Revisiting Ireland

Monday, September 2

Cobh to Cork to Limerick Junction to Limerick

So far as our travels go, it’s not a fun trip without an unplanned-for diversion or two. Otherwise known as an “adventure.” And this day started off with our adventure for this trip to Ireland: a train ride from Cobh to Cork on a commuter train, a reserved seat in a first-class car from Cork to Limerick Station, and another commuter train from Limerick into the city of Limerick. Paul had told us we would have to change trains twice after we left Cobh, and his repeated explanations had us a little one edge about the trip. We got up, dressed, breakfasted, and headed out for the train station, all of fifty yards away, and claimed our tickets through the automated machine using the reservation code Paul had helped us make a couple of days before. We were so early we caught the 9:00 train rather than the 9:30 our ticket actually specified. No worries. There wasn’t a human agent in sight, and our fellow passengers answered every question we could come up with. And our early departure just meant we had a little extra time in the Cork station.

When we boarded the train that would take us from Cork to Limerick Junction, we were in a different world of public transportation. First-class car, reserved seats with our names on them, and a trolley offering everything from newspapers to beer and mixed drinks. And a luggage rack, so our bags didn’t have to take up a seat or ride in our laps. Nice ride.

Limerick

We enjoyed the ride from Cork to Limerick Junction–not close to Limerick and nowhere near being on a straight line from Cork to Limerick–and made the change to our second commuter train without trouble. When we got to Limerick Colbert station, more helpful people herded us along the way to the taxis stand. Eamon Daly was a stereotypical Irishman–voluble and friendly–who pointed out everything we would need to know around our hotel. I think he drove around a few extra blocks, but he was very entertaining while he did it.

The Absolute Hotel is a modern structure, slick as it can be. A real contrast to Silken Thomas in Kildare. They actually had a room available two hours early, who we moved in before heading out to Smyth’s Bar for lunch on the recommendation of both the taxi driver and the desk clerk. We had to walk quite a bit to get there, but once inside, neither one of us took advantage of the carvery, the reason for the good recommendations.

We left the bar, and with the best of intentions but not the best of skill, I managed to lead us away from our next goal–the Hunt Museum. After retracing a couple of blocks and crossing a major street or two, we reached the museum and found out we would be able to attend a guided tour of a special exhibit. Before that started we had time to look around a good bit, and there were several elements of the museum that were distinctive. I might even say the layout and displays are sort of quirky. Oddments from a variety of times and places are displayed in an interesting manner, not segregated into galleries by style or medium.The single most interesting thing was a number of drawers below glass exhibit cases. Other items were in those drawers, placed there because there wasn’t enough room to display them in the cases. The items were protected by glass tops on each drawer, but anyone could just open them up and take a look at more “stuff,” making more of the collection accessible than the limited display space allowed. I even found a Renoir pen and ink drawing in one drawer. Fascinating, and I wish I had had time to open every drawer there, just to see what I would find.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to every gallery before we descended to the lower level for the guided tour of painting by two Irish painters of the late nineteenth century: John Lavery, best known for his portraits, and Walter Osborne, best known for his portrayals of daily life in his time. The docent was good and enthusiastic about the paintings, and we both enjoyed the exhibit. The display area was a little crowded, though, and that mean the works we saw weren’t all displayed to their best advantage. Nevertheless, I was really taken with a couple of them, and we both thought the time was well spent.

By the time we left the museum and walked back to the hotel, on the other side of the River Shannon, we had noticed several groups of girls in what appeared to be school uniforms. That wouldn’t have been unusual, especially given that there was a school near the hotel, but the uniforms were not the typical ensembles we were accustomed to; the skirts were all ankle length. ‘Twas a puzzlement, but not enough to make us stop and ask someone about them. Just something to notice.

We got back to the hotel in time for drinks and dinner in the hotel restaurant, ending with our usual libations before returning to our room and  drifting off for a very comfortable night of sleep.

Tuesday, September 3

Limerick

I woke up just after 7:00 and tried to get up and out without waking Judy. That didn’t really work. But eventually I did leave and strike out for a morning walk. This time I was on a quest! We had seen a greened copper dome in the distance, in the opposite direction from everything we wanted to see in Limerick, and my goal was to find out what the dome was.

I cranked up Map-My-Walk and did my best to head directly for the place with the dome, in spite of view, bridges, and roads that didn’t run straight. All of this in what was either a “soft” day or an outright rainy mess, depending on the moment. Wouldn’t you know it? It turned out that I approached the building from its back side; there was a ten-foot high stone wall around it and not a sign or a label to be seen. There was nothing to do but keep walking. I lost the wall, and followed the closest path I could find around housing plots, a vet’s clinic, and after turning left at a major intersection, more stone wall. At least I was now out of the warrens and on a tree-lined major road that ran straight back toward the hotel. Eventually I got to the entrance and got another shot of the old building–on the campus of the Limerick School of Art and Design.

