Horse and Buggy

Magical Ross Castle

The rest of the day was a boring bus ride back to Dublin along the motorway, although we did stop off at the Rock of Dunamase for a look, and to climb about the ruins.

There is also a cafe / gift shop at the cliffs (built underground), but the prices are a complete rip off, so if you are going, pack a lunch, or snacks.

Cliffs of Moher

Cliffs of Moher with O'Brien's Castle

It was founded in 545 AD, although the stone buildings are from the 10th – 12th centuries. It is starting to show its age a little bit.

Monastrey at Clonmacnoise, Ireland

Sarah liked it a lot, since the Chapel on the right of the picture above is the Dowling chapel, so there was a bit of familial pride to be had.

There was a visitor information center which had a 20 minute film about the founding of the place, but to be honest all I can remember was that whoever founded the place built a wooden church there, and then died of the Yellow Plague the next year.

There were also some old Celtic crosses on display from the graveyard. They had been moved indoors to reduce wear and tear from the elements.

Celtic Cross, Clonmacnoise, Ireland

There was also a castle across the road that was in even worse repair.

Clonmacnoise Castle, Ireland

Dublin was a nice enough city, with a walkable center of town. They have a few main shopping streets which have been blocked off from cars, so people can have the run of them. Exactly like Cuba street in Wellington, or Cashel Mall in Christchurch.

The main sculpture in town is the Spire of Dublin, which is a large (120m) spike. The locals have given it many pseudonyms, such as:

• The Poker near Croker (a suburb in Dublin)
• The Stiffy by the Liffey (The main river in Dublin)
• The Skewer in the Sewer
• The Stiletto in the Ghetto
• The Spire in the Mire
• and many more

The Stiffy by the Liffey

It was in Dublin’s fair city, where the girls are so pretty, that I first set my eyes on the Tart with the Cart. I mean the Trollope with the Scallop. Actually, it was sweet Molly Malone, immortalized in song, commemorated in statue and nicknamed by the local wags.

Sweet Molly Malone

Personally, I think she got off lighter than two of Dublin’s famous sons – The Prick with the Stick and the The Queer with the Leer. Sadly we didn’t get to see their statues, as there was too much other stuff to do.

After shopping in Grafton Street, which has more buskers per block than anywhere else I have ever seen (U2 apparently got their start busking there), we went to the Dublin City Art Gallery, and the Writers Museum.

We were also going to check out the Wax Museum that the guidebook mentioned, but apparently it had closed down a few years ago. The guidebook had been published after the Wax Museum had closed down, but I guess they had a few extra pages to fill, or left it in for old times sake.

The gallery was pretty good, it focused on Irish artists, and Sarah particularly liked a series of Climate Shit Drawings by Yinka Shonibare (they were just paper collage). He also had a quilt made of eggs that was being shot by some headless manikins, which represented a scene in Gullivers Travels or summit. With art like that, it is no surprise he was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2004.

The gallery also had Francis Bacon’s studio, which it had transported from London to Ireland after his death. It was just a big messy room, with a bunch of stuff all over the floor, but I guess it was interesting to see. We got in for free, but had read that they charged 7 euro for it normally, which would have been a huge rip off.

The last place we went to see in Dublin was Phoenix Park. With a total area of 712 hectares (1,760 acres), it is the largest enclosed urban park in Europe, and is apparently larger than all of the parks in London combined. There is a massive field where the Pope gave a mass in 1979 to an audience of 1.3 million people, which was about 1/3 the population of Ireland at the time. Because a photo of a huge empty field would be too boring for even me, here is a photo of the huge cross where the Pope gave the mass.

Papal Cross, Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland