Before getting into Thursday’s events (September 8), I need to give a little more background on the Easter Rebellion (Easter Rising) of 1916 – which I’ve given rather short shrift in previous notes – and which is the backdrop for nearly everything discussed in Ireland – especially now as Ireland celebrates its centennial and reflects on its hundred years as a republic.

The Easter Rising was an armed insurrection that took place during Easter time in 1916 – launched by Irish republicans as an effort to end British rule and establish a republic. It took place while the UK was involved in WWI and was organized by a seven men who formed the Irish Republican Brotherhood… They were joined by the Irish Citizen Army and also several hundred women and together over just 6 days (at least this is what I think the story is) they seized many locations in Dublin and they proclaimed the start of the Irish Republic. The Brits had thousands of soldiers who were deployed to Ireland and lots of armament… Much of the fighting was on the streets and on roads leading into the center of Dublin where the rebels put up a strong resistance (and inflicted casualties on the British). Eventually, the rebels were surrounded and bombarded by the well-armed British and the Rising was squelched. More than 3,000 people were taken prisoner and about half were sent to internment camps. The leaders were executed (hence the Kilmainham Gaol). But popular support for Irish independence continued.

One of the jail’s most famous prisoners was de Valera who was there three times. He was an independence leader who was born in NY to an Irish mother who died and so he went to Ireland and later joined the Irish Volunteers. He was sentenced to death for his role in the Easter Uprising, but his sentence was commuted and he was actually the only leader of the rebellion who was not executed (maybe because he was actually a US citizen?). He wound up in several different jails in England and then released on some kind of amnesty. Eventually he became the last political prisoner to walk out of Kilmainham Jail in the mid-1920s… Ironically, he later became the Prime Minister and then President of Ireland.

About 500 people were killed in the 6 days of the Easter Rising and of those dead more than half were civilians. About 3,000 were wounded. Many of the civilians were caught in the crossfire of the street fighting. The whole activity left many parts of Dublin in ruins. While we didn’t plan our trip based on this centennial, it’s obviously been a backdrop as we walk the streets. There are great huge photo blow ups of 1916 in several of the parks; last night we attended a concert in the National Concert Hall called “Composing the Island” – a sort of retrospective of the past 100 years of classical Irish music. The first half, which I think covered compositions from 1916 through the end of WWII, was all very heavy. The second half of the concert was a bit more uplifting. (The intention was to head to a pub to hear folk music after the concert, but it ended late and Richard and Elizabeth had an early flight this morning, so we headed to the hotel where there was a not-very-good singer/guitarist and a very noisy bachelor party in the bar.)

OK.. history lesson complete. Apologies.. but the visit to Killmainham was really powerful – seeing the cells where these resistance leaders were held and where they were executed. By the way, “The Italian Job” and several other films were shot at the prison… which offered itself as a location for major films and also for concerts in the years between its closing and the opening of the jail as a tourist venue.

Started out on Thursday walking to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells (an obviously popular tourist attraction with long lines).. Have to be honest, the powerful experience there is seeing the amazing library and the famous Long Room where the Book of Kells is kept. The library and the room are from the 1700s… and expanded in the 1850s. It’s about 200 ft. long… and is filled with shelves holding every book that has ever been published in Ireland and Britain.. It’s lined with marble busts of philosophers, writers, etc.

From Trinity we hiked to the Photographic Archives to get a better look at the images of 1916 (which is remarkably documented), and then a bit to eat in a pub (still a little queasy so focused mostly on soup. Then Mike headed to see the Liebeskind building that we had already seen and Elizabeth and I strolled to check out neighborhoods and also some Irish Design stores and a look at Powerscourt Center (an elegant Georgian house that was home to a viscount in the 1700s.. He and his wife bought the giant townhouse (which is a bit like Downton Abbey in scale) to entertain guests when they were in town during “the season.” It’s huge with a central court that is now glazed over… and the house and space are now home to dozens of shops and restaurants. Also walked by the big tall spire, apparently built for the millennium…

Final interesting points of note:

• Dublin taxi drivers have successfully fended off Uber (good for them!)
• There was a bus strike for the last two days so traffic is totally snarled.
• Unemployment is currently at about 9% in Ireland (or maybe that’s Dublin) which they think is good, given that they had been at 17% a few years ago during the economic crisis.
• People living in Northern Ireland are now actively seeking Irish passports in light of Brexit. (apparently Irish can choose to have a passport from the Republic of Ireland (EU) or from Northern Ireland (UK).
• It’s been raining for the past two days while in Dublin.

