Immediately where we got off were the sights of Findlaters Church, apparently undergoing some sort of exterior restoration work, and the Garden of Remembrance, which was opened in 1966 by President de Valera on the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising. It is dedicated to “all those who gave their lives in the cause of Irish freedom”. It was strikingly beautiful, featuring a pool in the shape of the cross and headed by a statue of the Children of Lir, who were transformed into swans by their jealous stepmother. Legend had it that they could only be released by a monk, and during their time as swans, St. Patrick Christianized Ireland. After 900 years, they were released. The statue was added to the garden to symbolize the rebirth of the Irish nation after so many centuries under English rule.
I got an inadvertently funny picture when I shot the statue from the side just as Jason was walking away. It looks as though one of the children of Lir covets Jay’s cap and is determined to grab it.
At the corner of Parnell Street and O’Connell Street is a memorial to Charles Stewart Parnell himself, where I took this photo with Dave in the frame. Parnell represents one of the great “what if” stories in Irish history. A 19th century Member of Parliament, Parnell was an ascendancy Protestant, but an Irish nationalist who spent most of his life working, and nearly achieving, Home Rule for Ireland before the dawn of the 20th century. Intransigence by Ulster Protestants and in the House of Lords on the one hand, and parochial Irish Catholic attitudes towards divorce on the other, conspired to frustrate him and damage his reputation. He died young, at only 45. Had he lived, and had he been able to achieve his goals, it’s possible that all of Ireland would have been united under a single home rule parliament, that there never would have been a partition of the country, an Anglo-Irish War nor an Irish Civil War, and arguably, that there might never have been an Irish Republic. It’s possible that if the Irish had achieved control of their own domestic affairs before the Easter Rising and the bitterness that followed, Ireland might today have a constitutional relationship to the rest of the United Kingdom similar to that of Scotland today. For better or worse, though, that’s not how things played out. Parnell’s reputation has only grown in the years since his death. He was on the Irish ₤100 note prior to Ireland’s adoption of the euro, and his headstone, so I’m told, bears only one word: PARNELL — nothing more needing to be said. The "uncrowned King of Ireland".
The text on the Parnell Monument quotes the man himself: “No man has a right to fix the boundary to the march of a nation. No man has a right to say to his country, ‘Thus far shalt thou go and no further’. We have never attempted to fix the ne plus ultra to the progress of Ireland’s nationhood and we never shall.”
Our next stop was the General Post Office. I knew this building mainly from the opening of the movie Michael Collins (starring Liam Neeson, Aidin Quinn, and Alan Rickman). To me, this was a big deal, because it was something tangible and real from the Easter Rising. This is where they surrendered, where they were marched out to stack their arms, and from whence they went to their fates... prison, or the firing squad. As tourists have done for decades now, we milled around, looking at the bullet holes in the pillars and the façade.
Below is your man, "Big Jim" Larkin, the labour organizer and adjutant, who led the 1913 Dublin Lockout. Behind him you can see the Dublin Spire, which stands where Nelson's Pillar stood (till it was blown up by the IRA in 1966).
And the man himself, Daniel O'Connell. In Ireland, O’Connell is known as “The Great Emancipator”. He didn’t free the slaves (exactly), but he did free the Catholics (and to some extent, the Jews). It was largely thanks to his efforts that Catholics and “Dissenters” (Presbyterians) were allowed to sit in the House of Commons. He was less successful in his efforts to dissolve the union between Ireland and Great Britain and return Ireland to its former status as a separate kingdom under the British Crown. O’Connell was a constitutionalist and never supported the armed struggles to free Ireland. His example informed other, later liberators, Gandhi among them. Between them, O’Connell and Parnell justly anchor the ends of O’Connell Street.
We crossed the Liffey and on a pedestrian landing in the middle of a crosswalk, I noticed these inlaid footprints. I thought it was a nice effect.
At Townsend Street, there's a stone erected to the memory of another stone, which was put up in 9th century by Vikings. At the time, what's now Townsend Street was actually the edge of the River Liffey, before the land was reclaimed. The stone pillar, called "the Steine", was a landing marker, and it stood in this vicinity till around 1750, when it was removed. What a real shame! Imagine if they'd been able to keep that around. This replacement was put up in the 1980s. Below is Jason looking at the plaque.
Some of the interesting sights on our way back toward the Liffey. A store called Get Stuffed, and a poster for a musical version of Michael Collins.
Dave knew I was a big fan of the movie The Commitments, and pointed out to me that this bridge is the one you see Jimmy Rabbitte crossing over at the start of the movie.
Below is the Custom House. It was destroyed by the IRA in the Anglo-Irish War, and rebuilt by the Free State government afterwards and serves as government offices. Many irreplaceable records dating back to the Middle Ages were lost in the destruction.
On the south side of the Liffey, just before crossing back to the north side to see the Custom House, is this sign sending you to the other three corners of the island. Curiously, they all seem to be in the same direction.
Below is one of the things I came to Dublin specifically to see. These are the famine sculptures by Rowan Gillespie. Situated between the Liffey and the Custom House, they represent the figures of the famine Irish fleeing the country at their point of departure in Dublin, back in the late 1840s. This is particularly meaningful to me because in Toronto, we have the complementary ones, by the same artist, at Ireland Park on the shore of Lake Ontario, at the point of arrival for 38,000 Famine Irish.
Below are the plaques with the names of supporters. Ones of interest, among others: Dermot Morgan, whom I presume is the self-same late actor who portrayed the title character in Father Ted; Martin McGuinness, one-time chairman of the IRA's Army Council and now Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland (how times change), and "John" and Aline Chrétien of Canada, whom I can only assume are actually Jean and Aline, the former Prime Minister and his wife, with the PM's name anglicized. Wow, you'd think that's a mistake they'd never make in Ireland! :)
...And speaking of whom, I was blown away to see this plaque, below, acknowledging Canada's debt to the victims of the Famine and their descendents. This was the only national-level recognition I saw at the site. At least the PM's name was spelled right on this one. :)
Jason and Dave read the plaque too. I remember Jay commenting that he'd had no idea Ireland had such ties to Canada. That's the American PR machine for you — every Irish emigrant wound up a cop or Tammany Hall politician in New York City. Sure, don't we all know that?
My cold was really coming on by this time and I was grateful for the chance to sit and stew for a bit. We crossed the Liffey again into the Temple Bar area of the south side (named, as you might guess, for a bar called Temple Bar). Temple Bar was a glorious set of pedestrian streets that, of all the places we were ever in in Ireland, really took my heart and captured my imagination. Of all the things I saw, this was the place that most stirred me with thoughts and feelings of really being in the Old World. We didn't go to Temper Bar itself, but we did go to a really salubrious pub called the Vat House. Sitting there together with Dave and Jay for the next hour and a half was an absolutely perfect, Zen moment for me. It's one I know I'll return to in my mind over and over again.
Dave was getting over his hangover by then and it was easy for me and Jay to prevail upon him to indulge in a hair of the dog. Jay confessed himself not much of a drinking man and I guess I have to agree because his libation of choice was Budweiser. Yeah, an Irishman slumming in the archetypal Yankee beer! But I have to admit, the stuff was everywhere, always alongside Coors Light. It's true; Americanization has gone too far. :)
NOTE: Added on Sunday, June 14: a little bit of video of our taxi trip home from the city centre. Warning: some strong language. Enjoy. :)
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