Museums and "museums" of Dublin

Around here we like museums.  Fortunately Dublin has no shortage of great museums.  Some of these are showcases for artifacts and others are more "experiences".

On our second day in Dublin we walked down to the National Museum of Decorative Arts and History.  This museum is in the old Collins Barracks on the north side of the River Liffey to the west of downtown.  To get there we walked past the Arbour Hill Memorial and cemetary.  The Memorial was a former cemetery for the military barracks that now houses the museum across the street.  It is also the burial place of the 14 executed leaders of the 1916 Uprising.  Oddly enough, the 14 were buried quickly in a mass grave so that the site would not become a shrine that would further their political aims.

 Arbour Hill Cemetery

Interior courtyard at Collins Barracks

Tired jet-lagged smiley boy

Giant Irish Deer

One rainy afternoon we wandered into the National Museum of Natural History, known to Dublin school children as the dead zoo.  It was awesome and so very Victorian.  It was built in 1857 and has changed little since an expansion in 1877.  It made me think of the explorers of that era I've read about who collected specimens to bring back home.  This is where some of them would have ended up.  The website describes the place as "a museum of a museum".  We saw skeletons of the now extinct giant Irish deer, old bones found in the bogs of Ireland.  They are truly massive with an antler spread of up to 12 feet.  We also found pandas, and giraffes upstairs in the exotic animal exhibit.

My boy with his favorite animal

Me with mine

High on every must see list for Dublin is the EPIC Irish Emigration Museum.  In front of the museum is this set of sculptures depicting the massive emigration during the great famine.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but I would certainly put this in the category of "experience" rather than exhibition.  There were lovely displays in a series of rooms about the history of Ireland and the reasons people have emigrated at different times as well as the modern culture and the impact the emigrants have had on the world.  One of my favorite displays showed dual screens, one with a woman singing traditional Irish tunes to a fiddle and one with a man singing Appalachian Bluegrass tunes to a banjo.  Not much difference.

Famine Memorial Sculptures

The Jeannie Johnston

Dublin Custom House

In the same area is the Jeannie Johnston, a replica of the type of tall ship used during the potato famine of the 1840s.  The Custom house is also just up the road.  It was originally completed in 1791 and used to collect custom on the shipments coming into Dublin on the Liffey.  Throughout the history of Dublin the river port has been a critical part of the economy.

On another day we went to the National Archaeology museum.  The museum is housed in a stunning Victorian building.  The star of the show was the prehistoric gold.  It is quite impressive given that there are no significant gold deposits in Ireland.  I also really liked the Treasury which displayed the exceptionally fine craftsmanship of gold and silver religious artifacts from Celtic and early Christian Ireland.  The second gallery displayed portions of a book of Psalms from around 800 AD that was recovered from an Irish bog.  My girl really liked seeing the different versions of the Viking and Celtic cloak pins.  There were also plenty of Celtic and Viking swords.  One particular item was pretty odd, bog butter.  It's kind of what it sounds like, butter or other animal fat buried in bogs as a means of preservation.  Some samples have been found from the 15th and 16th centuries.

Gold collars

Another "museum" was the National Leprechaun Museum.  It was less museum and more story telling experience for tourists.  We had a very entertaining guide and enjoyed it.  We heard stories of the Leprechauns, faeries, the Fianna, and Fionn McCumhail (Finn McCool)  My girl liked the story of how he got wisdom from sucking a bit of salmon off his thumb.

My Leprechauns

Another tourist experience on the not-to-be-missed list is Dublinia.  It tells the story of Viking and Medieval Dublin.  This is primarily geared toward kids, but also enjoyable for adults.  I'm not going to retell the whole history of the city here, but we tried on helmets, wrote in runes, visited a Medieval market, and played with swords.  Well done.  The building is across the street from Christ Church Cathedral in the former synod hall and previous location of St Micheal's church.  The building is connected to Christ Church by a stone archway and includes St Micheal's tower.