Taxied to Dublin Airport—to catch 5:00 pm flight from Dublin to London City Airport (like flying into Burbank instead of LAX)…

Just finished dinner with god-daughter and her husband; they’ve been living overseas for many years… Went to a little tapas place called Taberna do Mercado – in Spitalfields Market.. Very good, and we closed the place down and then came to our hotel which is nearby for drinks..

It’s about 2 am.. and I’m fading. See you all stateside in about 36 hours.

Fern

Greetings –

Today was our “tourist day” — but first Elizabeth and I walked with a mission to seek out a really nice Irish sweater for my aunt; but didn’t do so well, although Elizabeth bought a really nice sweater.

Met up with the guys, and headed to the Kilmainham Gaol (the prison) where revolutionaries, including the leaders of the 1916 “Easter Rising” were held and executed by the British. The prison was built in 1796. Originally, public hangings took place at the front of the prison, but there were such large crowds that came to see the hangings (and lots of drinking and violence outside the prison) that they moved the hangings to a central court inside the prison.  Men, women and children were incarcerated up to five people in each cell, with only a single candle for light and heat. Most of their time was spent in the cold and the dark, and each candle had to last for two weeks. The cells were about 28 square meters.

Kilmainham Gaol was closed in 1924. But during the years it was open it had a very sad, embarrassing, and fascinating history. The uprisings of 1798, 1803, 1848, 1867 and 1916 ended with the leaders’ confinement here. National heroes such as Robert Emmet, Thomas Francis Meagher, Charles Stewart Parnell and the 1916 Easter Rising leaders were all residents for some time, but it was the executions in 1916 that really etched the jail’s name into the Irish consciousness.

Here we saw the cells of our friend Plunkett from Cork..

From there we walked to the Kilmainham Hospital which is now the Irish Museum of Modern Art. It was built in 1680 and is the oldest classical building in Ireland, was based on Les Invalides in Paris. The gardens were originally used for medicinal purposes but over time they became private. And then in the 1990s hospital buildings and grounds became the home to the Museum of Modern Art. The current exhibit was uninspiring, but the notion that this beautiful structure with a great courtyard was a hospital was amazing. Don’t see these hospitals in the US.

Began to rain so we hopped a taxi to get to the ‘gallery of photography where we believed they had a special exhibit of photographs of Ireland (Dublin from 1916 to 2016).. but instead we found an exhibit of contemporary Austrian photography (which was rather whimsical). As we were leaving the building, we asked about  an exhibit of photos of Dublin in 1916 and 2016… and we learned that was across the courtyard.. but the building was closed. Perhaps tomorrow.

Headed for dinner at Enoteca de le Langhe… which turned out to be quite good, albeit a bit noisy.. Following dinner, headed to the hotel for drinks… and now settling in to get to bed. Another day awaits.

Fern

PS —  a few comments about Ireland – lots of bookstores.. what have we done in the US to all of our bookstores; do we really expect everyone to read everything online?

Woke up in Limerick and decided to take a walk and find a breakfast place (it was Sunday), rather than eat at the hotel.  We strolled along the quay, and stumbled on a pub that serves breakfast – sounded like a plan. Cute pub, dark and very Irish. The menu was pretty limited – full Irish breakfast (which could feed about 6 people), or poached eggs, or fried eggs. I obviously made things complicated by asking for one egg scrambled. The waitress said she’d ask the cook, but that he was a “no-man”…always says “no” to special requests. Couldn’t really figure out why it would be hard to scramble an egg since there was a frying pan for the fried eggs. Well, I lucked out, apparently they were out of roasted potatoes so he said if I accepted potato pancakes instead of roasted potatoes, he’d make the egg scrambled.  Good.

Following breakfast we headed to the Milk Market – which was a few blocks away. Walked through some pretty depressed streets and arrived at the milk market which was now an upscale collection of shops and cafes, but many shops were closed so we just did a quick spin around and decided to head to Dublin. It was a grey day and over the course of the two+ hour drive we hit some rain, but nothing too overbearing. Drive to Dublin was uneventful, wide  roads and lanes (American style) and we could drive fast (their basic speed limit in Ireland is 75mph).

