June 4, 11:05 pm Dublin
We arrived yesterday in the rain (quel surprise). Our cab took us through crowds of Irish football fans heading to one of the great games of the year, Dublin vs Meath. Throughout the day we continued to see supporters of "The Dubs" in their black and blue/grey jerseys. Driving past the crowds in the rain, I saw how the Irish handled the inclement weather: they pretended it didn't exist. In a country where it can rain for days, lots of folks wear non-waterproof coats and no hats, walking with (damp) heads high. This is no place to be a weather wuss.
We got to our hotel, rested for an hour and then set off for a couple of pubs which were recommended to us for their music. Walking into the entertainment and dining district, it was clear that Dublin is a young person's town. our guide book says that 40% of the Irish are under the age of 25. Sometimes Dublin looks like one big college town. In the first pub, we sat and watched the big game while we waited for the band to get started. Irish football looks a lot like rugby with occasional dribbling and kicking of the ball. The goals had both a soccer style net and two posts that went up 30 feet like American style football goalposts. I think the score was Dublin 1-8 and Meath 0-9 (I have no idea, other than when they kicked a ball through the goalposts, the second number went up). However, you didn't need to understand the rules to see that the Dubs were being totally dominated by their opponents. Then the band began to play. While good, they were playing 1960's Irish Rovers style of music. Not what we were looking for. We slipped out and went on to find the other pub. This next pub did have two great musicians who were blazing their way through a reel on guitar and tin whistle when we arrived. Unfortunately there was absolutely no room to sit or stand and we left after a couple songs. After that, we decided that trying to go hear music on a big holiday weekend (it's a bank holiday), was going to be a bit too much for us in our jetlagged state. We went to a terrific restaurant and then came back to the hotel and collapsed.
This morning we had a quick breakfast and got on a day trip to Tara Hill and Newgrange.
Tara Hill was the centre of Gaelic Ireland. It was the place where the top chieftain held court and also where the Celtic religion's most powerful goddess was centred. Ironically this site also marked the end of the Celtic era when St. Patrick came here and converted the king to Christianity. The ceremonial sites have worn down through the years to become high mounds with trenches between them and it takes some imagining to guess what might have been here. Standing at the top, you literally were "King of the Mountain" with a great view of the countryside. Pretty but not particularly awe inspiring.
From there we saw Newgrange, a Neolithic (middle stone age) monument.
Newgrange is called a passage tomb and is one of the oldest known human structures. While cremated human remains found inside suggest it was a tomb, it was also an observatory for tracking the seasons and probably of great religious significance. To enter the centre chamber, we slid through a 90 foot long narrow passage built of huge stones then covered in a giant mound of dirt. In the central chamber there was a vaulted ceiling about 25 feet high and all sorts of geometric carvings on the walls. Built 500 years before the pyramids in Egypt, the interior appears just as it had been built. 5,200 years old, it is an engineering marvel. The stones have been precisely aligned to the position of the sun on the shortest day of the year, December 21. Usually the tomb is completely dark. On that day only, for the first seventeen minutes following sunrise, the sun will stream through the passageway and fill the interior chamber with light. Our guide was kind enough to demonstrate by turning out all the lights in the passage and then simulate the sun with an electric bulb aimed from the entrance. Impressive. Unlike Rome or Egypt, this place seemed more connected to me because my ancestors could have built this or the other neolithic ruins across northern Europe. Because there's no surviving record of what the builders were thinking, everyone can imagine for themselves what must have happened here more than 5,000 years ago. When the Celts arrived here, they wove these monuments into their own mythology.
As you can imagine, there's real competition to be in the tomb on December 21 to watch the sunrise. In keeping with Irish tradition, who gets to be there is now decided by sweepstakes. Barb and I have now joined the millions of visitors who write their names on cards for our chance to be there.
We arrived yesterday in the rain (quel surprise). Our cab took us through crowds of Irish football fans heading to one of the great games of the year, Dublin vs Meath. Throughout the day we continued to see supporters of "The Dubs" in their black and blue/grey jerseys. Driving past the crowds in the rain, I saw how the Irish handled the inclement weather: they pretended it didn't exist. In a country where it can rain for days, lots of folks wear non-waterproof coats and no hats, walking with (damp) heads high. This is no place to be a weather wuss.
