Eire - returning home

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Well it is rather embarrassing to admit that while I have an Irish passport, and both Brendon & I have rellies originating from Dublin, neither of us have ever been to Dublin.

Well, not that is, until a couple of weekends ago when we had an opportunity too good to pass up. Our touch team organised a social tournament with a bunch of people in Ireland. And we agreed to go - being thrilled that we’d finally get to see where our sncestors were from - albeit briefly.

We flew over on the Friday night, checked out the infamous and overly ‘touristy’ Temple Bar. This is an area, not a bar and is full of hens & stags on their honeymoons (we had one of each on our flights - she with angel wings & he dressed as Superman. Was there something we needed to know about the flight?) and full of English boozing up for the weekend.

Saturday morning was perfect for an open top bus tour of Dublin, followed by a train ride out to Malahide Castle grounds - the setting for our tournament. We played nearly 3 hours and after no lunch were well ready to eat. Back to the hotel for showers & some clean clothes before heading off into Dublin’s centre for Dinner. A great restaurant, though rather scarily full of no less than 3 hens parties. After dinner, we went out with the locals to some more Irish places, a huge bar - quite modern - & then a club where we danced the night away. Oh yes and we took time to enjoy some of the local drinks.

Next day was a bit slower - especially for those who got home from the casino at 5.45am - a nice brunch, then some sightseeing - the Christchurch Cathedral (amazing) and the Book of Kells. After that whirlwind tour it was back out to the airport and on our way home to London.

Great, so now we’ve ‘done’ the four - England, Scotland, Wales and now Ireland. However we could spend a lot longer in each country & hope to go back again.

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Photos

They start them young in Ireland
No joke - this kid chugged away at his beer. His parents reckon he loves the stuff!

Oldest Pub in Ireland
Got to take at least one pub photo right?

No, not the White House
It's the Irish equivalent.

Molly Mallone
Cockles and Mussels alive alive O.
Yes a statue of the infamous Molly Malone.

What a lovely setting
Touch at Malahide

A well deserved dinner
Memebrs of our touch team & the competition. L-R, Pete (a Scotts living in Dublin), Kim & Jen (both Aussies in our touch team), Cormac (A Dublin local currently living in London & a member of our team), Johnnie (Petes mate, also from Edinburgh, lives just round the corner from us in Clapham & organised the tour), yours trly & her 'better' half, James (the third Scotsman, he Pete & Johnnie grew up together in Edinburgh, James has just returne dthere after a stint in Hong Kong & flew over for the weekend), husband & wife team (he works with Pete).

The team (part of)
Jen, Cormac, Johnnie, Claire & Brendon

Hen mania
One of the 3 hens at our restaurant

A bit later on in the night
Like our straw 'mikes'?
Yes it's a terrible pic of me - eyes half shut is never a good look.

Christchurch Cathedral
It's really, really old.

What a headstone!
Would you like to be rememebred like this in a crypt?

The crypt under the cathedral
These walls are 1,000's of years old!

Mummified cat & rat
The cat chased the rat into the Church's organ pipes, where they both got stuck & mummified. Years later they were pulled out from the pipes- and this is what you have.

Bad Boys!
Brendon & Johnnie are punished for bad behaviour

Trinity College - on way to Book of Kells
Jen, Kim & Claire

Comments

[Lane]

Hi
Looks fun, been flipping through you blog, good stuff. NZ suxs, haha.