Got to the Schoolhouse Hotel in Dublin – a very sweet place, with a rich history as a school beginning in 1859. Each classroom has been restored with one now the restaurant and bar. Each room has a plaque dedicating the room to one of Ireland’s most influential people (all of whom appear to be men). Our room is dedicated to John Millington Synge (1871 –1909) was an Irish playwright, poet, travel writer who was a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival. He’s best known for his play The Playboy of the Western World. He came from a privileged background, but his writings are focused on Roman Catholic peasants in rural Ireland. He died at 38.

Dropped off our bags and went into the hotel bar to get some kind of lunch even though it was about 3:45 we hadn’t eaten anything since the pub breakfast. We had a pending dinner reservation at 8:00 pm but felt we couldn’t go that long without food. We shared a steak sandwich and beers, and then drove to the airport to return our rental car (don’t need a car in Dublin). Taxied back to the hotel – with a very very chatty driver who I believe took the longest possible route from the airport to the hotel. Also got stuck in big crowds because the hurling meet had just ended, and if I understood it correctly, the team from Tipperary won against Kilkenny.. and Kilkenny had been the winning team for more than 12 years, so this was a big upset. Streets were overflowing and pubs were filling up beyond their doors into the streets. Everyone seemed pretty excited.

At about 7 pm, when we were thinking we should get ready to head to dinner…. We both suddenly felt totally sick to our stomachs; I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say that we spent the next 12 hours barfing… and by the time that was over it was morning and we were really weak. Went downstairs at about 11 am, told them we felt strongly that the steak (or maybe the mushrooms) gave us food poisoning.. Anyway, we had dry toast and water and then went back to bed. At 2:00, I decided to get some fresh air and take a walk, but Mike stayed in bed until about 4:30 pm.

My walk was interesting – across the quay, through parks, and into walking streets…. I was also on a mission – to find a wonderful Irish handmade infant sweater for upcoming baby shower in the states, which I found – big success. I stopped for a bowl of soup, but could only really eat about five tablespoons. Got back to the hotel in time to change for dinner (Richard and Elizabeth – Mike’s brother and sister in law who live in Geneva arrived at around 7 pm, in time for dinner – which was supposed to be at the hotel, but we opted to eat elsewhere given the situation. I would have walked to the restaurant which was close to where I had walked earlier – about a mile – but for the good of the group, we all decided to take a taxi. Ate at Fade Street Social which had a nice menu, but not a lot of options for Mike and me… Hopefully we’re on the mend and will be able to eat tomorrow.

Dublin seems to be a very livable city, easily navigable, easily walkable – with canals streaming through and lots of car and pedestrian bridges that make the city work well. There’s about 1.3 million in the city proper and about 1.9 million total in greater Dublin. Traditionally, we are told there was a north-south divide with the Liffey River being the dividing line. The neighborhood north of Liffey were working class and those on the south side were middle and upper-middle class – with lots of stereotypes building from these differences  — including  in accent and demeanor.

OK… hopefully on the mend.

And then we can really see Dublin beginning tomorrow.

Fern

Dia dhuit  (I think this is hello) – which I believe is pronounced something like jee-ah ghwit (and the gh is like a hard g and a little throaty). Actually hard to understand those speaking English but with a really strong Irish accent… This morning I overheard a woman talking about been at a late “pee-air-tee” (party)…

After breakfast and a brief look around the grounds of Carrig Country House (apologies, yesterday’s note called it Carring House (slip of the spell check)… we set off for Dingle. The grounds were exquisite and it seemed as if the sun gods were in our corner (weather here is totally unpredictable), so we could really have a look at the lake on which Carrig House sits, and the property which is extensive. It includes a croquet court (field?) but no one was playing, and I think there is golf and horseback riding.  But we were on our way to one of the core sites for this trip (beyond meeting up with Mike’s brother and sister-in-law for our annual visit) – to go to a concert at St. James Church in Dingle…