We got to our hotel, rested for an hour and then set off for a couple of pubs which were recommended to us for their music. Walking into the entertainment and dining district, it was clear that Dublin is a young person's town. our guide book says that 40% of the Irish are under the age of 25. Sometimes Dublin looks like one big college town. In the first pub, we sat and watched the big game while we waited for the band to get started. Irish football looks a lot like rugby with occasional dribbling and kicking of the ball. The goals had both a soccer style net and two posts that went up 30 feet like American style football goalposts. I think the score was Dublin 1-8 and Meath 0-9 (I have no idea, other than when they kicked a ball through the goalposts, the second number went up). However, you didn't need to understand the rules to see that the Dubs were being totally dominated by their opponents. Then the band began to play. While good, they were playing 1960's Irish Rovers style of music. Not what we were looking for. We slipped out and went on to find the other pub. This next pub did have two great musicians who were blazing their way through a reel on guitar and tin whistle when we arrived. Unfortunately there was absolutely no room to sit or stand and we left after a couple songs. After that, we decided that trying to go hear music on a big holiday weekend (it's a bank holiday), was going to be a bit too much for us in our jetlagged state. We went to a terrific restaurant and then came back to the hotel and collapsed.
This morning we had a quick breakfast and got on a day trip to Tara Hill and Newgrange.
Tara Hill was the centre of Gaelic Ireland. It was the place where the top chieftain held court and also where the Celtic religion's most powerful goddess was centred. Ironically this site also marked the end of the Celtic era when St. Patrick came here and converted the king to Christianity. The ceremonial sites have worn down through the years to become high mounds with trenches between them and it takes some imagining to guess what might have been here. Standing at the top, you literally were "King of the Mountain" with a great view of the countryside. Pretty but not particularly awe inspiring.
From there we saw Newgrange, a Neolithic (middle stone age) monument.
Newgrange is called a passage tomb and is one of the oldest known human structures. While cremated human remains found inside suggest it was a tomb, it was also an observatory for tracking the seasons and probably of great religious significance. To enter the centre chamber, we slid through a 90 foot long narrow passage built of huge stones then covered in a giant mound of dirt. In the central chamber there was a vaulted ceiling about 25 feet high and all sorts of geometric carvings on the walls. Built 500 years before the pyramids in Egypt, the interior appears just as it had been built. 5,200 years old, it is an engineering marvel. The stones have been precisely aligned to the position of the sun on the shortest day of the year, December 21. Usually the tomb is completely dark. On that day only, for the first seventeen minutes following sunrise, the sun will stream through the passageway and fill the interior chamber with light. Our guide was kind enough to demonstrate by turning out all the lights in the passage and then simulate the sun with an electric bulb aimed from the entrance. Impressive. Unlike Rome or Egypt, this place seemed more connected to me because my ancestors could have built this or the other neolithic ruins across northern Europe. Because there's no surviving record of what the builders were thinking, everyone can imagine for themselves what must have happened here more than 5,000 years ago. When the Celts arrived here, they wove these monuments into their own mythology.
As you can imagine, there's real competition to be in the tomb on December 21 to watch the sunrise. In keeping with Irish tradition, who gets to be there is now decided by sweepstakes. Barb and I have now joined the millions of visitors who write their names on cards for our chance to be there.
1 comment:
It's so nice for me to have found this blog of yours, it's so interesting. I sure hope and wish that you take courage enough to pay me a visit in my PALAVROSSAVRVS REX!, and plus get some surprise. My blog is also so cool!
Feel free off course to comment as you wish and remember: don't take it wrong, don't think that this visitation I make is a matter of more audiences for my own blogg. No. It's a matter of making universal, realy universal, all this question of bloggs, all the essential causes that bring us all together.
I think it's to UNITE MANKIND that we became bloggers! Don't see language as an obstacle. That's not the point. Pictures talk also. Open your heart and come along!!!!!
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