Dublin
21-23 June 1999
Dublin has a fairly small population, and a very large percentage of these are under 25, so I shudder to think what happens to people who actually reach 25. Reminds me of Logan's Run. There are statues everywhere, and this being Ireland a lot of them have been given rhyming names by the locals, so we have the statue Meeting Place aka the 'Hags with the Bags', the Anna Livia fountain aka the 'Floozie in the Jacuzzi', and Molly Malone aka the 'Tart with the Cart', aka the 'Dish with the Fish' aka the 'Trollop with the Scollop'.
The Ballad of Molly Malone
In Dublin's fair city
where the girls are so pretty
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone.
Through streets broad and narrow
she wheeled her wheelbarrow
crying Cockles and Mussels, Alive Alive Oh!Chorus:
Alive Alive Oh, Alive Alive Oh, crying Cockles and Mussels, Alive Alive Oh!
And at Christ Church Cathedral - the cat and the rat in
the crypt (trapped in a organ pipe in 1860 and mummified). And speaking of
mummies I touched the hand of an 800-year-old mummified crusader at St.
Michan's Church. It's supposed to bring luck, but I walked out of the church
and fell straight into the river*, so I don't really know what to think. I saw
the Book of Kells, written c.800 off the coast of Scotland, and it was quite
small really, but also at Trinity College there is the most amazing library,
with spiral staircases and sliding ladders, busts, and a simply huge amount of
books. Marvellous. Also the St. James Gate Guinness brewery was interesting,
although I don't really like the stuff, for the advertising gallery, with the
toucan and the zoo keeper ("My Goodness My Guinness") and an
assortment of animals all inexplicably trying to steal his Guinness.
Dublin is very "happening" and therefore very crowded, but generally
I prefer places with a bit more ethnic diversity, where everyone isn't a
Caucasian carrying a mobile phone. And there're too many statues and plaques
about the Easter Uprising and Civil War, I mean it gets a bit boring after a
while, and as for Northern Ireland well that's just the most boring subject
ever. It should be towed out to sea and blown up. Dublin's a fine city though,
and it's getting bigger (and better?) all the time.
Written by Ed on 24 June 1999
* just kidding