Trí Laethanta in Éirinn (Three Days in Ireland)

Mirroring last year when I went to London for Easter weekend, I spent this holiday weekend in Dublin. I figured a day and a half was enough to see the main sites in Dublin, so I planned the extra day for an excursion. However, the Cliffs of Moher in western Ireland didn't really interest me and I wasn't in the mood to go to Cork and Blarney Castle (even if kissing the Blarney Stone is one of the most popular touristy activities to do in Ireland). Instead, I used the extra day to go to Belfast.

Now I didn't know this going in, but it turned out that this weekend was the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, which was the first armed rebellion of the Irish revolutionary period. However, my trip to Belfast took me away from Dublin during most of the ceremonies, which I didn't mind as it appeared Dublin was overcrowded on Easter Sunday while Belfast ended up being very tranquil.

Dublin

Realizing that Dublin was going to be packed with locals visiting from the rest of Ireland (and Northern Ireland), I tried to visit one of the most popular sites (the Guinness Storehouse) first thing in the morning, passing through St. Stephen's Green and by Christchurch Cathedral along the way.

St. Stephen's Green is a scenic park near the centre of Dublin. There are a wide variety of landmarks/locations with historic relevance to the Easter Rising, plus a large pond populated with swans, ducks and sea gulls, as well as flower gardens and sculptures. The park is a moderate size but is elegantly designed to pack a lot in the area. As an aside, the sea gulls in the area are huge (at least 15-20% larger than what I've seen elsewhere).

Christ Church Cathedral is one of two medieval churches in Dublin. I did not have time to visit the interior, although the exterior included a eerie looking sculpture on the park bench (sculpted by a Canadian artist).

As for the Guinness Storehouse, I arrived at opening to a short lineup. Like most breweries, there is a self-guided tour that describes the four ingredients, the brewing process, the history and marketing of the brand, and then a sampling of the beer. As this was the fourth brewery that I've visited in the past four years (after Sam Adams in Boston, Carlsberg in Copenhagen and Heineken in Amsterdam), a lot of the content was repeating what I'd already seen before, although the one unique aspect of the Guinness Storehouse is that the sampling takes place on the top floor of the building where you can get a panoramic view of the surrounding area. 

A view of Dublin looking southeast from the Gravity Bar in the Guinness Storehouse.

After the brewery, I headed even further west to visit the Kilmainham Gaol, which is one of the top-rated sites to visit, and passed by Phoenix Park along the way. Unfortunately, the lineup was long (a two hour wait according to staff) and they did not sell advance tickets. I went to the nearby Irish Museum of Modern Art and checked out their exhibits before going back and checking the prison lineup again, but it wasn't any shorter, so I went back to the city centre.

Phoenix Park is a much larger but plainer park in the west of Dublin. The most notable landmark there is the Wellington Monument, a large obelisk built to commemorate the victories of the Duke of Wellington during the Napoleonic Wars. To get a sense of its size, if you click on the photo to zoom in, you might see someone in a red jacket standing at the top of the steps on the right side of the structure.

The Irish Museum of Modern Art contained five/six exhibitions, each focusing on a different artist. While there were a few weird works (like in most modern art exhibitions), this museum was relatively conventional in what if offered. Pictured is The Angel of the Annunciation, by Patrick Hennessy.

By the time I reached the city centre, it was starting to rain heavily such that I felt like I was experiencing true Irish weather! I visited Dublin Castle to get out of the rain. The exterior of the building looks disjointed, as if it's several different buildings joined into one complex. The interior of the castle is beautifully decorated; not as ornate as Madrid, Stockholm or Versailles, but fancy nonetheless.

The Drawing Room in Dublin Castle.

Next to Dublin Castle is the Chester Beatty Library. The library contains two small book collections, one focusing on sacred texts from Christianity and Islam, and the other focusing on artistic books from European and Asian cultures. Pictured are two pages found in Egypt dated from 300-500 A.D.; one page contains arithmetic exercises in cursive Greek script and the other page contains portions of the Gospel of John in subachmimic Coptic.

By the time I left the library, the rain subsided and I walked over to the campus of Trinity College. The college has an Old Library with the famous Book of Kells, but by the time I arrived it was already near closing.

The iconic Campanile bell tower in the Parliament Square of Trinity College.

During the evening, I walked along the River Liffey. The river offers a scenic walking route, with various bridges along the way. On the eastern end of the city, you can find the Famine Sculptures, a memorial to the Great Famine of mid-19th century. (The glare from the setting sun prevented me from taking any good photos of it.)

Crossing the River Liffey is the Ha'penny Bridge. The pedestrian bridge gets its name from the toll that was originally charged for crossing. Tolls were removed in 1919.

