Kilmainham Gaol and Dublinia

As we get more settled into the new house and school, we are finding more time to start exploring Irish history! Our first stop was Kilmainham Gaol. Within her first week of school, Pia had to do a project on a famous Irish landmark - so off we went to Kilmainham Gaol - providing us with a lesson in Irish history and information for Pia's project in one!

 

Above the entrance to the jail is a carving in the stone of snakes in chains - a warning to all that this is what will happen to evildoers!

The jail was built between 1792 and 1795, originally as a county jail for Dublin. It held men, women and children from Dublin, and over 4000 of them were actually sent as convicts to Australia from here. Apparently, conditions in the jail started off quite well and attempts were made to let in light through high ceilings and large windows in some areas. But as conditions in Ireland worsened, and as more and more rebellions broke out in the fight for independence, the jail become more and more crowded and conditions became very poor.

 

The Irish have had a long hatred towards British rule and as rebellions broke out against the British in 1798, 1803, 1848, 1867 and 1916, the leaders of all these rebellions ended up here. In 1910, the jail closed as a common jail and became a military detention barracks. We saw the cells in which famous leaders of the 1916 Easter uprising were held, as well as the sombre, grey courtyard (below) in which they were executed - one of them, Joseph Plunkett, only hours after his wedding.

  Pia and Ella look suitably saddened in a cell in Kilmainham Gaol. 

The jail closed in 1924 and after falling into disrepair for many years, was eventually restored. It is now the largest unoccupied building of its kind in Europe. Here is the project Pia created based on her visit to the jail.

The following weekend took us to a somewhat happier historic site as we explored the Viking settlement area of Dublin. We started off with a walk through the Temple Bar district, which is an area full of narrow little cobblestoned streets and lots of pubs and restaurants. They were having the "Tradfest" festival while we were there, which meant we enjoyed some traditional Irish dancing and music, as well as the sights of a donkey, cow, sheep and goat wandering the streets!

The donkey was being used as an example of why children should brush their teeth carefully!

We then headed over to Christ Church Cathedral - a Church of Ireland Cathedral founded in 1030, and once at the centre of medieval Dublin. The original cathedral was made out of wood but the Normans rebuilt it in stone in 1172 and it is a very impressive building. The girls were able to take part in some sort of group drumming ritual outside the Cathedral - not sure what it was in aid of, but they had fun!

Just next to the Cathedral is a great museum - Dublinia - which recreates the Viking world through models and recreations of daily life and village scenes from the time of the Vikings. It was amazing to learn that the Vikings (the word means 'sea pirates', which I did not know before) arrived in Dublin from Scandinavia in 820 and have left so much history in Dublin, including Viking graves, foundations of homes, as well as pottery and evidence of their daily life buried beneath the earth. As development has taken place in the area, much of this evidence has been uncovered.

Once again, Pia and Ella look suitably upset by their punishment in Dublinia - medieval style!

Other exciting happenings over the last week or so include both Pia and Ella losing a tooth on the same night. This was very well times as it meant that the Irish tooth fairy could pay two visits to our house on the one night - and she did leave Euro!

Last week was International Week at the girls' school and on Wednesday the P&F ran an International Day food fair. All classes visited the fair, which was held in the hall, and were able to sample foods from many different countries, including India, Ireland, France, the Philippines, America, Poland, Greece, China and Australia, of course! The girls and I made lamingtons and Anzac biscuits and another mother who has just returned from living in Australia for 7 years made fairy bread. I had not thought that fairy bread was particularly an Australian thing, but she assured me that she has never seen it anywhere else and that it was very Australian! Needless to say, the Australian stand was very popular and many Irish children were heard exclaiming, "I'm going to live in Australia!!"

This is all that remained of the 100 lamingtons and 100 Anzac biscuits from our International Food day stall.