My Viking girl

Medieval punishment

Mmmm... pies

Spectacular views of Christ Church from St Micheal's tower.

One last museum, the GPO, or General Post Office.  This building was the center of the 1916 Easter Uprising.  The interior was completely burned and later restored, but the original facade, complete with bullet holes, still stands.  The museum at the site of the post office tells the story of the uprising and it's aftermath.  It is a tragic story since the uprising was not successful and the leaders were executed.  It wouldn't be until years later that Ireland became a free state.  After many years as a constitutional monarchy under the King of England the Republic of Ireland was formally declared in 1949.  (I think I got that right, maybe not)   

One display was particularly touching.  It told of the boy scouts, Na Fianna Eirann, who were message boys and fighters during the Uprising and later civil war.  They even participated in the gun running of 1914.  There may have been other groups of boys involved with the different organizations, but all the same, the boys were there in the middle of it.  The organization still survives with a decidedly more political and military bend than our version of scouting.  John's great uncle, Packy Joe's dad was one of these scouts for a time.  Those who worked for the republic were awarded positions in the Garda, police force, after the war.

Ireland is both very old and very new.  People have been here for a very long time, since before the Vikings settled Dublin.  But, the country as we know it today is actually quite new.  Life goes on as the political world swirls around.  People and ships continue to come and go,  Borders and rulers change, but life goes on.

So many museums so many churches and so little time.  We would like to come back to Dublin and Ireland.  We most certainly will return for visa renewals and other such things, but it is a lovely place to spend some time.

It's the little things... Irish food edition

We have been doing some big things, but a lot of what we are doing are the little things that take so much more time and effort right now.  Let's start with grocery shopping.  At home I can shop for several days and go and be home in 45 minutes if I have a list.  Different story here. 

In Dublin it took a couple of days to start cooking again rather than just warming stuff up.  Once Dad arrived we also ate out more.  We had a furnished apartment with a kitchen and very basic cooking tools and no food other than coffee, tea, and sugar.  Think about preparing a meal where you have to buy EVERYTHING.  It didn't help that the stores are small and the selection quite limited compared to a typical American grocery store.  I forgot to buy salt for our first dinner at home and we had some very bland pasta.  The lack of salt just compounded the general blandness I feared was normal for Irish food.  This is a place where salsa comes in mild and cool.  We bought the arrabiata pasta sauce to get some barely discernable flavor.  It was grim folks.  Then we discovered mini Magnum ice cream bars, freshly baked scones, the full Irish breakfast, Manor Takeaway, the Pieman, and La Pausa coffee shop. 

The ice cream bars are just a little chocolate covered vanilla taste of home. 

The scones are subtly sweet rich melty goodness.  We sent the kids to the bakery across the street each morning for our daily fix.  Both the white and brown versions were fantastic.  There is something about the Irish milk and butter that is rich and delicious especially when paired with the scones.

I had read about the full Irish breakfast and wasn't too sure.  Just how much meaty stuff can one person eat for breakfast?  A lot it turns out with multiple types of bacon, sausages, and both black and white meat puddings (sausages).  Don't forget the eggs.  It's too much for daily eating, but its great for a late brunchy meal.  In spite of a questionable reputation we all liked the black and white pudding.  Ignore the ingredient list.  It's probably best if you don't know.  (The first ingredient is oatmeal followed by many types of porky beefy bits.)  We finally found where Ireland hides its flavor.  Several times I made a messy hash with potatoes, black and white pudding, bacon, eggs, and broccoli. just to keep it healthy.  Yummy.

We found a few places to eat out that were delicious and reasonably priced.  It is easy to spend a lot on touristy pub food.  Manor Takeaway was just down the street a block or so away.  I've mentioned this place before.  It is a great example of a common enough type that serves fish and chips, pizza, and kebabs.  This particular place is run by an Italian family from just outside of Rome.  John practiced a bit of Italian with them and they liked hearing that we were moving to their home.

