Scenes around Dublin, Grafton Street, a living statue, and a bust of James Joyce from St. Stephen's Green.
St Stephen's Green is a gorgeous city park with beautiful flowers and fountains. It was once the exclusive private park of the Guiness family. Grafton Street is one of several pedestrian malls in Dublin which makes it a fantastic city for shopping. It was sunny and wonderful both days we were in Dublin.

More of Dublin, Statue of Daniel O'Connell at the foot of the O'Connell Street Bridge, portrait of James Connolly from the GPO (Post Office), more scenes off of Grafton Street. The Post Office has a series of paintings depicting various events of the Easter 1916 uprising.

Shea in front of a door in the Temple Bar area, more scenes from around Dublin, and Trinity College. Doors and windows were very important in history. People were taxed by the number of windows they had and the size of the windows..so the richer you were, the larger your windows. Many doors around Dublin are incredible, especially in the Temple Bar area where they are taking history to a new level. We went on an incredible Carriage tour of the city with a wonderful guide. He told us about the window taxes, showed us the gorgeous Georgian houses from the 1600s. The Georgian Houses all have different sized archways across the top of the doors, the larger the archway, the richer you were. He also showed us the Lord Mayor's Mansion and the Guiness Mansion. He showed us the homes of Yeats and even Bram Stoker (who wrote Dracula). (interesting side note; the Bank of Ireland in Dublin was erected totally without windows to avoid paying taxes, the entire ceiling was glass to let in light.)

More Grafton Street (can you tell I loved it..:-), On to Killmainham Jail. This is where many of the members of the Easter Uprising were excuted, including James Connolly. The middle picture shows part of the main jail, the picture on the right is one of the yards where the executions took place. Cabs go up to Killmainham Jail which is a good distance from the city center..but they don't go back. It made for a few interesting minutes as we tried to figure out what to do!! Luckily a nice person showed us where to go to catch the bus (seems as though just about everyone in Ireland is nice). The bus worked out great and dropped us right in the Temple Bar area, a short walk from our Hotel.

The cross marks the spot where James Connolly was executed. He had been wounded at the Post Office during the uprising and wasn't able to stand, so he was executed sitting in a chair.

Getting out of Dublin proved to be hard!! The directions that we received from the Hotel didn't work out so well. We ended up in one big circle. When we stopped at a gas station to ask how the hell to get out of dodge a man offered to let us follow him. He said he was going the way we needed to go and took us several miles to the motorway. First stop, Glendalough in the Wicklow Mountains. This monastary was founded by St. Kevin and includes several ruins. It is also in an incredibly beautiful valley where two rivers meet. The ruins include a round tower, St. Kevin's Church and what is left of St. Kieran's church. Ciaran (the Gaelic spelling) was the first Irish born Saint.

Ciaran and Kevin...on top the ruins of St. Kieran's Church

Waterford Crystal is a great tour. It was really cool getting to see how the crystal is made, from start to finish. I never realized how much work went into it before and I have a newfound respect for the pieces. The middle picture shows a Master Engraver. His work was incredible!! The picture on the right is of Foxmount Farm. Our hostess, Margaret Kent, is one of the best cooks on the face of the planet. Dinner at night was a gourmet treat complete with homemade icecream. After dinner everyone would gather in the drawing room for tea, coffee and conversation. People from all over the world stay at B&Bs in Ireland.

The day we were in the Waterford area was the only day we had RAIN, RAIN and more RAIN!! We drove all the way to Kilkenny with it pouring down because I couldn't find the road I wanted to get us to Kells (not the same Kells-another one) and to a place called Kilkieran. (Chil Chiaran in Gaelic - means Ciaran's Church) But on the way back from Kilkenny I was finally able to start figuring out the map..and we found both. It was raining but Shea and I walked out to the Priory ruins at Kells any way. These pictures are of the high crosses at Kilkieran, both date to around 800 a.d.!! (I LOVE THE HIGH CROSSES!)
A bit of Gaelic:
Chil (Kil) means church
Bally means town
Teach (pronounced tock) means house
Lough (pronounced lock) means lake

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