Dublin, Ireland Vacation – Day 4 & 5

Day 4 of my Dublin, Ireland vacation was a nice day filled with museums, galleries, churches and yes, even more walking! Kristen and I first went to the National Museum of Ireland, which was located by Merrion Square. It offered up a nice collection of ancient Celtic jewelry, clothing, shoes, and weapons. They had a great Viking exhibit there as well. I liked that part of the most because I just love seeing old weapons and swords, plus seeing cracked human skulls was pretty damn cool!

After National Museum, we just walked across the street to National Gallery of Ireland. That gallery is FREE, along with the National Museum and both are totally worth seeing. The gallery was fantastic and offered up a lot of art from Ireland, as well as other painters as well. I remember seeing a Picasso and Rembrandt in there. But mostly the gallery featured a lot of Irish painters. It was nice because I haven’t really seen too much from Irish artists in art school. Or maybe I just simply forgot? It has been 10 years. Yikes! Moving on….

Christ Church Cathedral we wanted to see inside this time, so we paid the fee to walk around there for an hour. I liked this Cathedral so much better than St Patrick’s Cathedral. There was more to see inside. You can go down into the tombs of the Cathedral, which was cool. After the Cathedral, we made our way up O’Connell street to go to Hugh Lane Gallery. That gallery had newer paintings and art installations. The recreation of Francis Bacon studio was quite impressive. The man lived in chaos and it was really cool to see how the man worked. Even though the studio was a replica, I would imagine it was just as messy. Bacon is one of my favorite painters so that was worth making the walk up north of the Liffey for.

Kristen and I finally had a chance to walk around at night in Dublin this day. I wanted to find a pub with some good music, which I thought it would be easy to do. It was the opposite. Temple Bar is very touristy and pricey, and Thursday night must be an off night because I couldn’t find a decent pub with a band playing. I wanted to check out the trad sessions but I guess you have to know where to go. I was more impressed with the buskers outside in the streets than the ones playing in the pubs. There was one band playing on Grafton Street that reminded me of 3 Daft Monkeys. Very good band. We ended up eating at the Auld Dubliner in Temple Bar just because we were so hungry. A musician was playing in the pub, but it was hard to hear him since everyone was talking and having a good time. But as soon as the guy played “Dirty Old Town,” the entire pub erupted with singing. That song is always a fan favorite. That night I had a steak burger and an apple crumble, yum!

The next day was an off day for us really. We walked around shopping, got some pastries on Dame Street, and walked around Merrion Square. Oscar Wilde’s statue resides there by the way. After that, we had to take a nap because we were going to a show.

That night we had the pleasure of seeing Sharon Shannon with Shane MacGowan at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin. Sharon Shannon was excellent, and the show got better with each song. Irish musician Jerry Fish and Carol Keogh performed the beautiful sung song “Back To Before” and then “True Friends.” I have never heard of him but I’ll definitely be getting his albums now. After him, a guy came on to perform this slow song that was really nice but for the life of me, I can’t figure out who it was or what song he was singing. If anyone knows, let me know! Shane MacGowan came on an hour into the set and started things off with “Irish Rover.” He also played “Sally Maclennane,” “Rainy Night in Soho” and then “Fiesta.” He was in usual form, balancing wine bottles on his head, and trying to hit people with the mic stand. He came back during the encore to play “Dirty Old Town.” Most of the performers came out for that, and Shane scared Carol Keogh I think…He yanked her over to dance and twirl her around, and then after that she disappeared from stage. Ahh Shane, ladies killer. Mundy came out to sing “Galway Girl” with the band after that. I love that song! All in all, the show was great and a lot of fun to attend.

The Entire Gallery

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Tags: Carol Keogh, concert review, Dame Street, Dublin, erie, Ireland, irish, Jerry Fish, Merrion Square, National Museum of Ireland, nikon d300, O'Connell Street, Olympia Theatre, Photography, Shane MacGowan, Sharon Shannon, Spire, Temple Bar