IRELAND DAY 7, DUBLIN

Our last day I’d left open for anything else we wanted to do and of course, shopping! I wanted to be sure not to miss St Patrick’s Cathedral, so we did that first thing in the morning.




St Patrick’s Cathedral was built on the site where he baptized pagan converts. Jonathan Swift was dean of the cathedral in the 18th century, and they say he wrote “Gulliver’s Travels” during that time. Swift is buried inside the cathedral. We see a lot of Cathedrals and Churches here in Italy, trust me. But this one is different. It looks like a medieval castle inside.




We walked by the Dublin Castle, but didn’t do the tour since Mahlon would probably have had to carry Dexter the whole way. But we saw it from the outside. It’s definitely on the agenda for next time (wishful thinking!)



Here’s Mahlon standing guard!



Everywhere we went there were shops full of the Irish surname coats of arms. There were keychains, pins, plaques and stickers with all the Irish names so of course we searched for the name Daly (Mahlon’s mom is ½ Daly). One of the shopkeepers saw me with a Daly sign and said, “Daly! A rough bunch they are!” I said, “Oh no! My mother-in-law’s a Daly!” He laughed, “You’re in for it then!” He said.

We had lunch at the famous Gogarty’s Pub. The Gogarty guy who originally owned the pub was a good friend of James Joyce (also a Dubliner.)



Our last night in Ireland we ended the trip in the best way possible…live traditional Irish folk music show and riverdance! It’s really too bad the pictures didn’t come out well, the evening was incredible. It was dinner and a show in one. The house band, Legends of Tara, was so much fun. They were so talented and entertaining, and working the crowd all night. Right away these guys noticed the little person jumping and waving his arms around to the music. They asked me to get up and introduce him, and they got so tickled at the name Dexter! After that, they referred back to Dexter all night. “Cover Dexter’s ears, we’re about to say something naughty!” “Uh oh! I don’t think Dexter liked that one!” and “This one’s for the wee Dexter!” The band took a 30 minute break and we watched the dancers, from the actual Riverdance and Lord of the Dance touring groups. They were amazing! I think Mahlon even enjoyed it (don’t tell anyone!) By the end of the dance Dexter was asleep and we figured it was time to go. When the band saw us leaving they stopped the show and shushed everyone so they wouldn’t wake Dexter. Everyone in the audience said goodnight to Dexter as we walked out.







What an amazing trip it was! It was just about perfect. Nothing went wrong. We were worried about that volcanic ash cloud from Iceland! They were cancelling some flights while we were there but we had no problems. AND IT DIDN’T RAIN UNTIL WE BOARDED THE PLANE TO COME HOME! Perfect! I asked Mahlon what part what his favorite and he said the part when we weren’t shopping. I liked it all :o)