Ireland: Day 3

I was pretty tuckered out by Monday morning in Ireland. It´s funny though, when you have no one to complain to, you just don´t do it. I suppose I must have called Em or texted Iñaki a few times or emailed home saying how cold it was, but for the most part, my mood was good.

I wanted to go to the Guinness Brewery and Kilmainham Jail for day 3 and possibly hit up a concert Liz recommended. The two sites are in the same area of Dublin, so I started walking... and I walked... and I walked... and couldn´t seem to get where I wanted to go. I kept pulling out my map and checking streets and I seemed to be on the right path. Finally, after passing through a neighborhood and an industrial district, I hit the Guinness Brewery headquarters. Then and there, I decided I don´t give a crap about how beer is made and just took a picture of the outside. Oddly enough, I asked Whitney a beer brewing question once I got to Norway and you know what she said... "you should have gone on the Guinness Tour." Anyhow, here´s a picture...

A short tale... The tour guide at the castle told us that Guinness´s symbol, the harp, is also the sort of mascot of Ireland. When Guinness wanted to use it as well, the government said no thanks. So, Guinness got all clever and mearly turned the harp to face in the opposite direction of the government symbol and there you have it.

Directly across the street from the headquarters, on the window sill of a ramshackle old home, I found this photo opp, which I find funny on so many levels and I hope you do too...

So, I trudged along looking for Kilmainham Jail, and found it about 20 minutes later way on the edge of town. It´s most famous for having many political prisoners and executing them during the time of the Irish uprising from England. One of the most famous is Charles Parnell, who was said to be "the un-crowned king of Ireland", for his popular political opinions. Also, another interesting fact: during the "potato famine", this jail was incredibly crowded. And, not because the level of crime went up, because people were hungry. Jail was the only place you could get 3 meals a day. Small crimes would be commited and people would go to jail on purpose. Not that it was a picnic, but better than the outside world. A picture from the front...

Here is what a corridor of cells looks like...

Here´s one of the main halls that has been used in various films throughout the years. The large window at the top is due to the fact that at the time it was built, psychologists felt sunlight helped to cure prisoners of their mental illness of crime. It made for a pretty picture anyway...

And now, a love story... Joseph Plunkett was a famous political prisoner who was executed in Kilmainham. Before he was arrested, he was engaged to be married to Grace Gifford. On the day of his execution, the prison allowed her to come to the jail´s chapel, Plunkett was waiting at the alter and they got married, had a few minutes alone and then he was taken to be executed. Tear, sniff, honk! Years later, good ól Grace did some political uprising of her own and found herself landed in a cell as well. She was quite an artist and painted this on her cell wall during her imprisonment...

I finished up there around 1 or so and headed back into town, by bus, and wound up at Yamamouri, an excellent Japanese restaurant. I got the best ramen of all time and some green tea ice cream, yay!

Another movie was in order and I saw "Breaking and Entering" with Jude Law, Robin Wright Penn and Julliete B... the lady from Chocolate. It was ok, sort of a downer. Not recommended necessarily.

I was off from my hostel at 4:30 the next morning and on my way to see little Whitty, in her little town, wearing her very little jeans. ; )