Day 9: Thu 5 Sep - Dublin

Another event organised by yours truly!  I was hoping it would be a good one and it was but it wasn’t.  There was far too much detail in the PowerPoint presentation and on the walk, it was difficult to hear the commentary.  And, it seemed that not everyone was interested to hear the history and had to be told to be quiet a number of times.  Places visited included: - Collins Barracks (until recently the oldest and continuously occupied purpose built barracks in the world);   -The Four Courts (the initial pressure point of the Civil War in 1922);  - O’Connell Street;  - General Post Office (GPO) the HQ of the Rebel Forces in 1916 until flushed out by artillery fire; - Moore Street;  - North King Street;  - Trinity College Dublin (TCD) founded 1592 (again an outside view but interestingly the location of an Australian sniper pressed into service in 1916);  - The Parnell Monument;  - The O’ Connell Monument;  - St. Stephens Green;  - Fusiliers’ Arch (Boer war memorial to the Royal Dublin Fusiliers);  and - Ballsbridge and Mount St. Bridge. We fought our way along the route and relived the action between the Irish Volunteers and the British Army’s Sherwood Foresters.

The weather was not as kind as it had been and it was very cold, but we soldiered-on and had a good time.  And after all that ‘fighting’ we were pretty hungry and eventually ended up at a pub for a three course meal that only cost us 20 Euro each.  Richard again paid (well, MEPS did) for drinks, although we only had one each.  As we were all pretty knackered by this stage, we all went back to our respective hotels and had nanna naps.  Jane, Sylvain and I then met in the lobby and exchanged photos and then Jane decided she really did need to go to the Japanese reception, so off she went with Sylvain.  I was supposed to go, but gave up my spot to him as Mari was going to be there!!  Sadie and I met for dinner, and Sylvain and Jane joined us later.  A relatively early night was had by all.  I was so looking forward to having a good sleep, however, there were a bunch of very noisy people just checking in who woke the whole corridor.  Only got to sleep about 0200 when Cellarmasters rang – aaagggghhh!!! 

PowerPoint presentation





Collins Barracks

General Post Office

O'Connell St - Jim Larkin

O'Connell St - Parnell Monument

Letter from Michael O'Rahilly to his wife after being shot while in Moore Street



Mount St Bridge


Lunch










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