Thursday and Friday, August 15 & 16 - Big Dublin Days!

Thursday, Aug 15

Our day started with daily Mass for the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin at St. Mary's Pro Cathedral.  It was interesting to see a variety of folks gather for a morning mass in the middle of the city.

The ladies visited Trinity College, with a tour of the grounds by a scholar, or present student there.  While at Trinity, they also toured the Book of Kells exhibit.  The Book of Kells is a 9th century gospel manuscript famous throughout the world.  They also visited the Long Room in the Old Library.  Built between 1712 and 1732, the Long Room holds the collections 200,000 oldest books.

Pics of this to come...

 It was raining when they left the shop and when one of their bags broke outside a gorgeous Georgian door housing Louise Kennedy, they stopped in to look inside and ask for a new bag.  Louise Kennedy is a designer and the place was beautiful.  Sarah was working there and took the opportunity to tour us around and show us many of Louise's gorgeous fashions, including inviting us into the bridal room, which was breathtaking!  

The ladies then found their way to The Cellar pub at the Merrion Hotel and had a wonderful mushroom soup and pints.  

The Gents toured CrokePark, the 4th largest stadium in Europe and home of the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association).    The All-Ireland (Gailic Football) and Hurling Finals are hosted here along with numerous concerts.  The guys learned that the GAA is a big part of Irish culture now, as it's mission is to preserve and continue Ireland's strong sports culture in leiu of pressure from Great Britain in the 1800s and before independence in the 1920s.

Here are some great pics and links from their trip:

They guys also stopped by the Celtic Whiskey Shoppe and enjoyed a lovely late lunch at Sinnott's across from the Gaiety Theater, home of Riverdance.  Next stop was O'Donoghue's Pub, made famous by Irish session music and frequented by the Dubliner.  The guys ended up staying there for the remainder of the day (and evening) where we met a variety of people, including some from the Twin Cities like Scott Libby and sons from Edina.

Later that evening, the ladies joined the guys guys for an evening at O'Donoghue's Pub which consisted a lot of chatting with locals and having Liz try and get our entire room to sing "Whiskey In The Jar".

Friday, Aug 16

Dan, Michelle, Kelly and Carl took a shuttle bus (about 45 minutes each way) out to Newgrange and Knowth.  Newgrange is burial passageway with earthen mounds that are over 3000 years old...older than the Pyramids in Egypt.

We even met Michelle's Doppelganger (twin) who was our guide @ Knowth.

Newgrange

Vic and Liz stayed in Dublin (they saw New Grange in their last visit to Ireland in the late 90s) and shopped.

Later that day, we made a quick run back to Jameson to pick up a few things, and then everyone met up for our last night in Dublin.  We ate dinner at ONeils, and then later Vic and Dan visited Brazen Head (one of the oldest Pubs in Ireland).