When we left the guest-house on Sunday early morning Mia and I were determined to walk the city in search of some of Dublin's unusual secrets, many of which I had found out about in one of the books I had bought the day before.
This would mean we would be busy all day long as many of those secrets were to be found in different areas of the town.
We felt we needed a full Irish breakfast to keep us firm and strong at least throughout the morning so we headed towards the Arcade market, just to find out it was closed, which forced us to walk back into a pub we had seen open just a few minutes ago.
We did get a full breakfast and with it the high pitch voice of a group of dead drunk young men, we presumed were still celebrating Saturday's "night fever".
Despite not being exactly a "saint" I must confess I was utterly surprised to come across handy vibrators being sold in the pub's machine just outside the toilet ... but well, it must just have been my "limited" knowledge of what really goes on in the local pubs ... (which didn't sound very much secretive).
Our first stop was at Dublin's oldest surviving Charity, located in a Georgian gem. The Sick and Indigent Roomkeepers' Society is said to have been established in 1790 to alleviate the plight of Dubliners who had fallen ill or become destitute through no fault of their own. In the absence of public welfare a crew of concerned citizens, amongst which were grocers, a schoolmaster, a stonecutter, a carpenter and a pawnbroker developed a fund to relieve "the honest poor" by providing temporary aid in the form of fuel, rent, tools and equipment. This successful initiative became one of the leading charities of the 19th century.
Because of the proximity we headed onto our second stop - the controversial Lady Justice standing atop the entrance to Dublin's castle ' upper yard. The very simple symbolism to get right has it that Lady Justice must hold a sword and a balanced set of scales representing truth and fairness. She should face the people and she is often blindfolded, representing her impartiality and her ability to make judgements without regard for class, wealth or identity.
This particular Lady Justice shows her back to the city, has her eyes wide open and by looking closely one may notice her scales are tipped slightly to one side (ironically leaning towards the side of the castle housing the tax offices. As the popular saying goes "The Lady Justice, consider her station, her face to the castle, her arse to the nation".
Just a few metres away we came across our third stop - Chester Beatty roof garden, considered an oasis of calm in the city centre. Freely accessible through the Museum (we did miss it when we visited the first time) it is split into a series of different surfaces - gravel, ornamental grasses, stone and hardwood.
We walked a little further via the Town hall towards our fourth stop - The Sunlight Chambers friezes depicting the story of soap.
In the corner of Parliament street and Essex quay stands one of the most outstanding buildings of Dublin dating from 1901, once the headquarters of Lever Brothers, the British soap and detergent manufactures (Sunlight having been one of its branches at the time) with exquisite terracotta friezes that pay homage to the art of a good scrub. If one looks closely (as we did) one will see washerwomen cleaning clothes, merchants haggling for oils, labourers ploughing fields and women drawing water from a well.
Note: Information provided in Secret Dublin, an Unusual guide by Pol O' Conghaile
(To be continued)
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