653. A dreary post, but it ends with daffodils. (Another dispatch from Dublin.)

A Dublin Castle segment. I shall tour this next week.


Famine by Rowan Gillespie. Moral's mother recommended we see this permanent public art display near the Liffey. It depicts the Great Famine of 1845 to 1849.


The old (the natural science building--if I remember correctly), the new (Berkeley library on the right), and the death star (Pomodoro sculpture) on Trinity College campus. My favorite spot in Dublin is Trinity College's Long Hall. It is a grand two story room (long and tall) with busts flanking each impressive book row on either side of the hall. In an email to a friend today I wrote, " I love libraries in general, but I would give my right arm to own a library as beautiful, old, and significant as the Long Hall." No photographs are allowed in the Long Hall. I hope you aren't disappointed, but I obeyed the rules. Some cautious rebel I am! Click here for a nice picture of this majestic library.



Do you see what's in this little boy's hand? A toy gun. I was shocked! Moral told me that the Garda (the Irish police) don't carry guns, so I guess it's a bit safer for youngsters to carry around these blasted things. I personally know of a family from my home town whose youngest son died at the hand of a police officer. He was a trouble maker of an adolescent, messed up in drugs and other nonsense, and had a toy gun in his hand when the police came over for a visit. Unfortunately, this story isn't unique in my home country.

The police don't carry guns, but CCTV (closed circuit tv cameras) abound in Ireland. It seems to be an effective crime deterrent.


Isn't this speed limit sign pretty against the Irish green background? I thought so, too.


Speaking of speed limits, I'm driving! Not only do the Irish drive on the left side of the road, but the gear shift is on the left side, too! Good thing I'm ambidextrous and skilled at driving in urban areas like my beloved San Francisco. I think I have a couple of new gray hairs on my head, but it has been an exhilarating experience driving in Dublin. I wouldn't recommend it to the faint of heart. I didn't do too badly at all, I think, because Moral is still my friend and she only got one new gray hair. She is a terrific navigator, by the way.


I promised more pictures of Kilmainham Gaol, my other favorite Ireland place, and here you go. Fantastically dreary, isn't it? Kind of like today: rain, rain, rain.


The prison was built in 1796. It was home to prisoners from many of Ireland's famous historical events: the various rebellions of 1796, 1803, 1848 and 1867, the Famine of 1845 to 1851, the Land War of the 1880s, the Easter Rising of 1916, the War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. Executions took place here--as I'm sure you've already imagined--and a professor at Trinity College calculated a "humane" way of hanging the "criminals" that was implemented in this historic prison. Samuel Haughton invented the long drop method-- the Haughton Drop--which helped the executioners calculate (via mathematical formula) the length of rope needed, based on the prisoner's weight, that resulted in a drop sufficient and significant enough to snap spinal cord for quick death. Before the long drop method, a hanging death was a slow strangulation death after a short fall--the sort of death Saddam Hussein suffered due to an apparently accidental (one would hope) incorrect calculation. I learned about Mr. Haughton (1821-97) in Kilmainham's excellent on-site museum.

On a happier note, daffodils are abloom everywhere, and it looks like the rain has gone to Spain. Moral and I are off to Phoenix Park, and if there's time, Stephen's Green. Stephen's Green is a park that was given to the citizens of Dublin by their most beloved son, Arthur Guinness. More about him later. It's time to go play!