Long story – Ever since I saw the Amy Winehouse film, “The Day She Came to Dingle” (2012, I think), I wanted to experience that remote, lush green picture-postcard peninsula, and I really wanted to hear a concert in the church where Winehouse performed. Once we decided to come to Ireland, I knew I needed to get to Dingle.. and I needed to come when there is a concert in that church – St. James Church (I don’t think it functions as a church any more.. the concerts occur on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays…. So we needed to arrange the drive to be here on one of those nights. The film is a documentary about a 2006 appearance by Amy Winehouse in the Other Voices concert that is held every year in this small fishing village – Dingle. As I recall, the film showed the few days that led to the concert — where Winehouse performed six amazing songs accompanied only by a guitar player and a bass player. Naturally the film was a lot about Winehouse’s state of mind as well as all the prep before the concert. But the siting of the performance in that little church and the scenes of the town and the landscape hung in. I just had the sense that I wanted to see Dingle. (And all of this from a city girl!)

Once we figured out our trip and were able to get to Dingle on a Friday, we were set. We contacted the hotel several times asking if they could get us tickets (fearful that we’d go all this way and then not get tickets). The hotel repeated on each call, that they could not get the tickets for us… and that it wouldn’t be a problem. But I persevered – called the church (no one ever answers). Anyway, we had no choice but to go with the flow, so our goal was to get to Dingle by noon to secure the tickets… which you can only get at the ice scream store or the pub.  We opted for the pub… and got the tickets. Obviously it’s all quite calm and laid back. Bought the tickets, were told to get to the church by 7:10, doors would open at 7:15, no reserved seats. So we now had a few hours to spare. (In the end no one even collected the tickets)

Anyway, as we left Killgorlin, we headed out toward Castlemaine and on to Inch (a tiny beach peninsula) and then on to windy roads that careened back and forth – stopped many times, with one vista being more spectacular than the other.. and those greens. You just cannot recreate them… The light was spectacular although always clouds hovering.. so stretches of brightness and areas of darkness. Reached Dingle at about noon, bought our tickets for tonight’s performance. Couldn’t check into our hotel (Benners) on the main drag until 4:00, so we strolled a bit, stopped for salads, and then headed to take a circular one-hour drive (assuming no stops) that circles the Dingle Peninsula. Yet more spectacular views and cliffs and sheep and vistas… Took about two hours and then headed back to town to finally check into the hotel (now about 5:00). But the hotel had a little problem with the key card machine, so we had to wait in the lobby for about 30 minutes until that got sorted out.

Decided to head to the ice cream store… What’s a girl to do if you can’t get into the hotel? Lots of local flavors like brown bread ice cream and gin ice cream (which we figured was definitely worth a try – actually pretty good and you can definitely taste the gin). Quickly settled into the room.. Benners is an old hotel, three stories high, with a large pub on the first floor. Room is spacious with a great bay window. But we had little time to get comfy as we had to dash off to the concert at the church.

Tonight’s performance was in three parts: first a guitarist from Dingle – folk vocals.. with a very witty style for his introductions to each piece; then he was joined by a woman who played the concertina and their duets were lively and well timed. Then a duet – fiddler (female)/singer (originally from Cape Breton Nova Scotia – Rosie Mackenzie) and a male guitarist (originally from London—Matt Griffin) – both Irish descent played and sang beautifully, intensely, and with that Irish style of changing the tempo midstream. It was great all around.

That said, the church interior is clearly not as exotic as it was in the film… but they must have done great lighting and tonight it was very simple. And the filmmakers took a lot of liberty with how they showed the entrance and siting of the church – but it didn’t matter.. all good.

We realized that the concert would probably end around 9:30 and it seemed like restaurants stop serving around 9, so we called several restaurants very close to the church…. When I said we’d be coming from the concert they each said “Oh that won’t work; never know when the concert will end – never know if it starts on time… and even if it starts and ends on time, we finish serving at 9:30.” Seemed funny, since they could clearly get more customers if they served til 10… or maybe the concerts should start at 7:00. Anyway, one restaurant The Half Door said they’d stay open for us, so following the concert, we went there. Not too great, and pricey.. but they held to their agreement

All in all a good day.. but tiring. Naturally, headed to a pub after dinner… we are in Ireland!

