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Drama at Connolly's pub! |
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One of our earliest plans was to attend the Viking Theatre, which we discovered when out walking one night. This is a very small theatre, above a pub in Clontarf, about a 20 minute walk from the apartment. We saw a play entitled Down by the River, a one man play, that left us pondering its meaning. We enjoyed this late, but first visit so much, we went back this last week to the opening night of "Dusty Memoirs". After the performance, everyone in the theatre was invited to join the director and performers in the pub. We met the director, an ex school teacher who was living her passion of writing plays and who brought her sister over to meet us because her brother lived in Blacktown.
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Dermot and tradional musicians |
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The Cobblestone |
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Dinner at The Hairy Lemon |
As usual, we have also had numerous visits to and dinners at various pubs and restaurants around Dublin. Some have been with David's colleagues, whilst others have been purely out of interest. On our last Saturday night in Dublin, we finally got to hear Dermot fiddle playing at the Cobblestone with other tradional musicians. I was amazed that all he wanted to talk about when he came over to see us after his session was the bubble experiments that David and a student had been doing during for the last few months! Then after not finding the Italian restaurant Nico's that Dermot recommended, we ended up enjoying pasta at Bruno's, the 5th Italian restaurant we have eaten at in Dublin and all of them very good. Early Sunday evening, we had a lovely catchup with Sue and her husband Justin when they popped into Dublin. Sue used to teach with me at Glenwood. David searched the Internet for a pub that claimed to serve truly authentic Irish food. So, the Hairy Lemon was where we headed and were not disappointed by the Irish Stew or the Coddle. Of course our meals came with the standard serving of spuds done at least 2 different ways.
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After a tapas dinner the following Thursday, our final restaurant meal in Dublin was at The Winding Stair with Dermot, Tara and Helen. This restaurant had been recommended to us and indeed it was lovely and, being opposite the Ha'penny bridge, was a short stroll from our favourite pub, The Merchants Arch, that we had discovered during our first week in Dublin. Our last dalliance with Dublin would not have been complete without a final visit. We were not disappointed and enjoyed the music once again!
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At Bewley's Grafton St Cafe |
Dublin also celebrated Aurthurs Day in our last week in Ireland. Arthur's day is a celebration of Arthur Guiness' birthday, although apparently no one knows when his birthday was but celebrating it in Ireland (and now world wide) has turned into a very successful PR stunt. A number of international acts play unannounced in pubs across Ireland and so David was keen to find where Mumford and Sons were playing in Dublin, trying to guess at which one of over a 100 pubs with music on the night. Needless to say, we never found them, but found thousands of Guiness-fueled mad Irish men and women, at times squeezed down streets shoulder to shoulder with them. So one of the few disappointments of this Dublin dalliance was to find later that night on the internet that Mumford and Sons had played at Whelans, one of the top music pubs in Dublin and the only place on our "to do" list that we didn't get to!
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St Patrick's Library |
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Visiting the Book of Kells, Trinity |
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Can't wait until David takes up another Fellowship.
See you,
Anne