Belfast to Dublin

Saul and Daibheid Joyce at Glasnevin Cemetery

Cobblestone Pub Signage

Saul and Dave at the Cobblestone

In the morning, it was hard to say goodbye to Donal. He was our fair-minded sociologist/anthropologist of the Troubles, our patient interpreter of all things Northern Ireland, our tour guide, my writing partner, our gracious host, our running partner, our connection to Stormont, my drinking buddy, and the doctor healing Dave of his homesickness. Dave just kept saying, "Donal is a really great guy" as we drove out of the city. At the last stop petrol station, I spent all of my remaining British Pounds on Cadbury, Polo and Trebor candies for my kids, and we put the Pogues station back on Pandora as we speeded back down towards the Republic.

The last two things we had wanted to hit in Dublin were Kilmainham Gaol and Glasnevin Cemetery, but we only had the energy to do one today. We chose Glasnevin simply because it is the one closest to where our friend Daibheid Joyce is situated. He met us for tea and then took us to see his ancestor's mysterious and unmarked grave. We then had the official tour, taking us to the graves (or sometimes just the marker, for those buried at jails elsewhere) of O'Connell, Casement, Parnell, De Valera, Plunkett and other luminaries.  

At the end of the tour, a reenactor delivered Easter Rising leader, poet and Irish language activist Patrick (Padraeg) Pearse's fiery speech over the grave of his friend Rosa which includes the lines: "The fools, the fools, the fools! They have left us our Fenian dead. And while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at peace!" 

I recorded the entire long speech on the Go Pro, and I will post it into this blog at a later time.

In many places on our journey, people have lamented the Irish education system's unwillingness to bring the most difficult parts of Irish history into the schools. Some told us it is the psychology of a colonized people; others blamed the censoriousness of the Catholic church; others said it was to prevent the inevitable fights that would break out. But whether it is in the schools or not, that history is everywhere in this country: from pictures and clippings about the Easter Rising on pub walls, to the songs full of references to events, to the way in which a cemetery or a jail or even a Post Office becomes a richly detailed historical museum. Meanwhile, sit down for a pint in any Irish pub and you will get a history and politics lesson that may refer to figures like Cromwell or Parnell or Connolly or even Edmund Spenser so vividly that it's as if they were alive today.

In the evening, we strolled around the city, had dinner at an excellent Thai place in Temple Bar (it can't be bangers and black pudding all the time) and found our way back to the Cobblestone, for a final night of excellent music. I even got up and sang a song with the musicians (there's a video of this now up on Facebook). I'm not a great singer, but it was our last night in Ireland and I didn't want to go home without singing.

Saul at the Cobblestone

Padraig Pearse Reenactor at Glasnevin