Tomorrow is the Dingle Marathon; the fiddler from the performance is running, along with many in the audience (they asked for a show of hands). It’s supposed to be the most beautiful marathon route in the world. We’ll probably see some of it tomorrow as we walk around before heading to Limerick.

Oh one other correction to yesterday’s notes.. US lanes are 12’ wide not 10’ as I said.. And today we were on lanes that were about 7’ and in some cases it was just one lane, although cars drove in both directions. The roads have little indents every so often so that one car can pull over while a car goes in the other direction.

That’s it for tonight.

Fern

Greetings from somewhere in western Ireland…

Had breakfast this morning at Tara’s Tea House which was a few doors down from our hotel. Quintessential British/Irish with lots of chintz and patterns on top of patterns – all with little floral elements. But great breakfast.. Then tackled leaving Cork and headed to Kenmare (or at least that’s where we thought we needed to go)… Decided to head first to Kinsale which is a delightful seaside town about 18 miles south of Cork. Navigated (or I should say that Mike navigated) the car on some small roads and narrow paths with horseshoe turns… and even parallel parked in Kinsale… Very sweet fishing and historic seaport town with a population of about 5,000. Strolled the town, climbed several flights of outdoor stairs to get some views, meandered the main street – stumbled on a wonderful shop selling great Irish wool sweaters (that don’t look like those fisherman sweaters – not that I don’t like those, but I was surprised to see some interesting fashionable heavy sweaters).

Went inside to look (and eventually to help the Irish economy), and somehow began talking with the saleswoman (maybe the owner, not sure)… and like the owner of the hat store yesterday, she made some reference to our upcoming presidential elections. I think everyone starts the conversation rather tentatively – not certain where we might be on the issue.. and then once they know they engage fully and deeply. The hat guy started by saying “Well, you have an interesting election coming up in the states.” And once we responded, he began to say how scared they all were about a potential Trump presidency. And it went on from there. The woman in the wool store began by saying “I see one of your presidential candidates was in Mexico yesterday…” And we took it from there. She turned out to be extremely interesting and totally devoted to streaming Rachel Maddow (she gets it one day late) and Dianne Rheams (also a day late)… She said she stays up really really late to do this, but it’s worth it. Turns out, she lived in the states briefly – initially in Seattle (imagine that) and then in Port Townsend (of all places). Her then-husband was a ship builder and he went to the Pacific Northwest to take ship-building courses in Port Townsend. She’s got three kids, two of whom showed up while we were talking; one is studying interior architecture and is thinking of doing her advanced degree in architecture. The potential architect, daughter, had just come back from a few summer weeks in NY and California so we chatted about where she was and where she wasn’t. The mother was very quick to ask for Mike’s contact information with the hope that the daughter might come to CA for an internship!

After finalizing my purchase (great sweater), we headed to Kenmare since that was what I had written in my calendar. We were to stay at the Carring Country House. I had a little trouble with the GPS (since I wrote in Carring House, Kenmare)… so we just punched in Kenmare.. and later punched in Carring House which got translated to Ard Carring (although I didn’t really notice).

The drive was incredible… two hours seeing every possible shade of green.. layers and layers of greens. It was misty and rainy the whole way, but sort of fitting. As we approached Kenmare, the town seemed to be a lively and adorable quintessential Irish village. We started to seek out dinner places and places for breakfast the next morning. Mike was saying “Let’s eat at the hotel… too much trouble to drive again in the dark”… I said “The GPS shows the place as one mile from the town.. so we can walk – so much better to go to town than to eat at the hotel…” The argument didn’t have much time to fester.. as we found ourselves at the supposed destination “Ard Carring.”

We knew right away that this was wrong… The place was pretty much deserted. So we drove on for another mile and then realized we were somehow not in the right place. We called the Carring Country House and learned that it’s not in Kenmare at all… It’s in Killmorglin… a tiny place about an hour or so west of Kenmare. So, on we went… driving on the Ring of Kerry – through amazing landscapes.. maybe 500 more shades of green, lakes, mist, waterfalls – the whole bit.

The drive was tense… and obviously unexpected. Heavy mist and light rain; very narrow roads (and we have the biggest car we’ve ever driven – this BMW); windy roads, sort of like the drive to Mendocino on Highway 1; very narrow lanes when there are lanes – often really just one lane but cars in both directions, no shoulders, lanes are about 7’ wide compared to about 10’ in the states. Anyway, we made it to the delightful Carring Country House – the 16-room restored Victorian where it seems time has stood still.

