The Hairy Lemon - KK
Yesterday morning we were met by a man right out of Central Casting. Our knowledgeable and very nice private tour guide, (Dapper) Ralph had on a dress shirt, tie, trousers, scarf, wool overcoat, shiny dress oxfords and carried a long "British-style" black umbrella. The information, which we only got around to reading this morning, said the dress for today was "smart casual." Well, I definitely felt I had the casual part of that down as we only have t-shirts and camp pants, basically. The "smart" part of that may have been a miss but with that dapper gentleman at our side, we would be fine. I just knew it.
Our walking tour was primarily focused on the Christ Church/City Hall and Trinity College area. We saw beautiful things (architecture, antique textiles, gold ornaments dating back many centuries) and odd things (a mummified cat along with a mummified rat found in the pipes of Christ Church and on full display in the crypt below the sanctuary).
We started at the Dublin Castle which is not as ornate as the castles in most other places. The thing that struck me the most, however, was something at the castle garden, An Garda Síochána which honors Ireland's National Police Force and the Dublin Metropolitan Police. The names of every officer who died in the line of duty are inscribed here in stone. It is a very light and open space. While not as large as our Vietnam War Memorial it had a similar gravity to it and it's located at the very center of the old city of Dublin where the Vikings landed and set up their trading center. After some quality time at the castle we headed over to Christ Church, also known as the Church of the Holy Trinity.
Christ Church has a fascinating history of both Catholicism and Anglicanism over the last nearly 1000 years. Inside there are tombs, gorgeous plates and chalices given by Kings. There are original handpainted tiles on the floor and the crypt wasn't what I expected. There We found the cat and rat mummies referenced above. We also found beautiful costumes from the TV series, The Tudors, on display as the series was filmed on site. And of course there was a gift shop.
While at the church, just outside the entrance, I saw a banner that said "Shine a Light Night 2017--Business Leader's Sleep Out." I learned that this fundraising event (of course it caught my eye) benefits Focus Ireland, a non-profit dedicated to ending homelessnesss. The project engages CEOs, MDs and other leaders to sleep on the grounds of Christ Church for the evening. Workplaces are also encouraged to stage their own sleep outs and they live stream solution-oriented discussions etc. throughout the night all over the city. I don't know if anyone is already doing this in the US but what an interesting idea. Maybe we can do Fireside Philanthropy Chats at home.
The tour continued and while inside City Hall, I came across a statue of a man named Thomas Drummond. He was famous for inventing a special kind of light that was used in lighthouses. He later became Undersecretary of Ireland and introduced a system of "poor relief" to help farmers whose crops failed. The foundation of his statue reads "Property has its duties as well as its rights." Of course, anything to do with philanthropy usually catches my eye and I am always intrigued by the fact that people have been "loving mankind" since the beginning of time. The desire to help others seems to be in our DNA. "No matter what you make. All that you can take. It's what you give away." (What you give away, Vince Gill)
Arthur Guinness, founder of the Irish beer empire, was also a noted philanthropist and beloved by his employees. We continued to see a theme of good people doing good things.
We ended our tours of Dublin at the Guinness Storehouse. We learned about mountain water, generations' old yeast, barley, hops and more. We enjoyed some lively Celtic dancing and a flight of beer.
After our product taste testing and a day of being inspired, we parked it at the Hairy Lemon, a pub next to our hotel. It was the first placed we spotted upon arriving in Dublin and our goal to drink, I mean eat dinner, there was achieved! The food was actually delicious and I can whole-heartedly recommend the Guinness and beef pie. In this town, it's good to be Guinness.
More adventures in store...
"Tomorrow will come and I'll follow the sun." The Beatles