Finally, we have endured some very cold weather this week, with some days only reaching -1 and a few days of snowfall, which looked very pretty on the mountains around. Luckily, it did not really stick to the roads as driving in heavy snow is something I would like to avoid! Here is a view of our backyard in the snow.

We are looking forward to next weekend when we are doing our first trip into the Irish countryside to visit an ancient monastic ruin at Glenalough. I'll fill you in on that in my next post.

A new home, a new school

We moved into our new home last Friday and so we spent much of the weekend settling in and unpacking. As I've mentioned our house is in Dun Laoghaire, which is a suburb about 20 minutes south of the centre of Dublin. It is right on the harbour and is where the ferry comes in from Holyhead in Wales. There are many lighthouses around, one of which we can see blinking at us from our bedroom window at night! It's great being just a short walk away from Dun Laoghaire village and all the shops as well as the harbour. There are also some great markets on here each Sunday.

We are in an old Georgian house, complete with its own coloured door! The house is quite big and used to operate as a B&B. The girls now have their own rooms. It will be a shock to the system for them next year going back to sharing a small room with single beds!

Our house

Pia's bedroom (top) and Ella's bedroom

Pia and Ella also started at their new school on Monday - cutting out 2 weeks of their summer holidays. However, I have assured them that they will make up for it in the summer here when they will have 2 full months off in July and August. They were quite excited to start school on Monday and so far they have enjoyed the 3 days of school they have had so far. They do about 45 minutes of Gaelic every day and have been able to come home each day with a few phrases in Gaelic - Ella's favourite goes something like this: "is chocolate suskornya on ordu" - that is how it's pronounced anyway. I have no idea how it would be written and neither does she!She's not 100% sure what is means either but she thinks it has something to do with lining up! Pia's phrases are : Taw may am way (I am outside) and Taw may es jug (I am inside). She even practises by moving in and out of the kitchen door! So it's good to see that the Irish language is still alive and well! Tomorrow they also have their first Irish dancing lesson during sport time so I expect there to be plenty of dancing at home tomorrow night!

 Pia and Ella in their school uniforms on their first day of school.

Leaving for school in the dark (and cold)!

We have bought a second-hand car but haven't been able to pick it up yet so at the moment the girls and I are catching the DART (the train) to school in the mornings - leaving while it is still dark and catching a peak-hour train to school have been new experiences for us! The girls' school is in Booterstown, which is 4 stops away (about 10mins) and then we have a 10min walk to the school. Once we have a car, we will probably end up driving.

Today, I decided that I would see how I went walking back home after dropping the girls at school (I am needing the exercise!!). It took me about 1 hour and 20 minutes, although I did take a few wrong turns and then had to double back so it would probably take about an hour if I walked the most direct route. It was nice to explore the suburbs of Blackrock and Monkstown on my walk home. Monkstown, especially, I found extremely impressive with its huge church (Church of Ireland) in the main street and then I came along the ruins of Monkstown castle. It's not everyday you happen to walk past an old castle on your way home! This castle was originally built in the 13th century by monks who wanted to protect the area they were living in (hence: Monkstown). What is left of the castle today though is the more 'modern' additions from the late 14th or 15th centuries. It was beautiful to see it just standing there on a street corner!

Three views of Monkstown Church (above)

 

The ruins of Monkstown Castle - I did enjoy finding a castle on my walk back home!

Once we are a bit more settled on the home and school front we will get back into exploring the sights of Dublin and its surrounds. James and I have also been busy this week with the mundane (and sometimes very frustrating) aspects of registering with immigration, obtaining a PPS number (like your social security / government number) and organising car insurance (not an easy task!). Hopefully next week, we'll have seen something more exciting than the inside of a government office.

The dead zoo

This week saw us visit the Natural History Museum in Dublin, commonly known as 'The Dead Zoo'. When you enter, you can see why. It is an amazing place - the ground floor is full of animals native to Ireland and the top floor is for animals of the world (including kangaroos and a tasmanian tiger). When we arrived, James and I were saying that it looked like the museum hadn't been touched since the 50s or 60s - upon talking to a guard, we found out it hasn't been touched since it opened in 1857!! So it is actually a good example of a museum of a museum!