The house is on Caragh Lake and has gardens, woodlands and, great views of the lake. They also boast a first class restaurant, so we booked reservations (actually not much choice; not sure where you’d even find a restaurant within about 15 miles!)… Seemed a bit “formal” so we actually changed our clothes.. not too dressy (don’t even have those kinds of things).. but put on a skirt and threw on a scarf – and lo and behold – fancy!

Restaurant lived up to the reviews, and had impeccable service…. They started us off with an amuse bouche… some kind of goat cheese ball with red peppers inside and a little sweet chili drizzle… We had drinks and this dish in the ante room… Mike is really getting into these Irish whiskeys. I’m not there… Then we were escorted into the dining room… Started with a nice squash soup that had a little hot chili to five it a kick (Mike) and I had scrumptious crab wrapped in paper thin pineapple and drizzled with a wasabi cream!  Mike had the vegetarian dish (stuffed eggplant) and I had the rack of lamb. Desert was some kind of sorbet concoction (which we determined was the least fattening?) including yuzu.

Now we are exhausted… More tomorrow, as we head to Dingle.

By the way, the press has not let up on the Apple fiasco. In the car we heard a great panel discussion that included a labor leader, an Anti-Apple organizer, and a government official. The best part of the conversation was when the anti-Apple/pro tax guy said “It’s not usual for a business to be able to phone the Prime Minister on a Sunday night at home on his private cell phone… That’s what Tim Cook did this past Sunday.” And the government guy said “Our prime minister is very approachable!” I think it’s a pretty sticky situation, and both Apple and Ireland will have to “pay.” I’m sure it will take years, decades… and Apple has already deployed teams of attorneys to build their defense.. and are talking about how many jobs they’ve created.  My little math tells me that even if Apple paid an average of $100,000 per employee (probably less in Ireland) for 10 years and there were 6,000 employees.. I think that is $6 Billion.. But the taxes they saved were more than $14 billion.. so??? I also figure this is the tip of the iceberg and that Apple could not possibly be the only company doing this scam… ??

Hope all is well..

Onward to Dingle.

Fern

Hi All – Busy day…

After a somewhat typical Irish breakfast – passed on the rusks and the sausages (called puddings), but had the eggs scrambled with salmon (lox) and the amazing bread they have here in Ireland (very hard to resist), took off for the English Market.. strolling and dealing with the ever-changing weather (sunny one minute, drizzling the next). Walked through many pedestrian streets and more cobblestone ones and eventually getting to the market.. From what I gather, there has been a market on this site for more than 200 years… but the current building was built in the mid-19th century and is famous for an ornamental entrance. But the market was seriously damaged by a fire in the 1980s and the government funded the rehabilitation which was very respectful of the original Victorian design. After this renovation, the market started to offer more diverse foods – hoping to become more international in style. But it’s clear that its real strengths are the fish and meats and locally baked breads. There’s also a great chocolate selection including ones with Irish whiskey.. And there’s also a restaurant on the second level which overlooks the whole market… Meant to come back for lunch, but got sidetracked.

Left the market and strolled more of the streets which are packed with people, pubs, performers… But we had a purpose… Mike decided he needed a “cap” – He has about a dozen caps at home but didn’t bring one (and hates caps that ‘advertise’). His most recent favorite has been a navy one with a very tasteful embroidered (small) kangaroo that I brought back from Sydney last year. But alas, that seems to be lost, along with a host of other caps over the years. Hard to keep those caps on the head, I suppose. In an effort to accomplish the big retail goal – we stopped in sporting goods stores and some other random shops. And then we stumbled on a men’s hat shop. Walked in and hit the jackpot. They tried to convince Mike to get one of those wool caps.. but he opted for a very nice black heavy cotton one that has a particularly nice shape – not the baseball cap form. Bingo… big purchase!