The Pieman is in the very touristy Temple Bar neighborhood just past Merchant's arch.  It is an unassuming little place.  Meat pies are more British than Irish, but it was good all the same.  I tried the mushy peas.  I had seen cans of mushy peas in the grocery stores and couldn't resist.  It is exactly what it sounds like.  Imagine extra thick split pea soup, with just the peas.  Not bad, since I like split pea soup, but it is really much better with the ham and other vegetables.

Another day we had dinner at the Hairy Lemon pub because we just couldn't pass by a place with a name like that.

We changed busses occasionally on Blessington street in front of La Pausa cafe.  One day we stopped in for a bite.  It is a great place with a lot of hipster character.  You can get a partial Irish breakfast, in case a full one is too much.  The chocolate croissants and hot chocolate were amazing.

Any place takes a little getting used to.  I was finally getting used to Dublin and really enjoying it when it was time to leave and start the process all over again, but this time in a different language that I barely speak.

A Newer Church in Dublin

When we are out of town we try to attend church if possible.  This has lead to some interesting experiences including bilingual English/Spanish meetings in Belize and ASL meetings in Seattle.  In Dublin I expected familiar rituals and hymns in charming Irish accents.  We got something a little different.  We attended the Finglas ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  This ward includes the downtown area of Dublin.  There are other wards in the suburbs that may be more like what I was expecting, but we weren't there.

On our first Sunday the kids and I found our way to the church building at the Slaney road bus stop across the street from Glasnevin cemetery.  We walked in with several others from the same bus.  I had wondered if they were going the same place when the hopped on the bus in white shirts and ties or churchy looking dresses.  After we sat down we got a surprise.  The kids former piano teacher and ward member from California was there!  She was in town just for a couple of days with a BYU study abroad group.  It was so good to see her.  I was feeling a bit lonely since John had to delay his arrival for a few days to get things finished up at home.  There were a lot of moving parts to get taken care of before we could leave.

One thing I didn't expect was when the bishop specifically invited the Portuguese speaking members of the ward to participate in the testimony meeting.  I didn't expect there to be so many.  It turns out that there are a lot of Brazilian and other students who come to Dublin to study English.  We were told that Ireland is one of the few places where you can work while in the country on a student visa.

I also didn't expect such a large number of visitors from the US.  On the first week there were 12 kids in the teen Sunday School class.  Nine of them, including my two, were visiting from the US.  It was the same with the women in Relief Society the next week.  There were a handful of women who lived there and nearly as many visitors, mostly from the US.  A few were in town for only a few hours off of a cruise ship.  Others, like us, were there for longer.

On our second week we talked to a family from Arizona.  They were there for three weeks while the Dad worked for an International tech company.  They had kids about the same ages as our kids.  We later ran into them at the park playground.  It was fun to get to know them.  We invited them to Rome for a visit.  It is unlikely, but you never know.

On our last Sunday we met a young woman from Utah who was heading home after visiting Germany and Italy with a friend.  It turns out that she knew my nephew and was on the High School track team with him years ago.  Small world.  She had a few hours to kill before she could check into her hostel so we invited her to have lunch with us and helped her get a bus pass.  She had arrived in Dublin at 1 am and "slept" in the airport before coming to church.  She was great and seemed to enjoy the crazy family who adopted her for a couple of hours.  When we got to our bus stop we ran into the crowds spilling out of the pubs in preparation for the national hurling championship game that afternoon.  Hurling is a uniquely Irish game played with a ball and a stick, something like field hockey crossed with rugby.  I saw an ad that described it as the fastest field sport in the world.  It was fun to see everyone dressed in their team colors getting ready for a good time.  I am, however, glad that I wasn't in the stands with them as they continued to down the beer.

I also talked to people from Dublin who were so very helpful.  One woman was very kind and seemed like the kind of person who would know everyone.  She introduced me to the man who runs the family history center at the church.  I later spent part of a Wednesday morning there, which led me to the national library, and later the valuations office.  But more on that later.

