Looking North on O'Connell Street, Easter Morning.
Some Garda, statue of some famous Irish dude, and a cool old building on O'Connell St.
Irish Army soldiers preparing to march.
This soldier looks like he's about 12. He's packing a Steyr Aug assault rifle.
New and old buildings on the South Liffey Keys.
The Four Courts building on Easter afternoon.
From the Dublin City Tour Bus Easter Monday. This is the Dublin Spire, or Millenium Spire. It's on the same spot that the old monument to Lord Nelson stood. Nelson's statue was blown up by the IRA in 1966. The Spire, which can be seen from most places in Dublin is referred to by locals as "The Stiletto in the Ghetto" or "The Stiffy by the Liffey". Poetic, these Irish!
O'Connell and Abbey Street. Statue of the famous dude, again.
Crossing the O'Connell bridge on the tour bus.
Looking East along the Liffey. The dome of the Custom House can be spotted in the distance.
Front entrance to Trinity College
A peek into St. Stephen's Green.
Christchurch?
I see dead people!
Old windmill. I guess the wind parts couldn't handle Dublin's wind.
The Famous St. James Gate Brewery.
Probably enough Guinness for me.
waterfall in the Guinness exhibit
Harp from the 1700s commisioned by one of the Guinnesses and became their trademark.
View from the Gravity Bar at the top of the Guinness Storehouse.
Sean enjoying the best pint of stout he'll ever have.
Tuesday. The chapel on Tara Hill.
The view from Tara is splendid. Makes since that the Kings chose it as there little spot.
Mound of the Hostages, Tara.
Sitting on top of the King's Seat (Forradh) of Temair is the most famous of Tara's monuments - Ireland's ancient coronation stone - the Lia Fail or "Stone of Destiny", which was brought here according to mythology by the godlike people, the Tuatha Dé Danann, as one of their sacred objects. It was said to roar when touched by the rightful king of Tara.
1798 uprising monument.
It didn't roar for Sean.
St. Paddy.
The River Boyne.
Newgrange Passage Tomb and astronomical observatory.
Entrance to the tomb. The box on top is how the light gets in.
Neolithic art. Spirals and diamonds. Nobody knows what it means - like a David Lynch movie.
The posts are a recreation of a simple astronomical observatory. The rocks in the background represent a simplified layout of the interior of Newgrange (might also be a recreation of a smaller mound that was originally on the site).
On my last trip, you could go down and check this structure out, but it's fenced off now. I think the archaeologist referred to it as a "folly" It's obviously much more recent, probably the last few centuries. If anyone knows more about this structure, please leave a comment!
Sean by the Boyne and the Newgrange interpretive center.
Dun Laoghaire
Dun Laoghaire seal. There were two of them.
Old tower house. Apparently, Michael Flattley bought it and spent millions modernizing and restoring it. The government made him put it back the way it was.
High in the Wicklow Mountains.
Lough Tay
Lough Tay and the little Summer House below belonged to the Guinness family. The sand on the beach below was brought in to provide a beach and to make the lake appear, somewhat, like the largest pint of stout in the world. At least, that's what the bus driver believed.
I think this picture says it all.
Archway into Glendalough Monastic Settlement.
Sanctuary Stone
Looking out the gates to Glendalough. This would have been a gatehouse. You would be let in the outer doors, then the doors would be closed behind you. You'd be facing another set of large doors that were closed. A monk standing above would lower a bucket where you would deposit your monetary contribution to the monastery. Once the money was handed over, they'd let you in the second set of gates. Once inside, you could claim "sanctuary" and live in the monastery for up to 6 months.
Glendalough roundtower.
St Kevin's Cross.
Inside the big church in Glendalough.
Beautiful surrounds of the Wicklow Mountains. Nice Botanicals!
It was mostly sunny and warm for most of Sean's trip, but this day was particularly nice.
This just struck me as being funny. Anything like Paradise City?
Having fun with signs. (In retrospect, I should have blocked out the "St." as well).
"Nice solid walls. Plenty of floor space. Very high ceilings with skylight. No need for air conditioning. Now how much would you pay?"
Sanctuary stone
Over the Corrib river in Galway.
"If you drink too much Guinness you will poison the air with your farting".
Super Sean. If Guinness gives you strength, he was probably lifting Jet Engines on his own by the time he left.
Galway - in the midst of things.
Great sign in Galway's harbor.
Galway Bay.
Galways Spanish Arch. I fail to recall why this was a big deal. It's old?
The lovely Imperial Hotel - home away from home away from home for a couple of days. It works, nothing too special, although it was pretty riotous that weekend.
Galway busker. Trying to be a statue and doing a damned fine job.
Some hardy trees and old stone walls out behind the Standun tourist trap store in Spidal
Sean and Jess at the King's Head in Galway.
Jess and her friend, Jennifer.
Bros hanging out in Galway.
The quaint little town of Oughterard in Connemara. Real nice little burg and fresh water fishing town.
Store Street, Galway, before the hang overs have left saturday morning (maybe early afternoon)...
Eyer Square, Galway. Always full of people with the beautiful weather we had.
I'm sitting in the train station waiting to board our bus while Sean runs down the street to see if there is any worthwhile shopping at the Galway tourist office. He then stops to have a pint as well. Fortunately we still made the train.
Bye bye Galway.
Sean acting the fool at the pub we ended up at on Saturday night. Galways was INSANE Saturday.
Little Trad Trio at Slattery's down the block from me in Dublin.
Sean's sense of humour.
Sean's explorations of Dublin.
St. Stephen's Green.
Molly Malone and her giant bronze cleavage.
Sean wandered out to Howth.
That's it. Sean, you'll have to come back and take more pictures next time.
