In Dublin’s Fair City

In the merry month of June, from Rathdune grove we started

Left the Isles North so early we departed

Greeted Dr. Tim, missed our sleeping beds

Drank a cuppa tea, our sleepiness to cover

Then off to see the Dail, learning even more

A stop for food with drinks to banish pangs of hunger

Brand new shiny rings, ice cream on the green

Thought we'd lost our way on the road to Iveagh House

One Two Three Four Five

To the van and turn her off to supper plans

then all the way back North, Wack fol lol le rah!

Any guesses what song I just butchered? Haha yes today we set off on The Rocky Road to Dublin, which inspired my cheesy rewrite of the song. As you just painfully read Dr. Tim picked us up bright and early in the morning to make the two hour drive down to Dublin. Today's drive was quieter as a lot of the group chose to nap, a few listening to music on headphones.

Arguably the most well known city in Ireland, Dublin is the capital and largest city. Sitting on the East coast at the mouth of the River Liffey bordered by the Wicklow mountains in the province of Leinster. Founded by the Gaels during or possibly before the 7th Century AD it was later expanded as a Viking settlement and has continued growing to this day.

As we arrived on the outskirts of Dublin Dr. Tim called out a joking wake up call giving everyone a chance to wake up before we reached out destination. Of course as we began to drive through Dublin Dr. Tim gave us the usually history and culture lesson we had come to find goes along with the arrival to any new place with him. He dropped us off across the street at the hotel so we could grab a quick cup of coffee while he found a place to park, we met back up in front of Leinster House.

Today we had plans to see some of the political buildings in Dublin, first stop The Dáil Éireann which is the lower house and principle chamber of the Oireachtas. The Oireachtas are the legislature of Ireland, it also consists of The President of Ireland and the Seanad Éireann (the upper house). The houses of the Oireachtas sit in Leinster house, which are housed in a 18th century Ducal palace. The Dáil is made up of 166 elected members, and the Seanad consists of 43 senators who are appointed in multiple different ways.

While we were going through security Katherine mentioned that the Mid-North America Irish dance championship is called Oireachtas. This seems to be due to the word loosely meaning "assembly" in the Irish language. We were met by our tour guide who took us through the building and began to explain about some of the history and architecture. As we reached the chambers were the members of the Dáil would sit we began to transition into the more political side of things, the next hour or so was spent asking questions of our knowledgeable guide and hearing about the political history and landscape. Katherine, Lexi and I who all have an interest in politics and government probably could have talked with him all afternoon but sadly our time with him had come to and end. We were shown an original copy of the Proclamation before being given smaller souvenir copies to take home with us as we said our thanks and headed out.

As we left Leinster house discussing our afternoons plans and all that we had just learned we ended up heading to Grafton Street, the group decided to grab food at McDonald's; I would like to note here that I popped into the M&S cafe along the way to grab a ham and cheese toasty with coffee before meeting back up with the rest of the group there. With about an hour of free time before we had to be at Iveagh House Dr. Tim left us to explore Grafton St. while he went to move the car. Alexis, Lexi and I found some cute rings at a road stand and then we headed into a few other shops to look around and pick up a few different gifts for people back home. A quick nip into Gino's had Lexi and I enjoying delicious gelato as we headed towards St. Stephen's green. A lovely walk through the Green gave us plenty of photo opportunities as we enjoyed the weather. On the other side of the Green we headed across the street to Iveigh house meeting up with Dr. Tim before we headed inside to excitedly collect our security badges.

Iveagh House, the headquarters of The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Originally nos 80 and 81 St. Stephan's Green both houses were bought in 1862 and turned into one residence by Benjamin Guinness, donated to the Irish State by his grandson Rupert, Lord Iveagh in 1939 and thus renamed. You can see a virtual tour of Iveagh house at the following link.

https://web.archive.org/web/20060717015215/http://foreignaffairs.gov.ie/virtualtour/default.asp

We began with a sit down with several members of the different departments, after a round of introductions they started things off by describing what each of their departments do and a little about things they are currently working on. Dr. Tim talked a little about the St. Patrick's Centre and Friends program, and we were asked questions about our involvement and experience so far. We also had the opportunity to ask them questions, during the discussion we covered everything from Brexit to Kennedy. During the conversation we were able to discussed the impact they have already seen and those they are expected as the process towards Brexit continues. Surprisingly it was much the same as we had heard in Northern Ireland, "shoring up" the Good Friday Agreement was a major part being looked at by those on both sides of the border. We also heard another sentiment that was expressed by both sides as extremely important and that is the continued work towards peace and reconciliation as the political atmosphere and climate cause old tensions to be brought up.

After that we were given a tour of the house, as we entered each room beautiful carvings, wonderful woodwork and glittering chandeliers awaited us. Each room held fantastic pieces of artwork and a wonderful history; Iveagh house even has a ghost of its own who is rumored to be seen on an evening at the banister in the ballroom above great wooden doors that have been seen closing and opening on their own. It was a wonderful tour of a grand historic house, I could just imagine it all decorated for the holiday parties and balls our guide had described.

As we were walking back to the car from Iveagh House to our car, Dr. Tim was pointing out things along the way and telling us different bits of history, culture and stories. When we passed by a green post box he had us stop for a minute at this post box telling us to take a closer look. When you did you could see on the inside of the open letter slot where the green had been rubbed away to reveal the red underneath. In 1922 post boxes like this would had been red Royal Mail, after the establishment of the Irish Free State the first act of the new Irish Government was to paint them all green. In the early days the color of green would have varied based on whatever green paint was on hand in that part of the country.

We ended our time in Dublin with a wonderful dinner at Michael's (Canada) Aunt and Uncles house. Having heard we were in Dublin they extended an invite to our group, and we were very glad Dr. Tim had accepted as it was a delicious meal with excellent company. We enjoyed prawns in a wonderful sauce, roast beef, potatoes, carrots, turnips and stuffing paired with refreshing wines and good conversation. Stories and jokes continued as we ate strawberries with fresh whipped cream and apple pie with custard (one of my favorites),. We even had a wonderful sampling of cheeses with crackers, and of course after eight minutes to finish off the evening. After an enjoyable evening we all waved goodbye as we thanked them for the warm welcome and climbed back into the van to head back to Downpatrick.

After we arrived back at the house, Andres decided to go on a walk up to the Cathedral and Kathrine, Alexis, Lexi and I joined him. It was a beautiful night and we were able to enjoy the sunset from the Cathedral, we also took a walk up the path to St. Patrick's and wandered around the cathedral grounds for awhile. On the way back we split up and Katherine, Lexi and I decided to walk up by the school on our way back. It was a really nice way to enjoy Downpatrick and work off the amazing dinner we enjoyed at Michael's Aunt and Uncles house.