Ireland 2025 – Days 2 & 3 – Saturday September 6th and 7th –Dublin Days
I write this on our bus ride to Tralee. We were originally scheduled to take the 1pm Train from Dublin Heuston train station to Mallow (then connect to Tralee), arriving at 5 pm. However, Irish Rail in its infinite wisdom decided on short notice to do rail work for the next couple weeks. So trains for this day had partially been cancelled and were replaced by a bus service and all seat reservations were voided.
Luckily our fearless leaders the Hoffmanns, after consulting with some of our fellow travellers, decided not to take this chance but to scramble and find different means of transportation from Dublin to Tralee and on the return trip on Sep 15th. They were able to secure a private bus transfer for both ways – it was pretty difficult as many people seemed to have the same idea. And that is how we ended up in a Mercedes 20 seater bus with a luggage compartment. As I always say in these posts, be ready for anything when you travel. Remember on our last trip in May – we landed in the middle of the Atlantic and had to change all of our transportation plans when we landed in Rome!
So, when we arrived in Dublin Yesterday, we checked into our hotel and walked around. I visited Croke Park, the location of the first “Bloody Sunday”, in modern Irish history, which occurred November 21, 1920. On that Sunday afternoon, fourteen people were killed or fatally wounded when police fired into the crowd at a Gaelic football match in Dublin’s Croke Park. The causes of the Croke Park massacre have been debated ever since, but most historians now agree that British backed police and “Brown shirts” (Ireland was still under British rule at the time) opened fire with no provocation on civilians. However, earlier that morning several police had been assassinated by Irish Republican rebels. So, it was a retaliation due to pent up frustration.
The most recent “Bloody Sunday” occurred January 30, 1972 when British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a protest march in Derry in Northern Ireland during the period known as The Troubles in Northern Ireland. Thankfully, Ireland is much more peaceful today.
The Croke Park stadium now seats 88,000 and was the largest stadium in Europe until the stadium built in Barcelona. Unlike the stadium in Barcelona where soccer players get paid millions, eighty-eight thousand people show up at this stadium to watch amateurs play the sports of Gaelic Football and hurling.
I then walked down famous Grafton Street, where you can always listen to some good street music being played by several artists located along the way. I listened to one duo for 15 minutes. And I must say the music was very moving…
We had an early and truly amazing dinner with the rest of our group at The Wollen Mills https://www.thewoollenmills.com/ .
After dinner with our group, we went for one final stroll through city center Dublin and just soaked in the sounds, aromas, and atmosphere of a busy, energetic and cosmopolitan European city on a Saturday night. The “Hen Party” groups were out in force!
The next morning, before leaving for Tralee, the start of our 112-mike hike, Elizabeth and I walked around Dublin. We looked at art at Merrion Square, visited Oscar Wilde’s statue, and did some gift shopping for our family on Grafton Street.
Dublin impressed me when I visited 15 and 6 years ago, and it did not disappoint now. This was a good start to what I expect to be a splendid hiking trip.
An important postscript – Two things we did not do because of a lack of time, which I did when I visited Dublin last time was take the 30-minute DART (train) ride to Howth (pronounce Hoth – like both, but with an H). It was a highlight of that trip. You can look it up, but it is famous for its fresh seafood, especially oysters and fish and chips, and is still very much a working fishing village. Howth is also known for it hiking with spectacular views. It is the third most visited tourist spot is the Dublin area. Number one is the Guinness Brewery and number two in Trinity College and the Book of Kells. For anyone visiting Dublin, this is a must side trip. You can spend most of the day there hiking and eating great sea food.
The second thing we did not do was visit Trinity College and see the Book of Kells. It is a masterwork of Western Calligraphy and is also widely regarded as Ireland’s finest national treasure, which is why it is the second most visited site in Ireland behind the Guinness brewery.
Finally, if you ever visit Trinity College, you must visit the Long Room of the Old Library. The 215 foot Long Room was built between 1712 and 1732 and houses 200,000 of the library’s oldest books. It also contains busts of some of the most prolific thinkers and philosophers in western civilization.
