More Dublin

September 4, 2024

I did a little wandering this morning while M&G went to the Guinness storehouse. In the afternoon we took the bus to the Glasnevin cemetery for an Irish history tour and then we were off to the Gravediggers Pub. We all now have a better understanding of the fight for Irish independence and all of the characters involved in the fight. There are 1.4M people buried in the cemetery which is more than the population of Dublin at 1.2M. There is one mass grave of 11,000+ dating back to a cholera epidemic.

While in the cemetery we were told that Rod Stewart was a regular visitor to one specific grave so maybe the story about him in the pub is actually true.

The Irish flag that is modelled after the French flag. The green represents the Catholics, the orange the Protestants and the white for peace between them.

The Molly Malone statue also called the “Tart with a cart”.

The Glasnevin cemetery has an interesting small museum showing the gravediggers.

And the grave robbers who took the bodies for medical schools. The found a way to get the bodies without disturbing the grave site.

The O’Connell tour under which is Daniel O’Connell’s crypt. Daniel O’Connell was considered a liberator of the oppressed and poor Catholics fighting for their rights under the penal law system until the day he died.

Daniel O’Connell’ tomb and crypt. It is said to be good luck to touch his casket in the tomb, so we did.

An actor portraying Patrick Henry Pearse (also known as Pádraig or Pádraic Pearse; Irish: Pádraig Anraí Mac Piarais; 10 November 1879 – 3 May 1916) was an Irish teacher, barrister, poet, writer, nationalist, republican political activist and revolutionary who was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916. Following his execution along with fifteen others, Pearse came to be seen by many as the embodiment of the rebellion.

Eamonn de Valera’s grave. He was a revolutionary who later became prime minister and president of Ireland.

Michael Collins grave. Also a revolutionary who was ambushed and shot dead during the civil war at the age of 31.

A monument to those who died fighting for Irish freedom.

All of us at the pub after the cemetery tour.

My first full pint but not my last at the Kavanagh pub of course.

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