Quest done! By the time I got back to the hotel, I had walked only one mile, so I kept going. My sense of direction and map-reading skills didn’t serve me all that well. My intention was to scope out a good path for us to follow later so we could visit St. Mary’s Cathedral and King John’s Castle. Along the way I stumbled past Limerick Town and County Council Offices, the Wild Geese monument, and the back side of the Castle. And a dead end walk that took me first into, then out of a remote car park with only one way in or out. Not one of these along what could be called an efficient path from the hotel to the castle. I did a little better getting back to the hotel in a straighter line. We went to breakfast in the hotel around 9:15, after I had showered and changed, then we went out for our planned visits in Limerick. On a “soft” day.

We got to St. Mary’s quite directly, making only one illegal street crossing–safely I’m glad to say.As luck would have it a service was about to start–Morning Prayer at 10:30. We dithered a bit then decided to just stay, pray with the people, and do the self-guided Cathedral tour after the service. It’s an interesting place, historically, though we didn’t find any bodies hanging about that day. An organ rebuild has put a false facade out in front of the organ itself. I’ve never seen mosaics on an organ case before. The were sort of strange, inset on painted backgrounds of what looked like clouds and water. Unique, if nothing else. There were some interesting misericords, nice nineteenth-century windows. One chapel on the south wall had an original coffered ceiling above walled off tombs. One column at the crossing had plaster flowerets set into the crevices between the stones. On the east face of the column, where most parishioners would see it only after receiving the host. Interesting.

After our time in the Cathedral, we walked through the rain to King John’s Castle to see what there was to see there. I’m glad we did, because it’s a fun place to visit. As we approached the place from the Cathedral, we were met with nothing that looked like a medieval castle. All we saw was a glass and steel structure that really wasn’t very appealing. But we followed the signs pointing to our left, bought our tickets and started the tour, almost all of which was indoors, thanks be. It’s really well set up to avoid some of the pitfalls of many such tours. Instead of one long video on the history of the place, potentially dull and off-putting, there were small places along the way where there were short videos on one specific time period playing on loops. You could walk through or pause and watch, depending on your interest. The whole thing is nicely laid out, with interactive exhibits aimed toward children and education. The final part of this crawl led us through the undercroft of the glassed in building, on ramps and elevated walkways with explanations of what was below us in the excavated east wall of the castle. That was one of the most well-done archaeological exhibits I had seen since Santorini.

That pathway ended with a doorway to the courtyard, where there was still a drizzle, so Judy went on in the glassed in building, the only way out it seemed. Of course, in typical fashion for such places, the shop was located there, part of the exit strategy. I wandered through the courtyard, climbed the steps of one of the towers, and generally enjoyed it in spite of the rain. The walls were incredibly thick, and the wedge-shaped window openings made that obvious. There were blocked on the outer edge–or near it–with metal grates, but pigeons still had room to nest. 

We bought a few little things in the shop, but instead of visiting the cafe we walked across the street to Katie Daly’s Pub for a drink in place of lunch. It was too soon after a huge breakfast to think about eating again! Judy got to enjoy an Irish coffee in an authentic looking pub while I managed to drink a Guinness for about the first time on this trip. I must have been careless. We got back to the hotel while the room was being serviced, so we sat in the upper lobby for a while and watched a family celebrating a birthday complete with a cake and candle. We talked to one of the family members who told us she had been born in a house that that used to be on this site before the hotel was built. Hearing that sort of made up for the fact that they were kind of loud.

After a while, the room was ready and we made separate decisions about the afternoon. Judy opted for a nap while I headed out for another walk. This time I head our in search of the Treaty Stone, after learning in the Castle tour that it was the symbol of the Treaty of 1691. That no doubt relates to the local brew I’d been enjoying in Limerick: Treaty City Pale Ale. Finding the Monument was no trouble; I just went back to the castle and turned left. That took me across the Shannon, the local “Big River,” for the first time since our arrival. The river was quite different from the little River Abbey by the Hotel. I think recent rains had things stirred up a bit. There was some white water under and around the bridge, as well as along the drop-off where the Abbey hit the Shannon. 

I walked along the bank over there where we hadn’t ventured yet. Nice parks and green space along the bank of the river. When I got to the bridge going back into the city center I could see a real difference between the buildings down stream and those along this part of town and the part we were in. We were not in the posh neighborhood. I called Judy, told her I wasn’t lost, just far away, and wound my way back to the Absolute. A cool-down time and we went down for drinks and dinner. I think the Treaty City Ale tasted even better after I had seen the Treaty Stone. This was our last night before heading home, and it had been a good trip.

The next morning Paul would drive us to Dublin for our final night before flying home. The original plan had been altered after our arrival here, but all we knew was that Paul would have our itinerary and lunch planned. We would just be along for the ride.