I’m the kind of traveler who likes to mix new destinations with returns to places I’ve been before—sometimes in person, and sometimes as I review and sort my photo archives. There’s always something I didn’t notice, or meant to find out more about. I’ll start with one of those…Irish yeast company.
The name caught us; we’re bakers but never saw a store devoted solely to yeast. A closer look showed us that the name was misleading; it appeared to be a general grocery store, and very dusty and very closed.
Turns out, there’s a story. The building dates to 1750, and is historically listed. The store closed in 2016, when its 90+-year-old owner retired; he was born above the store and still lived there after taking over from his parents in the 1940s. Two years later, he died and the building was sold to a man who owns a pub that backs up on it and faces another street.
The battle between historic preservationists, the new owner who wants to remove a wall and expand his pub into the space, and city officials who have denied permission continues. It faces Trinity College across the street, and there are rumors of a tunnel from the basement to the college.
Meantime, nothing changes.
Here’s another 18th-century survivor, the headquarters of the Charitable Society for the Relief of Sick and Indigent Roomkeepers of all Religious Persuasions in the City of Dublin. It was formed by a group of small tradesmen in one of Dublin’s poorest parishes in 1790, where poor and unemployed roomers (today’s term) were often found starved or dead of disease at a time when there was no public aid.
Each member contributed 2 pence a week, and was then entitled to recommend people to be aided from among what an 1815 History of Dublin describes as the “many poor creatures who were unable to dig and ashamed to beg, expired of want and were often found dead in the sequestered garrets and cellars to which they had silently returned.”
The society was one of many established at that time, mostly in parishes where even the church was too poor to provide alms. It still exists, and is the oldest charity in Dublin.
And here’s another oldest for us, the oldest band in Dublin. Officially organized in 1800, its own records go back to 1737. During all the years of Ireland’s struggles for independence, the band was there, playing at meetings of various movements and parties and funerals. During the Irish Civil War in the early 1920s, it was noted for playing at funerals of leaders on both sides. John Gannon, inset, is the band’s oldest member; he’s played with the group for more than 80 years!
And here we have an example of marching to the tune of a different drummer. When I finally got around to wondering about this cryptic line on a store in The Liberties, near the Johns Lane Church, I found that it’s from a U2 song, Wake Up, Dead Man:
Listen to your words / They’ll tell you what to do
Listen over the rhythm that’s confusing you
Listen to the reed in the saxophone / Listen over the hum of the radio
Listen over the sounds of blades in rotation
Listen through the traffic and circulation
Listen as hope and peace try to rhyme
Listen over marching bands playing out their time
Another glance back a century or so; I’ve long been aware of a significant Jewish community in Dublin, but not that it had, it appears, spawned an entire sub-genre of popular music.
And here’s a bit of culinary history; Leo Burdock’s is said (by Leo Burdock’s) to be the oldest chip-and-fish shop in Dublin, going back to 1913. Left me wondering what took them so long to get started! I can attest that both the fish and the chips were excellent; the sign to the left of the door lists some of their other fans, including U2, Bruce Springsteen, Snoop Dogg and Nicole Kidman. However, none of them were there when I was.
No long stories here: Just a building that is what it says it is, and a museum that you’d not expect to find without the aid of a rainbow. The museum is actually dedicated to oral traditions of storytelling which involve Irish folklore and mythology. It’s only a few years old, but is already a stop on many tours. And, at the end of the route through its rooms, there is not a pot of gold, but a gift shop clogged with leprechaun and similar souvenirs.
Speaking of mythical creatures (we were, weren’t we?) here’s a pair of seahorses at the Grattan Bridge over the Liffey River, and a fearsome golden fellow at the Dolphin Hotel.
Not a mythical creature at all, this one. Ireland’s national bus network is represented not by a greyhound but by an Irish setter. The Bus Eireann logo only dates to 1987, while Greyhound adopted its in 1929, but we can only speculate what Bus Eireann may have been thinking.
Until my first visit to Dublin, I had no clue that the city was founded as a Viking outpost in 841 AD, and became the westernmost anchor of Viking trading networks. Dublinia gives a lively but comprehensive view of that trade and corrects the common view of the Norsemen as merely raiders, not traders.
For a bit more historical irony. Because Ireland was ruled by Britain for centuries and in fact well into the last one, there are important connections to the British military. In Dublin’s cathedral (one of several!) hang the retired regimental colors of dozens of British regiments raised in Ireland. Below, the Royal Military Hospital was a retirement home for British soldiers in Ireland. These days it houses a museum of modern art and a smaller museum about its own history.
Enough history for a moment. Time for lunch. This one is not your typical Irish cuisine, but it was one of my favorite meals. It was at Pifko, a Czech pub along the river, not so far from the Guinness Storehouse factory/attraction, I stuck with the Czech beer, though. Although, at the corner shop near our apartment I had the opportunity to try a surprising offering. I declined. Below that, yet another evidence of how strong a brand ‘New York’ is!
And now that we’ve gotten to the pig, it’s time for the silly sign parade to start.
I’ve often said to people that no place is a real city unless it has a fake Irish bar (although the opposite is not true; Disney World’s fake Irish pub does NOT make it a city). Usually it’s called O’Somebody’s or takes the name of an Irish town or landmark. In New York, we had a chain of Blarney Stone bars, a smaller chain of Blarney Rocks and a Blarney Castle. But I think only Dublin can claim this fusion offering:
Madigan’s, a small Dublin chain, had quite decent food and an impressive assortment of bottles. I’m not a whiskey drinker, but they also had an impressive selection of beers and ales on tap.
I’m used to banks being fairly staid institutions, but apparently the Bank of Ireland is ‘Way Out….”
Some lovely lettering, and a 19th century Trinity College campanile under which few if any students pass. The local legends are that a student who passes under it will fail his or her exams, and that if a virgin passes under it, the bells will peal on their own. Not wanting to risk either failure or embarrassment…
While we were in Ireland the first time, the country voted in a national referendum to repeal the anti-abortion clause in Ireland’s constitution, which, of course, opponents linked to removing God from the constitution. I think the type will be clear enough should you choose to read the somewhat clever debate on the subject…
