We were ever so excited about touring the local mill in Cavan (more on that later) on Monday morning, only to find that it is closed on Mondays! We took that as an omen and headed to Dublin to avoid the traffic and find our B&B. We finally arrived at about noon, and found the B&B without too much difficulty.
We spent our first afternoon getting acquainted with Dublin: walking the streets, visiting the tourist information, and generally exploring the city. We found information about a musical pub crawl and pursued it that night. While it was not entirely what we expected, we did visited 4 different pubs over 2 hours and heard some good music on the Euilean (sp?) pipes, guitar and Bodhrain at each stop. The two musicians spoke a little bit about the history and development of traditional music in Ireland.
Tuesday was started at the National Museum which houses a fascinating display on prehistoric man in Ireland, from the Stone Age to the late Iron Age. This is supplemented by a huge collection of prehistoric gold jewellery and a room explaining the importance of the Vikings to the history of Dublin. Perhaps the most interesting room, however, was an explanation of the independence process of Ireland which resulted in the Northern Ireland that is currently the home of so many problems. It began with the emancipation of the Catholics in the early 1800's and continued through to the signing of the peace treaty with the British. I did feel that the lack of any discussion of the situation between the late 1920's and the present was a conspicuous omission. After lunch, we more or less followed a self-guided tour of the heritage sights of Dublin, including St. Patrick's Cathedral and Dublin Castle, stopping along the way in a few parks to enjoy the sun and watch the people. That evening we saw a play entitled "Granddad's Sure Lilly's Still Alive," a hilarious comedy about 5 or 6 residents of a retirement home, their relationships, dealings with the staff, and a breakout night on the town.
Not sure what more to do in Dublin (not that we had exhausted all the possibilities) and with rain threatening us again, we remembered our missed experience at the Lifeforce Mill in Cavan and decided to take the quick drive back to tour the mill and bake our own whole-meal brown bread. We returned to Dublin to track down Tracy, Laurie's sister's friend. We had her address but no phone number and there was no listing in the book or directory assistance, so we eventually just went and knocked on her door and were successful. We made arrangements to meet later at one of her "regular pubs" and went back to the B&B to pack. We then spent a long night with Tracy and her roommate Shannon exploring some of the old and new night spots in Dublin. Five pints of Guinness and a few hours later we climbed into bed at 2 AM. This may not be very late, but when I woke up 5 AM for our flight with a hangover, it seemed quite late.
The play we saw in Dublin was very timely as we flew to England for a few days to visit my Gran who is now living in a retirement home. I won't bore you with the details, but we had a nice time and she seems to be doing quite well as she approaches her 90th Birthday.