 

The guard also pointed out a few 'special' examples of taxidermy - including this Abyssinian hedgehog who is smiling!

We also found many squirrels, including the Irish Red Squirrel, although we are yet to see the real thing!

Walking around the centre of Dublin, we have also been shamrock spotting! You can find them built into fences, gates and lamp posts.

This is the back of the Irish Parliament, Leinster House, complete with a fence covered in shamrocks.

As I mentioned in my last post, we are staying in Dun Laoghaire and this is also where we have now found a permanent house to live in for the year. We move in on Friday so I will post some pictures once we get settled. We have spent some time this week exploring some of the surrounding suburbs - one is the quaint little village of Dalkey. Dalkey used to be an important port town for ships crossing the Irish Sea. Its main street even has 2 castles in it (there used to be 7 in the town) which date back to the 15th or 16th Century.

Relatives of the people whose house we are currently staying in kindly took us out for a drink in Dalkey and then drove as around the seaside suburbs here, which are sometimes called 'the Bay of Naples' and they did look beautiful at dusk with all the lights shining - mind you, dusk is about 4.30pm here!

We stopped out side Bono's house in Killiney so that I could get a photo of his impressive gates!

Another view of the 'Bay of Naples' seaside suburbs.

The rest of this week will be spent getting ready to move into our new house and getting the girls ready for school - they will be starting school on Monday - no long summer holiday for them this year! I'll fill you in on how that all goes in my next post.

Our first few days in Dublin

Today is January 1st, 2013 and we have now been in Dublin for 5 days. We have spent our first few days settling in to our temporary home and seeing some of the sights. We are staying in a lovely home in the southern seaside suburb of Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leary) while we look for something more permanent over the next week or so. The house used to be the home of Ronnie Drew, who was a member of the famous Irish group The Dubliners.

Pia and Ella at our front door....

 

and in our backyard.

On our first full day in Dublin, we caught the DART (the train) into the city and had a walk around Grafton St (one of the main shopping streets) and went looking for squirrels in St. Stephen's Green. Unfortunately, we didn't see any but we have been assured that they are here, so the search will continue! St. Stephen's Green is a lovely park in the city. It used to be a place for public hangings and whippings but fortunately today there are much more pleasent activities like feeding the ducks, birdwatching and playing in the playground - all of which Pia and Ella enjoyed! 

 

Pia and Ella in St. Stephen's Green, and below, some views of the park and the playground. As you can see, it is cold, but at least we have seen some sun!

We have also spent some time looking around the suburb of Dun Laoghaire itself. It's about 20 minutes on the train from the city centre and we are staying quite close to the harbour and the shops. Being Christmas, there is still a Christmas fair on selling all kinds of food and with rides for kids. We seem to be able to find a merry-go-round every time we travel!

 

There is a lovely walk around the harbour - there were fireworks here last night but sadly jetlag still has us falling asleep at about 8pm so we missed that excitement!

We have been quite lucky with the weather so far - it is cold but we have had some sun each day (along with a little rain!) The hardest thing to get used to it how long it takes to get light in the mornings. Below is the view from our backyard at 8 o'clock in the morning - and yes - that is the moon still shining brightly! The first morning I woke up thinking it was still the middle of the night only to discover it was 8am!!

 

On New Year's Eve, we headed to the city again, this time to visit the Natural History Museum, only to find it closed on Mondays! Fortunately, the National Gallery was just next door so we spent an hour or so visiting the Irish Galleries and the girls did the kid's art trail. On the way home, the girls enjoyed a cuddle with a leprechaun and we enjoyed our first visit to an Irish pub for a new year's eve drink! Ella also managed to chip her front tooth bumping into a pole on the train so that now means a trip to the dentist will be one of our first activities for 2013!! Happy New Year!