Dublin And The Old Jail

   We docked in Dublin at 5am this morning. The sail time was 3:30 which means that our actual time ashore was quite short. We were on the shuttle bus and at the drop off point before 8am. We needed to get going early because we were going to the old Jail which is a bit out of the central area of the city.

Cell Door

Old Jail 

   We had seen the big attractions (St. Patrick's, Trinity College, etc.) on our previous visits and so we chose to do something off the beaten path. We spent a bit of time looking once again at the painted doors of an older area of the city. We have visited this area on our last 2 visits but they are so interesting I wanted to do a quick walk through. We needed to get to the old jail and had a few choices. The hop on hop off bus did stop there but because we needed to get back to the ship so early, we would not be able to take advantage of all the stops. We tried to take a bus but we needed coins to pay the fare so we decided to walk. It took over an hour (a few wrong turns) but we were there in time to have a tea before our 10:30 tour time. We had booked online weeks ago.

 

In A Cell

  The jail (Kilmainham Gaol) is a “historic” site no longer in use. It is over 200 years old and had a long history. It did house many political prisoners over time and there were a number of public view hangings in the jail. The guide gave us an excellent review of Irish history with a riot against the British, separation from the empire and then the civil war with what became “northern” Ireland. In all it was a very well used place. We sat in the “court” where people were tried and saw the trial holding cells. The youngest prisoner ever was 5 years old and many children were interned there due to stealing food, receiving 10-15 year terms. It also held prisoners that were designated for “transport” to the colonies – Australia. The cells were designed for 1 prisoner but sometimes held up to 7 in the small dark damp cold spaces. Prisoners were in their cells 22 hours a day and had 1 hour of exercise and 1 hour

Hanging Courtyard

of hard labour (breaking rocks”). In all the tour lasted over an hour. The visit to the Kilmainham Gaol although off the beaten track was certainly worth it. I am surprised that Princess does have a visit as part of a local tour.

    We opted for public transportation to get back to the city centre. With a bit of help we easily got our tickets and were on the tram. Because of the limited time in the city, we did not visit the St. Mary's laundry which the nuns ran for abused children. The girls were virtually held as prisoners in a work camp environment. A crossing of the Ha Penny bridge brought us to the famous Temple Bar area. It is really the place to visit for the many tourists in town. We stopped at the Quay Bar – we had been to the actual

The Quay Bar

Temple Bar before - where we finally had a nice cider and a local beer. It was a good place to sit down for a bit of time and watch the tourists go by. Finally we made our way back to Merrion Square which was the pick up location for the shuttle bus. We were back on the ship by about 3pm. It was quite a hectic day with the amount of travel and limited time frame.

Quay Bar Rest

    We rested for a few hours and the headed off to the crab shack, a “specialty” restaurant. Stacey at CAA included that in our travel package. We could have used the voucher for the steak or Italian restaurants but opted for the sea food. It was excellent and we managed to get through most of the king crab legs and the shrimp. It was better than on the last cruise. 

      One entertainment venue today had a selection of Irish music by one of the house bands. The lead singer is from Ireland. It was very entertaining and she sang 2 songs that I use with line dancing. We are in Cove early tomorrow with a very late sailing so we can relax in the morning. We are going to Spike Island (Island Prison) tomorrow).