Week 15 - The Rocky Road to Dublin

This was my final week of exams and papers for classes, as you well know by now. Monday was my Folklore exam, which was answering two essay questions. On Tuesday my major essay for my Study of a Major Irish Author (Joyce) module was due. Friday was the due date for my completed Language Profile Project on ASL for  Linguistics, as well as an additional group assignment analyzing dialogue in a tv show. Everything is pretty nerve-wracking at the end because all of the exams and assignments are worth a large portion of the overall grades.

Although the week was stressful, I was able to get my work done quickly and enjoy the end of the week a bit more than the beginning. On Wednesday I wanted to relax and spend time with my friends who were just as stressed out as me, so we had a movie night. It was Julia, Kaitlyn, Stephanie, Jill and I who began with the movie "Christmas Cupid". We agreed that it was not very good. Selke and Derek joined us for the second movie, which is one of my favorites "While You Were Sleeping." Kaitlyn had brought over Kraft macaroni and cheese to share earlier in the evening, which I really appreciated because it is my favorite food and remind me of home.

 On Friday Julia, Jill, and I decided that we wanted to have a final trip to Dublin. I did not have enough time to explore the city when I went there for Eirtakon the first time, so I was glad that I was able to plan an additional trip. Our first stop was to see the Book of Kells at the Trinity College Library. If you have never heard of the Book of Kells there is a really great animated movie that talks about some of the history of it. The name of it is "The Secret of Kells," which I first saw in my Mythology class at CMU. The pages are all hand written, and there are such detailed artwork and drawings in the book that is just exquisite. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures of the book, but it was still a really cool experience. The next area that you go through in the library is the old portion of it. This place had thousands upon thousands of ancient books lining the shelves, and busts of different philosophers, authors, poets, artists, and famous figures running along the outside of the shelves. In the center of the room was a variety of old and new books on display on different thing like mythology, religion, children's literature, and so on.

The next thing we wanted to do was grab a bite to eat at a well known bar called O'Neill's. The food area reminded me of a cafeteria where you grab your own tray and ask the person behind the counter for a certain dish that has already been prepared. I had a free meal voucher, so I ordered a heaping plate of Guinness beef stew with mashed and boiled potatoes with a crispy outside and a Coke. The beef was corned beef, and the stew was absolutely delicious and really filling. We stayed for a good long while in hopes of defrosting. It was very cold and windy outside, so we could only really enjoy the inside activities. Dublin is unique for all of its canals and bridges. It is very beautiful.

At lunch I had happened to glance out the window and saw that we were right by the Molly Malone statue, so we went to see her next. There is a ghost song about Molly Malone that is very popular in Ireland and really all around the world. You have probably heard about her selling cockles and mussels as she wheels her cart around. Usually the song is played in an upbeat tune, even though it does talk about a woman dying and becoming a ghost.

Our next stop was at the National Museum of Ireland. There are several different buildings of the National Museum scattered across Dublin, and the one we chose to go to was the Archeology one to see the bog bodies. Bog bodies are quite famous in Ireland, Scotland, and other parts of Europe. Bogs are places in the land that are similar to swamps and are able to preserve objects for thousands of years. People would leave valuables in the bogs to protect and preserve them. Today bogs are full of archeological treasures and historic items like cloth, wood, gold, food, and so on. One item that was common and which they had at the museum was bog butter. I kid you not there is actually preserved remains of butter. The proof is in the picture of the mug with butter in it on the right. The bog bodies themselves are dated around 300 BC, and have been completely preserved. There were four bodies total in the museum in various states. The first one the man still had a full head of hair that was clearly orange in color. The second one was only the top half of a person, but you could see the outlines of the bones through the skin and the hair again. The third man was very special and is the one that I have a picture of below. He is known as The Oldcroghan Man. The hand is perfectly preserved with even the fingernails and skin still intact. Evidence on the body suggests that he was killed in a surprise attack and tried to defend himself. He was then decapitated, tied up, and thrown into a bog. He still even has the rope on his arm. The fourth body actually had a bust nearby that was a recreation of what he looked like based on the remains. 

The last place we decided to visit was the Old Jameson Distillery. We had heard from several people and on a lot of travel websites that it was one of the top places to visit in Dublin. I am not really a fan of whiskey, but I thought it may be fun to see what a distillery was like. I have never visited a brewery or winery or distillery before, so it was definitely a new experience. Upon arriving I was surprised to find the place to be quite refined and well decorated. There are three restaurants on location and a gift shop. They also were being quite festive and had a Christmas tree made up of the green Jameson bottles. It looked amazing. The tour that we were given was a guided tour and began with a short video that "introduced" you to John Jameson and his son in 1780. It was really cheesy, but cute at the same time. The tour guide began by mentioning that the distillery was no longer a working distillery, and was actually a museum. It had moved in the 1970s to Cork. We were then walked through the eight stages that the whiskey takes before it can be sold. After we learned how it was created we were lead into a room to taste test Jameson compared to Johnny Walker Black Label and Jack Daniels, which are the best selling whiskeys in Scotland and America. Jameson ending up winning, but it was very biased. After the tasting we were given a free beverage with Jameson in it (we all got their Jameson and ginger ale with lime) as well as a certificate for being an "official taste tester." The tour overall was very informative and well done. I really would recommend going on it, even if you are not a fan of whiskey. By this time it had gotten dark outside and we were all exhausted, so we decided to head back to Limerick. We all agreed that we were happy that we could take one final trip before heading home. I now have seven days before my flight leaves. Now is the time for me to say goodbye to the friends that I have made and goodbye to Ireland.

Fun Facts:

#1: It is well known that names with 'Mac' in them are Irish. This is because the term 'Mac' means son, so it is like son of a certain man. An example is MacDonald. MacDonald is the son of Donald. In the 13th century the 'Mac' became a permanent addition to family names. 

#2: There are a lot of misconceptions about fairies because of their potential to cause harm to people. It is sometimes believed that they are malevolent. However, this is not true. Fairies are neither good or evil, but live outside of the concept of right and wrong. They just do what they feel like doing. 

#3: There are four festivals that coincide with the four seasons of the calendar in the Irish tradition. They are Imbolc (The Festival of Brigit) in February, Bealtaine (May Day) in May, Lughnasa in late July or early August, and Saimhain (Halloween) in October. Each festival is unique and there are traces of each in the current era.