I also asked another woman about seminary for the teenagers.  It turned out that she had been a seminary teacher for eight years.  In California the teenagers attend early morning seminary before high school.  I wondered how they did it here with so few teens and such large distances.  She said that they used to do it in the morning before school, but had switched to meeting weekly.  There is also an online version for students who live far and wide.  I'm thinking about Rome and how My Boy will be able to participate in seminary, especially since he doesn't speak Italian.  Perhaps he could join the Irish online students.  It is only one hour different and he really liked Ireland.

I'm looking forward to church in Rome, but it will be harder since it won't be in English.

Old Churches of Dublin

It seems like there is a church around every corner.  (OK, not every corner, but if there isn't a church on the corner there is at least a steeple or two within view.)  The ones that are the most noticeable are old and Gothic.  I've already mentioned our friendly neighborhood church, Aughrim Street Parish.

The back of Aughrim Street Parish

Another favorite is St Audoen's church.  We first saw it as we were finding our way home on the first Sunday we were here.  We "took a detour" on the way home when we either got on the wrong bus or missed our stop.  In the front garden there are outdoor musical instruments that the kids had a good time with.  I love that it is old and austere and still very much a functioning parish church.  It was erected in 1172 but has gone through periods of decay and rebuilding through the years.  In its heyday it was the heart of a wealthy parish and well connected to the guilds.

St Audoen's

The area labeled as St Anne's Chapel is now a little museum that talks about the history of the building and life at the time it was built.  My Boy's favorite object there was the trepanning tool.  Yikes!  

My favorite was the 15th century monument to Sir Roland FitzEustace in the base of the bell tower, what a great name for a Medieval nobelman.  There is an inscription on the front that says "Pray for the soul of Roland FitzEustace of Portlester who dedicated this place or chapel in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also for the soul of Margaret, his wife, and for the souls of the faithful departed." (in Latin)  He was quite the guy who nearly started a civil war when he refused to give up his post as Lord High Treasurer of Ireland.

St. Audoen's is also the home of a lucky Celtic grave stone.  It is said to have a supernatural protector because in spite of being removed from its home several times, it always finds its way back.  The ghosts of the priests of St Audoen are said to protect it today.  In the 14th century it was placed near a cistern that was Dublin's first civic water supply.  Merchants would make a daily trip to rub the stone for luck.  Even today people will come and touch the stone for luck.

 "Happy" children touching the lucky stone

Relief on the wall of St Anne's chapel

One of the most famous churches in Dublin is Christ Church Cathedral.  The kids and I stopped by one morning for a little sketching and John and I went back later for the full tour.  There are days the kids are a bit tired of churches and museums and just want a day off from all of the touring, so we let them stay home with the TV and their devices and everyone is happy.

The morning we went out sketching turned out to be a beautiful sunny day.  We enjoyed taking time to sit and enjoy the scenery without rushing past.  There were plenty of tourists there that day walking by.  We became part of the show.  It was fun to listen to the tour guides as they told their stories and watch people watch us.  I tackled the top of the tower.  My Girl took on the door and curly iron work.  Quite successful for our first attempt at Urban Sketching.  I hope to do a lot more.

 It is all very Gothic now.  Like most things it didn't start out that way.  Like many structures that old there is a long history of building, decay and rebuilding.  Much of what you see today is Victorian era rebuilding.  I particularly liked the stained glass, the tile floors, and the crypt.  I also really liked the iron work on the doors and the oldest reliefs built into the walls.  Many were memorials from later time periods, but a few looked much older.

 Door to the stairs down to the crypt (and the crypt gift shop)

I also liked the tomb of Strongbow who led the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland.  I later learned that he isn't actually buried here and the tomb is a 1570 replacement since the original was destroyed or damaged when the nave of the church collapsed in 1562.  It is unclear who the small figure it.  It could represent his son who died as a child.

