Filed under: Dun Laoghaire
On Tuesday night Aine got to have a sleepover with the big girls – but she got dropped off early the next morning. So I got to spend the day with Aine. Mostly we hung around Dun Laoghaire. We walked to the end of the East Pier. We didn’t see anything too exciting but it was fun. It never rained on us, which was a plus. We went to McDonald’s – which was a concession of sorts. We stopped in to see my friend Karina at Hughes & Hughes. I had plans to meet her later that night, which was fun. We visited the gallery at the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council building.
We ended our day by meeting Patrick in the library.
We took 2 pictures especially for Grandma – one without a hat, one by a boat called Puffin!
Filed under: Dun Laoghaire
This weekend is the Dun f us (O’Donnell’s from Cabinteely, Minnesota, Florida and Canberra) headed out to Dun Laoghaire. We walked down the pier – which I always love doing. It wasn’t sunny but it was pretty clear and fairly warm. You could easily see Howth in the background. We could see a ton of sailboats and our timing was perfect – they were all sort of heading out for a 3:00 start. Well that’s what we thought. We hung around at the end of the pier for about 20 minutes – and it was getting a little cold.
I thought a regatta was a race – but there never really was a start. At one point a navy-looking ship set off and we thought that would mean a grand beginning but not really.
But that was OK. It was a great walk, a nice day and we went for a nice Italian meal after seeing the boats.
Filed under: Dun Laoghaire
Monday the girls and I went to Dun Laoghaire. We had a nice walk down the other pier, we did some shopping and we had a tasty dinner at Café Mao.
We thought we might see some Bloomsday characters – but if there were any around Dun Laoghaire, I figure they were probably there in the morning as any remotely Dun Laoghaire scenes in Ulysses happen early on in the book. I took a couple of snaps…
Filed under: Dun Laoghaire
We went to 2 interesting lectures this week. And I’m using the royal we here. On Monday night, Kate and Patrick went to school/church to see John the gangster from London talk about how he found God.
Apparently the place was hopping. Patrick thought it was a good night. Kate thought it was strange. I thought it was a little strange too.
On Thursday Patrick and I went to hear Ruth Padel, the keynote speaker for the International Poetry Festival in Dun Laoghaire. (OK, yes I mostly went to have dinner beforehand.)
She talked about reading a poem for sound and about how the vowels move the poem from one line to another. She had a few interesting stories about, for example, the great vowel shift in English that apparently happened between the 12th and 18th centuries. It was the shift that moved us from Middle to Modern English, when English speakers stopped pronouncing vowels like the rest of Europe and started pronouncing them as we do now – closer towards the teeth.
I actually did find this interesting – but the connection between it and reading a poem was a little lost on me
Last Saturday we met up with friends David, Andrea and Alex for lunch in Cabinteely and then to play in the park. It was a beautiful spring day. You can see the pictures below.
On Sunday we headed towards Dun Laoghaire. They are working on the pier but we had a nice walk near the see and through the People’s Park market. We got some outdoor stuff, like a kite and a basketball.
We really missed our neighbors back home as the day and the new stuff would have been even better if we had someone to share it with.
Our insanely optimistic plan for today was to follow the Bloomsday trail around Dublin. What I the heck is Bloomsady? Well, James Joyce’s book Ulysses is about a day in the life of Leopold Bloom and to a lesser degree Stephen Daedalus. The book follows their paths through Dublin on June 16, 1904. Every year, loads of people follow the map on the anniversary. We did it ourselves 15 years ago. I got it into my head that it would be fun to do the trip in the off season with the kids.
We didn’t get very fair – but the videos below highlight what we did see. And we’ll start again where we left off another day. If you want to read some fun Cliff Notes for Ulysses, check out James Joyce for Dummies.
After the trip to Sandycove, we took a drive around Killiney and Dalkey. It’s not really that far from where we live but the homes and the views are amazing! We drove by Enya’s caste and Bono’s house.
Filed under: Dun Laoghaire
I forgot to mention last weekend that we went to see Frankenstein the play at the Pavilion Theatre. It was a very fun show.
It made me jump at least twice – thanks in large part to the strobe light lightning and loud thunder effects. So it wasn’t a subtle play – but you don’t really go to Frankenstein for subtlety. On the bud ride home we overheard someone on the phone tell someone just how great the show was. Now maybe I wouldn’t have said great – but knowing someone else loved it made it even better.
One thing they did that I sort of liked is they read out pieces from news stories about people trying to build people or bring them back from the dead – just a cloning or very early electronic shocks to bring people back.
Due to an accident of bus arrival – it was cold so we took the first but that headed near the house – we ended up stopping at a pub called the Dean’s Grange on the way home. We often stop there. In the daylight it’s a healthy walk from home in the park – in the dark it’s too dangerous. It was packed; it’s never packed. And they have live music – so it was a nice bonus.
Patrick’s mom has been in Galway this weekend. So there was no Fearghal out on Sunday – but we managed the longest day ever.
We started with a nice lunch at our favorite Dun Laoghaire – the GastroPub. Then we were going to walk to Monkstown to see a skateboard and bike event. We walked for more than an hour and we never made it. We walked by a church (see photo below). The view of the sea was nice. It was actually a nice walk until we realized that we were no where near the Monktown gym/pool. So eventually we got a bus into town.
Once in town we visited the Hugh Lane Gallery. Lily showed us about the Francis Bacon exhibit – she had gone to see it with school. Patrick wanted to go to the wax museum around the corner – but it had moved. So my tip of the day is to NOT use a book when you’re making your plans for touring Dublin. They are nearly outdated as soon as their printed with all of the development in Dublin.
So we walked to the opposite end of town to have yummy treats at Bewley’s Café on Grafton Street. The girls got hot chocolate and treats, which was good because it gave them energy for our surprise task…
The Irish Film and TV Awards took place in Dublin tonight. We walked by the theater (The Gaiety) just in time to see the people lined up to see the stars. I am uploading the video of the stars now I will post it on the blog as soon as I can, which might be tomorrow as uploading is VERY slow from here.
Saturday during the day we met us with a friend of Elaine Walsh (Who lives in MN but is from Ireland). Pauline has 3 kids just about the same age as our kids. They live in a beautiful house in Killiney. The kids had a great time. It was nearly like being at home. They played and neighborhood kids stopped by to play too.
After a while we left to meet up with an old friend of Patrick – David Kelley. We met up with David and his wife Andrea a couple of weeks ago. They invited us over for dinner with their 5 year old, Alex. They live in Greystones.
Again it was a really nice time. I know that Patrick especially enjoyed just hanging out with an old friend. But we all had a good time.
We did end up taking a lot more public transportation than anyone else going from one suburban location to another. Mostly not having a car doesn’t bother me that much here – but today it did. I think it was the day of suburban life on the bus and train that got to me.
Filed under: Dun Laoghaire
Friday afternoon the girls had two friends over. They are sisters and I have to say everyone played very well together. We had to include a picture of the four girls. They decide they could all be cousins. (I did not take the picture – and the fuzziness does not mean you need glasses.)
Friday night Patrick and I went to The Pavillion in Dun Laoghaire to see the Taming of the Shrew performed by Rough Magic. For those who have seen Father Ted, it starred the housekeeper (Pauline McLynn) and Owen Roe (not from Father Ted) who won an award for his performance.
It was one of the best Shakespeare performances I’ve seen. The timing was perfect – and usually I don’t notice stuff like that. What I did notice that is that the normally kind of boring lines were said at breakneck speed – yet you got the idea and the really funny parts were drawn out.
