A walking tour of the north side of the Liffey and the Guinness Storehouse,Dublin

---

Wonders will never cease! We have another fine and dry day in Dublin and it looks like we will get to complete our walking tour of the city without raincoats.

The sights to see today on the northern side of the Liffey look to be a little closer together so our walk shouldn’t take as long as we were out for yesterday. And at the end of the walk we will visit the Guinness Storehouse for a self guided tour of the place which will bring the BBA V2 to a satisfying conclusion.....other than the flights home.

We got ourselves organised and caught the bus at the same time as yesterday. This time though the front seats upstairs were already taken so we had to sit back a couple of rows where the ‘upstairs sensation’ of cornering and whizzing up behind cars and cyclists was a little less than being in the front seat.

Our walking tour started from the Parnell Monument dedicated to Charles Parnell who was an Irish landlord, parliamentarian and nationalist, who, although he only lived to 45 years of age had a major impact on the move to independence.

In Dublin you really get the feel of the independence movement that gripped this country for many years until the people finally got what they wanted and cut the strings with Westminster. There are so many monuments to the independence movement and the patriots who died for the cause.

Just up the road was the Garden of Remembrance with a sunken reflecting pool and bronze sculpture at the far end representing the 6 major uprisings towards independence from 1798 to the 1919-1921 IRA Irish War of Independence. Like the two garden squares we walked through yesterday this area was a quiet haven in the middle of a busy city.

Our next stop at the site of the 1916 Easter Rebellion surrender was much understated compared to other monuments and perhaps the Irish would prefer not to erect a monument to an event that ended in such a bloody defeat. We had to look very hard to find the spot which is just a series of 8 bronze plaques showing the leaders of the Rebellion and a little bit of their history and what happened after the Rebellions garrison of the GPO was set on fire by the British soldiers. Even the plaques were in an odd place, attached to a door that led to a delivery bay for a shop that fronted Parnell Street.

Walking on further along Parnell Street and as we went to cross the road we noticed a small plaque attached about 3 metres up a wall of a building on the other side of the road. We were eager to get across the road to check what it was dedicated to expecting it to be another independence site that perhaps had been missed off the visitor map we were using to get about on our walk. On closer inspection we found that it had nothing to do with the independence of Ireland at all but was a dedication to 7 women and 1 man who died tragically in a fire at a timber factory that was on the site in 1972.

We strolled onto the end of Parnell Street and took a couple of other streets to take in the former Debtors prison from the 1790’s and the site of the Newgate Gaol of 1780 but we couldn’t find anything left of the buildings or any plaques showing where they had been.

We walked on past the site of the Smithfield Produce Market which also included the Old Jameson Whiskey distillery nearby heading towards the area known as Stoneybatter which boasted roads that were formed as far back as 100BC and was also reputedly the home of Little John of Robin Hood fame. The area looked pretty rundown and little changed since the end of the 19^th century and perhaps that is why it has been used to film parts of historical movies such as ‘Michael Collins’ which starred Liam Neeson in the role of the famous Irish revolutionary and parliamentarian who was assassinated in the Civil War in 1922.

Our failure to find the sites of the two jails listed on our walking map earlier was extended when we also couldn’t locate the 1939 National War Memorial which was actually dedicated to the Irish involvement on the side of the Allies in WW1 and also the Kilmainham Gaol of 1796 which is now a museum. This was despite some detailed searching of the streets and surrounding areas where according to the map they should have been. Mind you we have had problems with the type of map we have been using in other cities we have walked around on the BBA V2 as they show pictures and text and have not always tied into where sites that we have been looking for have actually been.

Our last port of call was very easy to find as its buildings dominate the city skyline from almost wherever you look from. The Guinness Brewery takes up several blocks to the south side of the Liffey and anyway of course you know you are getting close because you can smell the brewing processes happening.

The Storehouse was the fermentation plant from 1904 to 1988 and has been converted to a 7 story visitor centre which is certainly visually stunning when you enter. As part of the introduction you get on the self guided tour is the fact that if the building you are standing in was filled with Guinness it would hold 14.3 million pints!

It is a very interesting tour as you follow the history from 1759 when Arthur Guinness signed a 9000 year lease for GBP45 a year to brew his unique brand of beer. Clearly the brewery won’t be leaving the site in a hurry with a lease deal that good. It is also the most popular tourist attraction in the city if not Ireland and that was endorsed when we finally made it to the 7^th level and the Gravity Bar where you can enjoy a pint of Guinness that is included with the price of the tour ticket and unsurpassed views of the city.

The sky was darkening over as we started the lengthy walk back to the bus stop to catch the bus to take us home but thankfully it didn’t rain.

Our last double decker ride was also upstairs and we had our last thrill of ‘ducking ‘away from the approaching tree branches and feeling for the cyclists and drivers of cars ahead of us as the bus pulled up close to them at traffic lights.

Our last dinner out was at another pub we found in the Swords village and we both dined on the Steak and Guinness pie but shared a carafe of wine as we had had enough Guinness earlier in the day.

So now all that is left is another night’s sleep and then repacking to make sure we keep our suitcase weight under the limit for the flights home.

Our final blog will cover the journey home and some startling figures of distance travelled,countries visited etc etc and the highs and lows as we have seen them once we arrive home on Sunday.

---