With hat on head we went on our way… winding up at a little Mediterranean place for lunch – Orso. Quite good… mixture of salads (quinoa, chick peas, bulgar wheat, cous cous) and spicy beef kafta… Fortified, we could continue our journey. First to a church that is now a city exhibition hall where there was supposed to be a model of the full city… but unfortunately it had been moved to the architecture building at the university. Then we walked back across one of the many pedestrian bridges over the quays uphill to the butter museum (which was sort of a joke but we did go in).. Takeaway: butter is an important product in Ireland. Across from the butter museum is the Firkin Crane – a circular building at the top of the hill – built in the mid-1800s to meet the needs of the Butter Exchange.. “Firkin” means quarter barrel, which was equal to 80Ibs of butter. The firkins (sort of casks) were weighed on a scale that was called a “Crane”.

The building is completely circular… and  has a diameter of about 100’. Today the building is used by the Irish National Ballet and for some other performances, I think.

By now we had walked about 6.5 miles and decided it was time to head to the hotel and to do some of the work we each brought along. But stopped for some fortification along the way to the hotel. We were also searching for a restaurant for dinner tonight.. and thought we’d find something interesting.

We decided on Star Anise, a little restaurant not far from the hotel… but when we arrived at 8:30, the place was fully booked for the evening. So we searched a bit on iPhones… and decided on Jacques which is located on Plunkett Street (where we walked a lot earlier in the day). Found out that the street is named after a martyred bishop and that the family has a colorful history including John Plunkett, an Irish poet and writer and leader in the Easter Rising movement to get Ireland its independence from Britain who was executed just hours after he married his long time sweetheart… and another Plunkett who started the cooperative movement. Didn’t have time to research all of this but it sounds like a very interesting family.

Had a wonderful dinner at Jacques – which has a Mediterranean menu… started with mezze plate and some scallops with spiced eggplant, yogurt and mint… followed by wonderfully rare rump of lamb.. Ok.. enough about food.

The only other thing I’m going to report is that there is quite a scandal being reported here regarding Apple which has a facility here in Cork that employs 6,000 people (perhaps explaining the number of young people and the seemingly available free capital to shop and eat at nice restaurants and to be hanging out at pubs and going to music venues.) So as I understand it, the EU has said that Apple received “selective treatment” enabling it to pay a tax rate of 1% on their profits throughout the EU in 2003 and then even a lower rate beginning in 2014. There has been a three year investigation looking into special tax arrangement for Apple that go back 25 years. If I have it right there are two Apple firms registered in Ireland but they were controlled in the US.. and one of the companies supposedly based in Dublin had no employees and no office – so the end result is that EU says Apple owes more than $14 Billion.. plus fines. Not exactly sure why the government of Ireland doesn’t have any responsibility.. but the deep pockets are Apple’s. From the TV news Apple (Tim Cook) is saying that jobs in Cork will be threatened by this decision. But then there are some headlines saying that no jobs are at stake.

OK.. that’s it for today…  We head to Kenmare tomorrow – stopping in Kinsale and Killarney en route. Maybe kiss the Blarney Stone?

Fern

Arrived in Cork after about 26 hours of travel (left Oakland house at 6 am by taxi for SFO flight to DC then DC to Manchester UK, then Manchester to Cork). Seemed simple enough, albeit long.. but naturally the trip did not start out perfect…. Once we got out of the taxi at SFO, and were headed to our friendly TSA Pre-Check line… Mike realized he had left his computer in the taxi… After a while I decided to go through security and figured he’d catch up once he contacted the taxi driver (we always use the same one – total loyalty!) and had retrieved the trusty computer. The driver brought it back proclaiming to Mike “Keep your eye on this one, it’s the last ‘back-up’ computer I have with me!”

Onward to DC; realized that we had booked our tickets separately so we were not seated together.. which was fine. Mike somehow had a bulkhead seat so I did not want to switch with the person next to him, nor did the person next to me.. So a peaceful 6 hours. Then the flight to Manchester – they use much smaller equipment than when flying to London. Then we needed to find Aer Lingus to get from Manchester to Cork… Went through the “In Transit” lines at Manchester where it seemed we quickly became the only people transferring to Ireland… so we wound up in a no man’s land—a space where all the doors were locked and we were sort of stranded (glad I wasn’t alone, I think my claustrophobia would have kicked in). Tried using a service phone on the wall, but reached a baggage guy who couldn’t figure out where we were. Then we saw someone walking outside and banged on the glass doors. The guy came in (using some kind of key pass card) and explained that we needed to wait in this little “holding area” until a bus came by (every 10 or 15 minutes) and then that bus would get us to Aer Lingus and the terminal we needed. OK.. That worked.. Arrived at a much smaller terminal only to “surprise” the security guys (five of them) and the customs guy who were all sitting around reading the newspapers and drinking coffee.. They laughed when we appeared and said “Gee.. didn’t get to finish reading the paper!”

