A Free Tour - Dublin Day 2

Today started nice and early... at 8:30. I have to say that the showers in hostels definitely are not my thing, but at the same time, I am spending 10 euro for a place to stay, and eat breakfast, and use the facilities, it should be expected. We also found out that the same vicious girl guides had followed us to the hostel, but we are leaving soon. Afterwords we went down for our continental breakfast and filled up. Planning to make it for the tour we left at 10, and went down Capel street looking for some good coffee. Stopped by in the Boars Pub, and had a great latte, though it was 2.80 euro.


After we went to check out that free tour. Turned out to be exactly what we needed in Dublin and something that we can find in other cities as well. The tour guide was paid completely in tips and was a part of a larger company called NewEurope Tours. Definitely worth looking for in each city. Our 4 hour tour started at the city hall, and we got to learn about the different counties in Ireland.

Floor of City Hall

 The floor of city hall had Dublin's flag Mosaic'd into it with its three burning castles. We never actually got to find out why there where 3 burning castles specifically, but we did find out why there was the "burning" castle.. The City hall is only used for marriage now, and now most of the political matters are covered in the Parliament House.

Dublin Castle

After we went over to Dublin castle, which hides just behind city hall. Now the reason that Dublin's flag had a burning castle on it was because the castle burned down in 1684. The fire only happened because all of the gun powder was stored in a single room. Thankfully the castle was rebuilt after that. One amazing thing I learned today? The 9th president of Ireland is Bilbo Baggins from Lord of the Rings!

Dublin Castle

So I'm not sure if you can see the flags in the picture right above this blurb but, all together there are 28 flags that go around the back wall of the courtyard in Dublin Castle. Each flag pole is supposed to have a flag from each of the counties in Ireland. But the only problem with that is that there are 32 counties. So the laid back Irish decided that instead of re-spacing the flag poles, or added more flag poles, they would use the inner 26 poles for the republic of Ireland's Flags and they would rotate the flags on the last 2 poles because they were from Northern Ireland. Best definition of Irish Culture.

Dublin Castle's Original, burned tower

Helicopter Pad 

Behind Dublin Castle there is a beautiful green field that has the grass of a golf course. The field has stone lines that run all through it. The field used to be a pool that had run off from the castle in it. In the time that the vikings were occupying Ireland they called it the black pool, which in their language was Dubhlinn. and that's where the people of Ireland got the name of their city from. Off to the left this picture was a slum in the 1900's. In that time, Queen Victoria had decided to visit, and had given the people of Ireland 6 YEARS of notice. They of course, knew that the queen would be staying in Dublin Castle, so they decided to build a wall to hide the slums. They could have decided to help the people, or move the slums, but instead the just decided to build a wall to hide them... Some more irish culture :)

It was here that we heard about the man who came on the same tour before us at some point. He was going around the world while learning the phrase "I like cake" in different languages. So far he had learned the phrase 47 different languages.... I think I need a phrase like that. Ideas?

Jonathan Swifts Birth Place

Today I got to hear about the book "A Modest Proposal", where the author suggested that since there everyone should eat babies. Of course, its on my reading list now, but waaayyy back when, the poor had too many babies, and the rich did not have enough red meat, so this author suggested that... well you know. Anyway that building up there is Swifts birthplace, so its probably one of the reasons he was so messed up...

A viking's Home

After that we went down to a square on the side of the road that was put down to remember the vikings in history. Turns out that in the past the Dubliners found a whole bunch of ancient viking ruins, but decided to destroy them because they wanted to build something over top of it. To show an example of how the vikings lived our tour guide got 10 people to lie on the outline of the viking "bed". Daniel was at the end, and then asked to spoon the person to left. :P


Also got to learn today that when a Dubliner turns 19 it is sort of a rite of passage, like backpacking, to go to Vancouver, get a job (most likely at a pub) and just live... Maybe I should go and search for them if I have free time...


One great thing about today was trying my first pint of Guinness. I definately prefer the taste of a darker beer to a lighter one. or maybe it was just poured differently than my first beer., still can't be sure. In the past they used to prescribe Guinness to pregnant women because it was high in iron, of course, knowledge about alcohol and babies has changed now. But even so, now it is still given to anyone who gives blood, rather than a doughnut. That's Ireland for you. 

