This particular trip was the response to a question I prompted my daughter a few days before her birthday (what would you like to do on your birthday?) and despite the fact that Ireland is not exactly around the corner I nevertheless decided to grant her the wish and "adhere" to it myself.
It may not be exact to call it a 6 day trip when it ended up being five full days and a bit of an afternoon, as we set foot in Dublin on the 10th and left fairly early on the 16th of June, but still ...
As soon as we left the airport we got on a bus that took us into the street where our Guesthouse was located (Gardiner Street Lower). At the first impression our room seemed to be cosy, with a fairly beautiful little flowery garden overlooking the street. We didn't stay long then once the idea was to simply drop our back packs and walk around the quarter whilst there was some daylight.
We walked into North Earl on our right until we stumbled onto the imposing statue of James Joyce just before stepping into O'Connel street. Across the street we could see two rather outstanding buildings, one being the General Post office with its incredibly beautiful Greek-style portico and the other one the 1784 Gate Theatre.
James Joyce's statue on North Earl street.
It was quite warm, this possibly being the reason as to why there were still many people strolling up and down the avenue. We decided to walk up along O'Connel with the Presbyterian Abbey undergoing renovation works on the left and a little bit further the Garden of Remembrance.
Having been dedicated to those who fought for freedom and fell in the insurrection of 1916 this garden's design is said to be intimately tied to Irish legends. In spite of being closed we still managed to identify and photograph one statue representing the children of Lir in the process of being metamorphosed into swans for a period of 900 years.
As we walked back down the O'Connel Avenue I decided to photograph the overall view with its statues. I particularly like the one of James Larkin (seen from the back). Larkin is said to have been one of most active Irish trade Union leaders, whose well known phrase " The great appear to be great because we are on our knees. Let us rise" inspired many to fight for their own rights.
Upon reaching the O'Connel bridge we looked down and noticed a metal plaque with a James Joyce Ulyses' extract written on and that was precisely the last image I captured before heading back to the guest-house with a Thai take away meal, which we seem to have gobbled down in minutes, not because we were hungry but because it was really tasty.
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