Days 1 and 2 in Dublin
The A380 Emirates flight to Dubai was quite comfortable. There is always the anticipation that the flight will have a few jarring elements, but not so. Those came on the 777.300 from Dubai to Dublin! Sardine seating and the close proximity to toilet flushing made for high volume on the movie selection and endless music while reading. Finished Lethal Streets though….light fluff which did the trick. Red Joan was quite a reasonable film, though the close ups of Judi Dench’s mouth reminded me to make a dentist appointment when I get home.
For those contemplating Dublin delights any time soon, we can recommend the CityLink bus from the airport. With the dwindling Aussie dollar, the difference between a 7 Euro single ticket and 30-40 for a taxi, makes one choose a bit more carefully……….especially as the generosity of Australia’s free galleries and museums is not often reflected in its northern cousins’.
So where does the Green come in to it? Well, I see plenty of very professional photos of faces and places that typify Ireland’s lush heritage, but I thought I might try to focus on the shades of colour that have identified Ireland across the globe. The greens will be scattered throughout the coming days.
Our special accommodation at Trinity College is almost surreal. We are 3 floors up in House 3 of the student digs and the views from the windows are very Cambridge-like. A real treat! Stairmaster eat your heart out!
The adjoining kitchen has been very handy for our Marks and Spencer food court selections. We have spotted some great restaurants, but are saving the foodie finds for Galway and the West Coast seafood. When we come back though these couple will definitely be on the list.
Trinity College Campus has lots to offer besides The Book of Kells and once the hoardes of tourists leave at the end of each day the peace is just wonderful – broken only by the seagulls calls.
I strolled down to St Stephen’s Green – a wonderfully central park full of diverse stories and things to see. Opposite is the publically funded Little Museum of Dublin. What a hoot was the whole place! A must-see for all. So many quirky memories of the famous and the not so famous common Dubliners. Only 8 Euro, heaps to see and plenty of time to explore on your own after the 30 minute tour.
Luke, was our cute leprechaun of a guide and he was a fine showman who had kissed the Blarney Stone more than once I reckon. Brendan O’Connor of Mrs Brown fame only has a cardboard cutout in the museum, but his mother is portrayed in her own right as the first woman head of a political party. The tennis ball collage installation is a bit of fun- all the balls left by dogs on the beach at Dun Loughaire south of Dublin.
So then it was off to wander the famous Grafton street with its familiar franchises and its local characters.
The Liffey river runs through Dublin and is crossed by many bridges which all offer a different view, so I set off for the EPIC EMigration Museum and Famine Walk.
A great afternoon along the Quay. You need a fair amount of time to see and take it all in. Lots of techno wizardry and interactive stations describing the worldwide spread of the Irish and the heritage across the world. Mostly geared to the USA, but there were some jolly old Aussie references.
Lots of walking and catching glimpses of parts of Dublin we had not seen on previous visits. Dublin is a top spot! To be sure, to be sure!
And the reason many, including the Forsyth, Cowan, Guy and Bowles lines from which I am descended, sought different shores was the famine, hardship of large families and small plots of land, unemployment and the yearning for a better life. Here’s to the Irish diaspora!
Molly B travlyn 
And why green for Ireland? I’ve never been there, but when I think of Ireland, it’s not a wide brown land I picture. What I imagine is the special colour of the shamrock. As a child, visiting my grandfather (whose family came from the “other” Ireland), I clearly remember him talking about the magic 4-leaf clovers, bringing luck to the finder. It was much later that I realized that he was associated more with “the orange” and not “the green” as an Orangeman in Northern Ireland, marching on 12th July with the Orange Order. *cringe*
Interestingly (to me), my grandmother’s nephew, Doctor Samuel Gilbert Heaton graduated from Trinity College on 8th December 1937 (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery). THE ANCESTRY BUG BITES – I had to check the family tree for the date of graduation and glanced at a few names, and thought, hmmm, I should look them up. So I did. And now I have another name for my tree. Unfortunately, some of the other information I had before seems to be incorrect *sigh*
Keep those shades of green coming.
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The green for me signifies the absolutely magic shades of green all over the place. I have seen real shamrocks growing in the sunlit foyer of one of the churches and the colour is memorable. I too have a divided ancestral line across the orange and the green. It was not a childhood conversation with my grandfather though, so my memories are of his wit, him playing the piano accordion squeezebox and singing his Irish ditties…….and now as a fam hist tragic I like to think that they made the decision to move away from Armagh rather than endure the sectarian divide. Realistically though it was probably to escape poverty and the downturn in the weaving industry that both my Guy/Bowles g grandparents were so much a part of. My great aunt was born in Northern Ireland, but her third sibling, my grandfather William, was born in Australia in 1889, so I missed out on being eligible for an Irish passport by such a small margin.
However, the Green side of the Forsyth/Cowan line, came from Letterkenny as part of the Plantation under James 1. They were also Protestants, just happen to have been further south. I am meeting one of the 2nd cousins this time in Letterkenny, so hope to find the ancestral home and lands and confirm a close link to Jerome Bonaparte, Naploleon’s brother.
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