Ben Gurion,(the late Prime Minster of Israel said,"If you don't believe in miracles,
you don't...
Ben Gurion,(the late Prime Minster of Israel said,"If you don't believe in miracles,
you don't live in reality!"
Member since:09.09.2002
Reviews:84
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My Mother wasn’t born in Ireland, (like an old song says), but my Grandmother, (my Father's Mother), was born in Dublin. Her Family arrived there in 1493 when they fled Spain during the Spanish Inquisition.
We decided to visit Dublin for a few days. We were going to Israel via Amsterdam and in those days it was cheaper to fly from Amsterdam to Dublin than it was from London. We flew on Aer Lingus for a little over an hour.
Dublin is the capital city of Erin, (the Gaelic name of Ireland). The currency then was the punt or the Irish pound,(they use the Euro now). The official language is Gaelic but English is used as well. Dublin’s population is just under one million people. We stayed at the Drury Court Hotel near St. Stevens Greens the first night and then had to move to the Fitzwilliam Hotel, (for the next 2 nights). It is near the Gardens in St. Stevens Green.
The first place we visited was the Irish Jewish Museum and spent half a day looking at the artifacts from older time up to today. We then went to the cemetery to see if we could find any of the graves of my Grandmothers family but we couldn’t.
There are 4 Synagogues in Dublin and we choose to attend Saturday morning services at the Jewish Home of Ireland on Leinster Road.
We took a tour and the first place we visited the famous Christ Church Cathedral. This is a beautiful Cathedral near the Wood Quay.
Our next stop was at the Quay to visit Dublinia to see the display of artifacts of the Vikings and the recreation of the original city.
The next stop was to see Dublin Castle. It was magnificent.There are no Monarchs in Ireland now so it is only used to entertain foreign dignitaries.
There are Protestants in Ireland and we visited the St Patrick Cathedral. We were lucky as the choir was practicing and they all seemed to have ’voices’ of angels! St. Patrick is in the center of the City and our tour ended here.
Our last stop was at the Guinness Hopstore. We all had a good time there! We had such a good time I got very drunk and don't remember any thing about it.
There are many places to shop in Dublin. We walked down Grafton Street and browsed through the designer shops. There were so many pubs we begin to feel thirsty so we dropped into one for a pint of dark draft beer.
On Henry Street and Talbot Street we stopped at the Arnotts and Dunnes Stores. The Temple Bar area is for the trendy crowd. We went there to buy some records and to see the clothes shops.
We went to see if I could find her birth certificate but the place where it had been stored had burned down. The lady told me that many “Jewish Girls were not registered and just given their names at the Synagogue.”
One day we were going to have a picnic at a sea sideVillage. My Grandmother told me that her Family always went there for a Month in the Summer. She said it was so far from Dublin the Men only could come on the week end. They took the train after work and had to leave very early to make it back to work), on Monday morning. We rented a car and drove out of Dublin and in ten minutes we were there!
The Town was called Liffey and it turned that is wasn't on the Ocean but on the Liffey Rivers.We spend the rest of the morning sitting on the banks of the river and ate lunch and drove back to Dublin.
We saw a some Irish Dancers at the Abbey Theater one evening.
~O WERE WE ATE O~
We had breakfast at out Hotel every morning.
I must tell you is that the take out fish and chips shops are great. The food is cheap and the food is delicious. We loved the pubs and the food so between these two this is where we had lunch.
One night we the Siam Restaurant for huge bowls of Thai soup and chicken sate. Then we went on to Velure Restaurant and Bar. We sat at the Bar and listened to great jazz.
Our last night we splurged and at the La Cave Wine Bar & Restaurant. Imagine eating gourmet French food in Ireland!
Every night we ended our evening at a Pub or two.
~O WHAT WE BOUGHT O~
We always by everyone t-shirts, I bought our daughters Irish linen tablecloths and our son a gold shamrock. We each bought Irish sailors sweaters and my husband bought a hat and a cane.
We didn't buy any linen or crystal for myself because I have a lot.
We weren’t there on March 17th so why am I telling you about it? Our Tour Guide told us that, ’’ St. Patrick was of ’Celt’ origin and was captured by an Irish ’marauder’, (Pirate), and sold as a slave to a chieftain of an area that is now in the county of Antrim.
He became Catholic at this time. A legend says that an Angel appeared to him while he was tending his master’s sheep and told him to run away as G-D would protect him. He became an apostle and traveled through the country and converted many of the Irish people to Christianity by telling them the shamrock represented the Holy Trinity. He died on March 17th sometime in the mid 400’s."
I hope you enjoyed learning about him.
~o MY FATHER LEADS THE NYC ST. PATRICK'S DAY PARADE O~
My Father came home from a trip to Chicago and New York City. He told us that Mayor LaGuardia had asked him to ride with him in his convertible that led the St. Patrick Day Parade. My Father had a bit of the ’blarney’ and we never knew if what he told us was try.
The following Saturday I went to the movies with my friends. In those days the movie was proceeded by a newsreel and a cartoon. The first item in the newsreel was the NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade with the Mayor and my Father leading it.
I later learned that the Mayor’s Mother was an Irish Jewess and a friend of my Grandmother. A few years ago I read in the Edmonton Journal’s Trivia Page, "that Mayor LaGuardia, (who everyone believed was 100 percent Italian), needed the Jewish vote to win the election. It was going to be difficult because his opponent was Jewish.
During the run up to the election they were to debate at a Jewish Community Center. In his opening remarks the Mayor challenged his opponent to debate in Yiddish, (a language similar to lowerGerman that eastern European Jews spoke). The Mayor spoke excellent Yiddish and his opponent couldn’t speak one word." And now you know the tale of how an Italian-Jewish man became the Mayor of NYC.
~O SOME THOUGHTS O~
I'm sorry I never had time to spend more time in Ireland and I never had the chance to go back.
I loved Dublin and one day we hope to go back and see the rest of Ireland.
What little we saw of the green countryside was beautiful. The people were jolly and always ready to help us. If you are think of a place to visit I highly recommend you think about Ireland.
I’ll end with an old Irish blessing that my friend Maggie taught me:
Great review! Getting ready to travel to Dublin myself so really enjoyed hearing what you saw and did! Looking forward to seeing it myself!
indiegirl 07.11.2002 09:47
Yay! I'm going to Dublin in a weeks' time.. can't wait to have a shop, a drink, visit the castle, have a drink, see some more sights, have a drink. Oh, did I mention having a drink? ;o)
thethirdeye 06.11.2002 01:18
a great review - I love Dublin and have been many times for my birthday (St Paddy's day) as there's so much going on
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Oct 31st, 2002
(Nov 10th, 2002)
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