The first place we hopped off was St. Stephen’s Green. It’s a beautiful city park.
Next stop was the Guinness Storehouse. We learned how Guinness was made *yawn*. I learned that Arthur Guinness signed the 9,000 year lease at £45 per year, and that it takes 119 seconds to pour the perfect pint. Mahlon was very interested in everything so it was worth the trip. To me, the best parts were the advertising floor and the bar at the top. It’s the tallest building in Dublin so the windows up there give a panoramic view of the whole city.
Here’s the lease:
Me playing in the barley sandbox:
The waterfall (sadly not a beerfall, it wasn’t Willy Wonka’s brewery after all.)
Here we are at the gravity bar at the top of the building. They say if you don’t like Guinness, try it in Ireland. It's still just ok. Mahlon couldn't tell the difference.
After lunch we went on to Kilmainham Gaol (Pronounced Kill MAIN um Jail), and it was one of my favorite parts of Dublin. It was a FASCINATING tour, full of stories of the men, women and children who were imprisoned there. Most of the important politicians who fought for Ireland’s freedom from the British were held and executed there. During the potato famine, they arrested and kept many children there, as young as 6, for stealing bread. This history lesson made me understand why the Irish are so proud to be Irish.
Here’s the courtyard where many of the political prisoners were executed.
After the jail tour we got back on the bus and rode it through the rest of the tour.
Here’s where the president of Ireland lives.
This is the Daniel O’Connell statue. He was the founder of the Catholic Association. There’s a symbol of fidelity on the statue that locals laugh at, since they say that Daniel O’Connell fathered so many children out of wedlock, if he threw a stone anywhere in Ireland he’d hit one of them. He must have been very important though, since the main road and bridge are named after him.
The River Liffey
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