 Reputed tomb of Strongbow an Anglo-Norman nobleman.

These churches are along a frequent bus route.  The grey stone church is St Peters church at the corner of Cabra road and North Circular road.  The red brick building used to be a church, but is now a solicitors office.  I love the contrast between the two.  I wish I knew the history of the little red church.  I took these photos from the top of the double decker bus so they are a bit hurried and the light post is a bit in the way.

In our wanderings we also came across what is informally called the Black Church.  It is called the black church because the stone appears black when wet, that would be a lot of the time here in Dublin.  It no longer serves as a church, but had some interesting architecture and a rather sinister legend associated with it.  (Sorry no picture.)  The legend says that if you run around the church three times at midnight you will summon the devil.  Austin Clarke, a Dublin poet and author, wrote an autobiography in 1962 called Twice Around the Black Church.  What an evocative title.

So many churches, so little time.  We haven't even made it to St. Patrick's yet.

Hello Dublin!

The first step on our adventure is Dublin.  We have been so focused on moving to Italy and getting ready for life there that I had almost overlooked the fact that we have three weeks in Dublin and Ireland.  It is a great place to recover from jet lag and get used to a more European way of living.

After a long overnight flight that included a race through Toronto airport, our flight from SFO to Toronto was a couple of hours late, we arrived in Dublin on time.  I was worried that we would miss our connection which would have made for a rough start.  We are staying in an apartment in the neighborhood of Stoneybatter.

According to the stone down the road, "Stoneybatter once formed part of the ancient second century rode from Royal Tara to Glendalough, crossing the river at the ford of the Hurdles.  The name in Irish, meaning the road of the stones, has over time become Anglicized to present day Stoneybatter."  Now it is a little hipster neighborhood with shops and old brick row houses.  The majority of the houses appear to be Victorian.  The church around the corner, Aughrim Street Parish, was built in 1876.  It is quite lovely, but lovely neighborhood churches from that time are a dime a dozen in the city.

View from our front door

It is certainly a mix of the old and new.  Our apartment building is modern, but the row houses behind are old.  I can easily imagine it as an urban Victorian slum. There are small row houses with boot scrapers built into the walls near the doors.  A couple of streets up the houses are a bit bigger and set back off the street.  Farther up the houses are more separate and have space between them.  We ran across a boy leading a horse down a side street.  There is a carriage tour business nearby.  He was charming and a bit of old Ireland.  Clarke's City Arms pub just up the street is also delightfully old with it's hanging baskets and bright blue front.  There used to be a hotel on the spot with the same name and before that an estate owned by the Jameson whiskey family.  The hipster shops in Stoneybatter, the tech businesses, and our favorite fish and chip shop, run by Italian immigrants, definitely new Ireland.

On our first evening in town we took a walk to Pheonix Park.  It seems to be the Central Park of the city.  My Girl was thrilled to find a playground when we first arrived.  We played for a bit, then wandered around.

We found a large monument that we later learned is the Wellington Testimonial, a monument to the Duke of Wellington.  My Girl called it the Irish-ton monument since it is an obelisk like the Washington monument.  Among many other things the Anglo-Irish Duke became a hero during the Napoleonic wars and is famous for leading the victory of the British at the battle of Waterloo.  He was later the Prime Minister of the UK on two different occasions.

 On the plane I asked the kids what they were most excited about seeing or doing in Ireland.  Their answer, real Kinder eggs.  So we did, choking hazard toys and all.

More later...

Update:
John found a blog post on the history of our neighborhood.  (Follow the link for historical pictures)  Until the 1970s there was a very large cattle market on the corner of Prussia street and North Circular Road.  Cattle would be sold and run through the streets to nearby slaughterhouses or to the river where they were put on boats.  It is clear that the homes there are newer.  They have garages.  Cattle buyers and agents would stay at the City Arms hotel just up the street from our apartment.  The building is still there, but it is no longer a hotel.  The Clark's City Arms pub is still there.  The hotel is mentioned as the place the character Leopold Bloom lives for a time while working at the cattle market in James Joyce's Ulysses.