Another funny anecdote. Somehow when I checked in for the flights, I could only get boarding passes up through Manchester – typical since the final flight is on a non-US carrier. But when Mike checked in he got boarding passes all the way through to Cork. I asked in DC but they insisted that it’s not possible to get that last boarding pass until we were in Manchester. So when we went through customs they had to “trust” me when I said I was going on to Cork, having no proof of this. Once we got through customs and security and were waiting for the Cork flight, I searched for a service desk, and wound up at a bank of phones.. I picked up one and got connected to Aer Lingus. As soon as I told my story — -the guy on the other end of the phone says “Are you Fern?” OK.. he said he felt I would call and they know that I don’t have a boarding pass, but not to worry: once I get to the gate they will issue the boarding pass. But they don’t open the gates until just about boarding time. Got to the gate about 10 minutes before boarding time, and the guy at the desk says “Are you Fern?” “Here’s your boarding pass!”… So, how did he know it was me?

Onward to Cork… just a 90 minute flight on a little two engine turbo prop plane. Landing in Cork you see the incredibly lush green landscape (and also the ominous clouds and grey sky)…  Went directly to the rental car desk. We wanted a car with a trunk rather than a hatchback (since we’d be doing a lot of driving and having bags in the car much of the time) and we also wanted a GPS system (to avoid racking up such high charges by using the GPS on our phones… So, we had to switch cars to a much bigger car than usual.. and are now tooling around in a spiffy BMW (very big by our standards!)

Managed to navigate our way to the hotel driving British style (which we haven’t done in a long time) and arrived at the Hotel Isaacs located in “the city” of Cork… right smack in the old center. We’re on a borderline seedy block filled with wonderful old buildings in various states of repair and disrepair and renovation, clearly gentrifying with many high end restaurants. The hotel is a bit odd, but fine for us and we love the location. Mike decided to nap after a quick lunch and shower, and I decided to walk the neighborhood.

The population of Cork is only 120,000 (about the size of Berkeley), but it’s popping!… People out and about everywhere, a major opera house, theaters, movies, lots of bars (naturally), and what appears to be a thriving retail sector with everything from international chains to local businesses. The city is fairly low with buildings only two or three stories high. Lots of little alleyways – all filled with pubs and shops. Apparently Cork people think that Cork is the “real” capitol of Ireland, not Dublin. Walking around I could hear a lot of foreign languages spoken by locals – most notably Polish (or so I think).  Lots of pedestrian streets and an untold number of bridges crossing the many quays… which add to the charm of the place.

Came back to the hotel and we ate at Greenes which is sort of behind and alongside the hotel… Decided not to venture too far as we were pretty exhausted; and we heard this was an award-winning restaurant.. It’s kind of hidden on a cobbled patio, and is part of a warehouse conversion. The walls are stone and brick and the interior is straight forward minimalist. Out back there is a gigantic rock-wall waterfall that you can see from the large expanse of glass – not quite like seeing Half Dome when you are at the Ahwahnee… but it’s the same concept. The menu focuses on local produce. They served a little amuse bouche… lychee cream with green tea powder.. Quite good. We then had two different appetizers.. I had the goat cheese with beetroot and “roasted raisins” with balsamic … and some micro greens; Mike had the mackerel.. For main courses I had the fish and Mike had the beef.. Both were delicious and presented beautifully… For desert (it was a fixed menu), I had the equivalent of panna cotta with raspberries and raspberry sorbet.. Mike had some kind of rhubarb in cream with some other “stuff.”… Mike had Irish whiskey to start (when in Ireland….) and I asked for a Lemon Drop (which they made quite well, although they told me that it was the first time the bar tender ever had that request).

All good; exhausted. Tomorrow we set out early to explore the city in more depth, beginning with the English Market.

Cheers.

Fern