed too many of them.

            We learned and confirmed every day that main courses are served with vegetables that represent the colors of the Irish flag. The green might be peas, broccoli, beans; the orange often was carrots or turnips and the white may be potato, cauliflower. It’s a pretty neat concept.

There is a meandering path around the harbor to Kinsale that ends at the city. The Scilly (pronounced silly) trail is paved and weaves alongside homes overlooking the harbor. The homes on the hill were landscaped obscuring them from the path below. Our progress was interrupted often as we stopped to pick and eat wild blackberries. I estimate I ate about a cup of them before lunch. Yummy!

Temple Bar is a section of Dublin known for its traditional Irish food. In the area is a restaurant called the Bad Ass Café. I had to take a picture of the sign as no one would believe it existed. Although we did not eat there I understand the food was good.

At a bus stop I spotted a large sign in some city I presently can’t recall that  said Neuter Your Best Friend. Of course it meant a pet, but I turned to my buddy saying, “You’d better be good now or I’ll neuter you.”

A bar is a walkway along the River Liffey in Dublin.

            The unveiling of the Nelson pillar in 1868 in Dublin provoked serious sectarian riots in Belfast. The monument was destroyed in 1966 and replaced with the Millennium “needle” called The Spire, a 400-foot high abstract sculpture. Pointing skyward over the historic Irish capital like an enormous needle, the monument, built at a cost of a million Euros, is the focal point of rejuvenating the O’Connell Street district, Dublin’s traditional shopping and cultural hub. 

            It took 130 tons of hot rolled stainless steel to create the Spire, which tapers from a nine-foot base to 15 centimeters at the tip where a powerful light is housed. The competition to replace the Nelson monument was won by a London architectural firm.

In Ireland a park is a green. St. Stephen’s Green, occupying 27 acres, is an oasis in the city center. The oldest park in Dublin (1664) was once an open common for punishment. After a long period of decline it became a private park in 1814 and mid-century certain residents had keys to enter the park. In 1880 Lord Ardilaun, chairman of Guinness, bought all the keys and landscaped the area before giving it to the city. Among the meandering paths are a Victorian bandstand, flower gardens, formal lawns and ornamental lake with waterfowl, bridges and islands. Buildings surround the green heartland.  We were in and out of the lovely green several times. It is a great area for a bit of respite in the middle of a busy city.