Could you eat 14 lbs of potatoes a day?

 Between 1841 and 1901 Ireland lost six million people. The population was cut in half. People had been emigrating prior to the famine, but that crisis opened the flood gates. 

My great grandpa John was born in Waterford Ireland to Phillip and Catherine  on the eve of the famine in 1844. He emigrated when he was 25 years old. So he left in 1869. He was part of the great immigration from Ireland to the U.S.

In 1845 half of the potato crop was destroyed by blight, a type of fungus. People managed to survive that year. When it came back the following year people started to starve to death.

For most of the Irish people potatoes were the daily diet. They were easy to grow and plentiful in the climate. The way Ireland was set up with the English owning most of the land and renting it to the Irish, it was all they could afford. So when the crop failed they were in serious trouble.

With little help from the English government they began to die of starvation and disease. They couldn’t pay rent so they were evicted by the thousands. 

0ne million people died during the famine. One million people left Ireland during the famine. After the famine and potato blight ended, people kept leaving leaving by the hundreds of thousands til half the population was gone, among them my great granddad John. He settled in Minnesota, married and had 10 children, among them my grandpa Joe. 

Grandpa Joe had eleven children, among them my father Bill. Can you tell they were Irish Catholics? 

The average Irish man ate 14 pounds of potatoes a day prior to the famine. Seems like a lot of potatoes doesnt it? It isn’t if you divide into 3 meals a day.  That’s 4.6 pounds of potatoes a meal or maybe 5-6 potatoes a meal.

Brazen Head debauchery

 What would Dublin be without pubs? There would be plenty of space since there are 776 of them in Dublin alone. 

The city of Dublin has 544,000 people. That’s 1 pub per 700 people. Thats about 3 times as many bars here compared to where I live. 

The pub is one of the central aspects of Irish culture. Going

way back to when there were kings in each area of Ireland. One of the rules was that each king had their own brewer. It was expected in ancient Ireland that there would be a place of hospitality for anyone to meet, rest and have a drink in each county.

In the 17th and 18th century pubs became the norm for common people as a place to gather without having to pay a fee for a private club. If you could pay for a pint, you were welcome.

They became a place for political gatherings as well. The Easter uprising and war of independence were planned in pubs. 

The oldest pub in Dublin is the Brazen Head dating back to the 17th century still serving pints today. There’s debauchery in that there pub. I tell ya there is…

Pubs are places locals hang out in their neighborhood to socialize, hear news, watch football and of course drink. People know each other. It’s a part of life and Irish culture.  Every neighborhood has a local pub or two or three, maybe four.

They can also be big money makers. Tourist flock to them in the Temple Bar district every night of the week. The Temple bar itself has had thousand of selfies in front of it. The bouncer sits there with a smirk on his face taking it all in.

Dublin disappointment

I’m finding that I can’t trust my initial impression of a place. Dublin is a good example of that. 

Being Irish felt like a big thing all my life, I had big expectations coming here. Initially I was disappointed and kinda mad about Dublin. 

I remember after seeing the central part thinking: Really this is it? A crowded tourist place with nothing Irish about it? What did I expect? Not leprechauns, fairies and shamrocks that’s for sure. I expected music. Irish music. 

Every city has buskers especially in tourist areas. I expected them to be playing Irish music here. They weren’t. They played American rock mostly. WTF? 

Of course the music here is in the pubs. Neither of us are drinkers, so we havent gone into any pubs. Silly, I know. I’ll remedy that shortly.

It wasn’t long before I started looking into the history

of Ireland. Of Dublin. I really only had very broad knowledge about the country. Knew it was divided. New about the troubles. Had formed a tourist impression of the rest of it. It was a sort of background place in my life but I never really looked into it. That changed here. I read up on the history. 

History makes a people. History has made Ireland. Ireland has only been independent of English rule since 1921. Even then, they were part of the UK until 1949. Prior to that, the monarchy and UK government had a part in external affairs . That ended in 1949 when they became the Republic of Ireland. 

So it has only been 73 years since Ireland has been completely independent. The history of English rule has greatly influenced the country. They were treated like shit a lot of the time. That and the struggle for independence probably has shaped the Irish character.

 Put that in the middle of a beautiful island with a unique culture of music, literature and humor and you have Ireland. It’s magic.

the Temple Bar is in the Temple Bar

 Who hasn’t seen pictures of the Temple Bar in Dublin? It’s THE place to have your picture taken. Actually, there are two Temple Bars in Dublin.

THE Temple bar lies within the area of Dublin known as Temple Bar. A bit confusing. It is known as the cultural center of Dublin. It’s definitely a tourist hot spot. 

The area was outside the walled city of Dublin sort of like a suburb. The city itself was controlled by the English king, so the area outside was often attacked by native Irish and became rundown in the 14th century.