Where?... Why?...

Lately I've been answering two questions a lot, Where? and Why?, mostly relating to our plans for the future.  The conversations often go like this...

       Will ... be attending ... school this fall?
       We are moving out of town so we will be attending a different school.
       Moving?  Where are you going?
       We are moving to Italy.
       Italy.  Wow. 

The expressions vary from enthusiastic, to confused, to envious, to why on earth would you ever want to do that.  The most unique response was, "Well, I can't top that."  I wasn't asking her to.  I think she was surprised that we were doing such an unusual thing.  I don't come across as a particularly interesting or exotic person.  We drive very old cars, we don't take fabulous vacations, my clothes are basic to say the least.  She doesn't know me well.  The truth is we are exactly the type of people who would do this type of thing. 

We have both worked and/or lived overseas and value the experience you gain when you see more of the world in an in depth way.  We are and have been willing to give up some things so that we can have this experience for our family.  Vacation travel is good and fun, but living in a place is a very different experience.  You get to know the place and people well and appreciate the similarities and differences between your old home and your new home.  Your world gets larger.

       Is is for your husband's work?
       No.
       Why are you going?

After several of these conversations I needed a reasonable answer.  The real reason is that we want to and we can, so we are going.  John lived in Rome as a boy for 3 years when his parents got an overseas assignment.  The family had previously lived in France where John was born.  These overseas experiences were transformative and really brought the family together.

I've thought about our friends who have come to our area from other countries for job opportunities, typically in tech companies.  This is the center of the tech world that draws people from around the globe, but we don't work in tech.  We can go.

I tell people that we are going for the adventure.  John really feels that our suburban California life has gotten a little stale.  He wants to go back to the chaos of the European capital he loved as a teenager.  I didn't have the same feeling.  The kids are a little older and things are going well with the family, work, hobbies, art, school etc.  If anything I was enjoying the lack of chaos I felt when the kids were small.  But, perhaps I say that because I knew we had this big adventure coming soon.

We chose this year to go because both of the kids are changing schools.  My Girl is going into middle school and My Boy is starting high school.  We thought that it might be easier to make a big change when there was a smaller change already happening.  I am quite excited about the schools they will be attending.  I think they will thrive there.  I hope.  But more on that at a later time.

       How do you do it?

Well, it has taken a lot of planning and really informed a lot of our life choices for years.  We have taken our jobs and careers in directions where we could make this happen.  I now teach primarily online classes.  In Italy I will work for the same community college and continue teaching online.  I've also applied for an additional online teaching job that will hopefully come through. John has his own accounting business that he has been growing and managing to get it to a place where he can be gone for part of the year.  He will have to come back to California for the spring and fall tax seasons, so we'll have to see how that goes.  That will mean some long separations, but Facetime makes it a little better.

Another key part is that John is an Irish citizen, thanks to his grandmother who was born in Ireland.  Because he is an EU citizen he, and his family, can live in an EU country with very little trouble.  I say that now as we continue to work through the formalities.  Hopefully it will come through OK.

       How long are you staying?

I don't know, two to seven years.  In two years we will have had a real living experience.  In seven years my girl graduates from high school.  I don't see a need to stay longer than that.  That is a big range.  There are a lot of things that will influence how long we stay.  The big one is how well our jobs work with us overseas.  For me it is pretty easy, but I am giving up the option for on-campus classes to fill in the schedule.  For John working more remotely is an unknown thing.  We don't know for sure how well it will work.  There could be family or personal things that come up that call us home.  There could be global things such as dramatic changes in the exchange rates that make it difficult for us to stay.  There are a lot of unknowns, but the future anywhere is unknown, so we go forward anyway.

Because of our new adventures I am going to revive this blog.  There are friends and family who may want to follow along so here we go...