I spent the second day of my trip in Belfast (see further below), but the final half-day in Dublin. I tried to use the remaining time to see the sites that I missed on the first day. When I went to Kilmainham Gaol before opening, there was already a long lineup and the earliest tour I could get was 11:15am (although the prison includes a small museum that you can visit while you wait for your tour to start). While the prison was interesting for its history and for having both old and modern cells in its facilities, it wasn't as compelling as the Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast, so in a sense I was spoiled by having seen a better prison nearby. Despite this, I left thinking Kilmainham was way overrated, not only for the long lineups (although the cheap admission probably contributes to this) but also because every tourist website promotes it as one of the top places to visit in Dublin. It was unique and informative, but it still didn't stand out from anything else that I saw in the city.

The Victorian Wing in Kilmainham Gaol. The cells in this wing were more modern than the barren stone cells in older parts of the prison. This wing was famous for holding many Irish revolutionaries, including leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising.

The other item to mention is that while passing by a Spar (a corner store franchise in Dublin), I noticed a Tim Horton's kiosk inside. It was self-serve and contained coffee and plastic-wrapped donuts. Just thought I'd mention that because I never expected to see a Tim Horton's in Dublin, even if it was only a small self-serve kiosk.


Belfast

The bus trip from Dublin to Belfast takes over two hours, but I took it as an opportunity to see some of the Irish countryside (mostly farms peppered with some large hills). Added to the challenge of a shortened visit was the fact that the main sites to see were scattered along the edges of the city, all opposite from one another, so I had to forego at least two sites. I started with the main sites in the center.

White Star Line was the company that operated the Titanic, and the SS Nomadic is the only surviving White Star Line ship still afloat. The ship often operated as a support vessel to larger ships like the Titanic. The interior is plain and mostly empty, although there are a few displays to give you a sense of what life was like for passengers.

The Titanic was built in Belfast so of course there's a museum dedicated to the ship there. I did not see any archaeological relics on display, so everything was a re-creation of the ship's interior. The exhibits seemed very pedestrian to me, but the building itself has a stunning design.

The most famous landmark in Belfast is probably the Albert Memorial Clock. The clock tower was built in 1869 and underwent a restoration in 2002.

The front of Belfast Cathedral shot from Writer's Square. The interior was not fancy, but not modest either. Belfast was very quiet on Easter Sunday and this cathedral was one of the few churches that was open, but it appeared there were only 5 or 6 patrons attending Easter Mass. I'm not sure if the whole city left for the holidays or if another church pulled in the crowd or if everyone in Belfast is non-denominational, but the empty cathedral on Easter was surprising.

I went west of the city to visit the Crumlin Road Gaol. The odd part about this prison is that while the exterior front looks pristine, the courthouse across the street appears in abysmal condition. The tour guide at the prison explained that the courthouse was frequently vandalized and hit by arsonists.

Anyways, I have to point out that Crumlin Road was one of the most interesting sites that I've visited in my travels. This was due to the fact that the tour guide was a former prison guard who worked there while the prison was in operation and he had a lot of interesting stories, both from the early periods of the prison (including legends of how the term "hangover" and the phrase "cat got your tongue" got started) and from his own days of working there leading right up to the point when the prison was shut down. The design of the prison also incorporates a surprising, but clever, way of leading a prisoner to an execution (I won't spoil it for anyone who ends up visiting).

This was an intersection between four of the modern wings in Crumlin Road Gaol.

After the prison, I ventured further north towards Belfast Castle, stopping by the Waterworks along the way.

The Waterworks are part of a large city park in the north of Belfast. The small waterfall is artificial, but still has a natural feel to it, and is fed by one of two large ponds. The closer pond also looked artificial as it appeared to be the exact size and shape of a football field.

By the time I got to Belfast Castle, it was already closing, and of course being in Ireland it had to start raining when I arrived. But the raining stopped and the sun came out after only ten minutes, which led to the brightest rainbow I had ever seen. This added to the beautiful view that the castle grounds had of the northern part of the city and of the cove leading out to sea.

Belfast Castle just after a short rain.

Cavehill Country Park is just below Belfast Castle. From there, I saw a double rainbow. My camera could not capture just how bright the rainbow on the left was at the point where it reached the ground. It looked like there was an actual pot of gold inside the house where the rainbow was ending. After this, I could easily see why rainbows and pots of gold are part of Irish lore.

Belfast City Hall during the evening. I visited the interior earlier in the day and it was well-decorated for what you'd expect from an operating municipal building.

If I had more time, I would have visited the Stormont Estate and Parliament Buildings on the east side of the city and the Ulster Museum on the south side, but I think I still got a good feel of the different aspects of Belfast. The same goes for Dublin: if I had more time, I would have visited the Old Library in Trinity College and another one/two exhibits among the various sites of the Museum of Ireland, but I saw plenty during my short stay. I'll also point out that in both cities, the people were incredibly friendly and helpful. There were several occasions where I pulled out my map to check where I was and before I could unfold it, someone would offer to give me directions.

With this trip, and having already visited Iceland before I moved to Paris, there is only one country left in Western Europe that I have not yet visited, Norway, but I hope to get there this summer.