In the 17th century wealthy Englishmen built houses there near the river. The street along the river became known as Temple Bar, probably named after Sir William Temple, who came to Ireland as part of the military. He built a house in the area. He and his family were prominent. Either this is the story or it was named after the Temple Bar district in London. You decide.

In the 18-20th century it deteriorated becoming an area of crime and prostitution. In the 1970-80s, a company wanted to

tear a lot of it down and build a bus terminal. While this was being planned, artists moved into low rent buildings. The bus depot idea was dropped after protest about it. Plans were made to make it a culture area.

The Temple Bar itself dates to 1840. It has had many owners over the years . It wasn’t named the Temple Bar until 1992 when the current owners bought it. 

It is now one of the most identifiable places in Dublin. The thing is, most Dubliners would never go there deeming it overpriced and a tourist trap. 

This hotel is haunted by crying babies

 Where I’m staying is a very interesting place.  Part of the hotel used to be an infants hospital. That building was incorporated into the new hotel. It is now used for rooms.

In 1919 Sinn Fein, a political party instrumental in establishing the Irish Free State, set up a womens committee. They, along with two women doctors set up St. Ultans Infants Hospital. That building is now part of the hotel.

 Interestingly, their first concern was treating women  and infants who contracted venereal diseases from returning soldiers from world war 1. That was the basis of them wanting to focus on women and infant care. It was a big problem. They did lots of education.

One of the doctors, Katherine Lynn,  worked with the rebels during the fight to free Ireland from English rule. She was jailed afterwards.

They wanted the hospital to be a “university for mothers”. They started educational “babies clubs” for mother to decrease infant mortality. They encouraged breastfeeding.

By the the late 1930’s, the hospital had 35 beds. They became leaders in TB research. They pointed out the connection between poverty and disease. 

Most of all they were a women established hospital dedicated to the needs of women and children. It changed Ireland and Irish medicine.

How did I discover all this? I noticed this unusual part of the hotel and asked someone at the desk about it. Then I looked it up on the internet and learned the story. 

Below is what it looked like way back then. The hospital name is in Irish. There’s a picture of it as part of the hotel. Last is some of the nurses and babies.

Dublin where for art thou?

 One thing I have noted about the big cities is that there is the tourist version and the real version. I suppose that makes sense. Over here it’s so much more obvious.   

London was a big busy mix of tourists and locals. Just overwhelmingly crowded everywhere you went. It’s obvious there were a lot of tourists but there were a lot of londoners too. London is so diverse, every other person spoke a different language. London was very distinct with its own history and culture.

Edinburgh is another big tourist city. Oriented toward tourists. However it still maintained a real sense of Scottish culture with the bagpipes and kilts and overall feel of it. The castle, the port, the atmosphere. 

Dublin is an interesting city. It is overwhelming oriented toward the tourist and thousands of them flock here. It’s very crowded. Dublin has decided that people come here for the pubs. There are so, so

many of them. They overwhelm the city. 

There is music in a lot of them. There is an area of central Dublin called temple bar (not the bar this is the name of the area). It has THE temple bar in it, but it has a lot of other bars in it too. It is an overwhelmingly tourist area. Thousands of people fill the streets in the evenings. 

Is what makes Dublin Irish all the pubs? It feels like you have to search out other Irish culture in Dublin. It doesn’t feel like a lot of it is emphasized. You could easily come here and spend a lot time in pubs and think that’s Dublin.

Dublin is a lot more than that. I’m finding you have to go away from the pubs to find it.

Seagulls are not my friend

 Seagulls here are not my friend. I noticed the further north you go, the bigger the seagull, the louder the seagull.

I have always like seagulls. Pretty and graceful as they glide through the sky. Where I live they are not that loud. Just a fun thing to look at. 

Here they are LARGE. I swear they are as big as an eagle. They are very loud. They will sit on top of buildings and squawk and it will echo down the street. When two of them are doing it, forget it…

They are really noticeable in cities on water which makes sense. They circle around, 30 at a time over an area. They will walk right up to you just like a pigeon. 

Why the interest in seagulls you ask? I’m getting to it. 

Let me set the scene: it’s a beautiful day in Dublin. We are sitting by a pond in St Stephens Green park. There are seagulls, ducks all around. They walk around. They swim in the pond. They soar overhead. It’s an idyllic scene. Or at least it was.

We get ready to go. I stand up and I feel water on my hand. I move my purse a little bit and there it is! One of the bastards has managed to shit between my shirt and purse. I never knew it happened. I didn’t see it happen. It was not obvious. Somehow they went perfectly in the place between my shirt and purse. The perfect placement was amazing. 

I went somewhere and cleaned it off. Gross. I’m lucky. It could have been on my head. Not so much a fan of seagulls anymore.