A little more Dublin and exploring roots

Our last few days in Dublin, post our infamous pub crawl (Jim is still composing his words and thoughts about it, but I figured if we didn't put something up here, you would all give up on checking the blog!), were spent with a mixture of exploring more of Dublin, museums, and then a trip to the center of Dublin to meet more relatives and see where Jim's mom was born and raised.

Here is the view from Jim's cousin's house in Longord, but more about that later.

This is Grafton street area...the premier shopping and eating section of Dublin. We were able to eat, but because we were to be flying to England on RyanAir, we were not able to add a single ounce to our suitcases as they have such a low weight limit. So, with great regret but even greater will power (and fear of the wrath of RyanAir baggage check in and their infamous extra fees) we passed by the many summer sales signs and instead went on our way to explore museums and gardens. The weather continued to impress us.

This is the statue of Guinness - he has the status of "Lord" in this town and we can, based on the impressive pub economy, understand why. Anyway, he built this beautiful St. Stephen's green park on the edge of Grafton street.

Pictures do not do it justice - you would almost need an aerial view to get a sense of the layout of the many paths - all very relaxing to stroll through, flowers galore, lakes/streams and ducks

and many tributes to the literary history of Dublin. More James Joyce Gioia with James Joyce the author,

and Oscar Wilde relaxing - and looking as if has had a few pints!

Even though we are not big museum goers, we did hit a few interesting ones. We started at the Dublin City Library Geneology Center which had a number of data bases in which one could do searches of family names. Of most interest was the data base for the 1901 and 1911 Census. While we had Jim's mom's birth certificate, that only gave us the street she lived on, not the actual street #. With the census data base we were able to find her father's family information (he was 18 in the 1911 census) which actually had the street address - and a microfilm of the actual handwritten form done for both census. What an exciting find and it gave our planned trip to Longford a definite focus.

We also toured ChristChurch and its crypt which was in the Dublinia (Viking) section of Dublin. There is a history of controversy about the Viking ruins as the city planned constructing a new city government office building on the site of the old viking village - demonstrations ensued, however the city forged ahead. Later, a Viking museum was built probably with great embarrassment and apology to the citizens of Dublin. It was a museum more geared to school children (we confirmed with Deirdre and Mike that it was standard field trip fare) but still gave a good overview of viking life and culture in Dublin. One section had a re-creation of a viking house, including the outhouse, with a mannequin of a man sitting on the toilet, sound effects and all. We figure that is a big hit for the school kids - and something you would NEVER see (or hear) in a US museum!

We ended with the amazing Chester Beatty Library which is adjacent to the Dublin Castle we had toured earlier in the week. It houses "the artistic treasures of the great cultures and religions of the world" - manuscripts prints, icons, early printed books. Just a stunning collection. It also had a zen roof garden - which gave us a bird-eye view of the river eel design of the lawn outside the castle.

Our final day in Ireland started with a conversation-filled 90-minute drive with cousins' Deirdre ("Dee") and Mike ("Mick") - everybody here seems to have a nickname - to Longford. The view from the car window (and then from the train window on the return to Dublin) was just what we expected...green rolling hills, sheep and cows, mountains off in the distance, an occasional lake.

Longford in the center of Ireland - you can see that all signs in Ireland are posted in English and Irish (Gaelic). On the return train ride we were able to hear the audio translations, and it is not a very phonetic language.

We arrived at cousin Bernadette's house (also called "Barnie") - she is Andrea's sister and Jim's mom's first cousin (her father and Jim's maternal grandmother were siblings). Other relatives streamed in to meet the American cousins - including Barnie's brother Bryan

his wife, daughter, and grandchildren (with little James). They began to discuss the various family members -including other relatives that are actually in London and Oxford who we might arrange to meet - including a famous Irish clothing designer John McCormack (he designed Deirdre's wedding dress - lucky her as he is apparently designer for the "stars"). I found myself getting completely confused - and rightfully so, as every generation and "arm" of this family has a Patrick and a Mary. I went into my family therapist mode and drew out a genogram, so now it all makes sense to me.

After a fabulous lunch (we had heard that Barnie was a great cook, and that proved to be quite true), Barnie drove us around Longford. Because we had secured the actual address where Jim's mom's family was living when she was born, we were able to zero in on it at 9 Ward's Terrace (we figured out that the "terrace" refers to the rowhouse, with the street name actually being different)

So, it turned out that the house was for sale and while I was taking pictures of the exterior, out comes the "owner" - I put that in quotes because I'm still not quite sure he was the owner as he seemed and smelled more like a homeless man. He was very welcoming, although we could only understand about 50% of what he said. He invited us in to see the interior and described that he bought the house 4 years ago hoping to fix it up and "flip" it, but with the downturn in the economy that wasn't working out. If this is fixed up to sell, can only imagine what it looked like before.

Anyway, here you see him pointing stuff out to Jim in the living room, with Jim holding a plaque of the last supper. He described that plague as being on the wall when he moved in and he couldn't bear to get rid of it.

This row house is where the family moved to next (MUCH nicer than Ward's terrace) - we didn't have an house # so this picture focuses on the one with the prettiest garden.

Part of the purpose of our journey was to bury some of Jim's mom's ashes in the plot of her grandparents with whom she often lived when her parents where in the United States (her dad was working in the US and her mom would go back and forth). The experience was filled with surprising emotion and a spiritual sense of bringing Theo home. Our thoughts as we have gotten to know these Irish relatives are "mom would have loved all of them."