Daniel will write some more about the rest of our day.

Trinity College

 Here we are at the gorgeous Trinity College in downtown Dublin. Many famous people have studied here, from great writers (every famous Irish writer besides Joyce), to musicians, to actors (Jeoffry from Game of Thrones just finished his sophomore year there). The institution has a long past, from an exclusively protestant symbol of English oppression, to a leader in women's rights, to an internationally renowned symbol of Irish academic excellence. Like all undergraduate education in Ireland, Trinity is operated by the government, and there is no tuition besides the €2,000 registration fee charged to attend any undergrad program. Within this academically exclusive school lies an even more elite group of students known as the trinity 'scholars'. To become one of the scholars, one must sit a special set of exams at midterm each year, and only those who achieve the top mark in each of their classes' exams are invited to join the group. To get a taste for number, out of all the applicants, there are 16,000 students enrolled at trinity, some 2,500 write the scholar exams each year, and, on average, 80 are accepted. This group receives unimaginable perks. They have free lodgings in a special Georgian dormitory, free dinner every night in their exclusive meal hall (served with a complimentary pint of Guinness, naturally), their undergraduate education free of the yearly €2,000 registration fee, and up to 5 years of free graduate education, which is enough time to earn two different masters degrees and a Ph.D.   

Trinity College

Trinity College

St. Steven's Place

After Trinity College, we passed by the Parliament house (on which the White House is modeled) and made our way to the picturesquely secluded St. Stephen's Place. Here we continued our lesson on Irish history with some more modern happenings. By 1845, Irish was a prosperous and developed country, with a growing population of 8 million and a strong work force. A majority of the farmers in Ireland worked on plots owned by English landholders on which the farmers would grow one of Ireland's two main crops, corn. All of the corn harvested on English-owned land had to, by law, be shipped back to the landholder. This law left 1/3 of Ireland's population entirely dependent on its other main crop, potatoes. This arrangement worked out very well for both parties for many years, until the crop of 1845. In 1845, the blight hit Ireland, wiping out half of the potato crop. The next year, 3/4 of the crop was lost to the disease, and from 1847-1852, nearly all of the potatoes in Ireland came out of the ground completely rotten. People began dying of starvation by the dozens. Despite desperate pleas to the crown, England refused to change its export laws, and perfectly healthy corn was shipped across the sea by the boatload by people starving in their own country. In the  years of the famine, one million people died of starvation, and the same number were forced to emigrate out of Ireland to evade it. In the following years, into the mid 1900s, Ireland faced tough times recovering from the famine, facing never ending recessions and a population that was quickly emigrating to countries with burgeoning economies such as Canada, America, and Australia. By 1911, the population had sunk to the 18th century level of 4.4 million, nearly half of the pre-famine population. That number has stayed the same to this very day. That being said, the number of people of Irish descent outside of Ireland stands at an impressive 200 million,  nearly 4000% of its native population. 


In the midst of the famine recovery came the movement for Irish independence. On Easter Monday, 1916, a group of 1,500 rebels took the strategic buildings in the heart of Dublin, and declared Ireland a free state. Over the next week, England sent a massive amount of soldiers, supplies, and artillery into Dublin, turning it into a battlefield. The following Saturday the 200 living rebels surrendered to British forces. Of these 200, 90 were sentenced to death the following week. This sentence so enraged the general Irish population that the countryside came alive with guerrilla soldiers, every farmer picked up a rifle and volunteered for service. After 5 years of bitter struggle, the English ceded to the leaders of the rebellion, asking only that the 6 northernmost counties remain under British rule. This polarized the leaders of the rebellion and sparked a brief civil war over whether the terms of the ceasefire were acceptable or whether the revolution should continue until a free Ireland was achieved. in 1922, the war was ended, and Ireland accepted the Crown's terms. Thus Ireland became the Free State of Ireland until 1973 when it gained Republic status, becoming the Republic of Ireland. 


So here I (Kamaljot) am to close up again. As you can see, Daniel can write! Now we are planning on going out to a pub to see if we can find some fish and chips, and try some Bulmers, should be a good experience. Tomorrow we are thinking about going to the Guinness Store House, National Library, National Gallery, and the Library at Trinity College. Going to have to pay some money to get into these places though.


See you tomorrow,


- Kamaljot & Daniel