Ireland Local Custom Tips by globetrott

Guiness is NOT my taste for a great beer, BUT of course I also tasted it a few times, also because it is very hard to find any beer in GB and IRL that is similar to the kind of beer I am used to from Austria, Germany, Belgium, Russia and a lot more. In Dublin you can see their brewery and take a guided tour through the Guinness-brewery.
I made the tour many years ago and payed around 10 Irish pounds back in 1990, today the tours are around 13 Euros and you will get a souvenir-glass and may taste a pint of Guinness.
I know many people who liked that tour through the Guinness-brewery and still talk about their "Great day in Bear-heaven".
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The Guiness-brewery is in just a short distance from the city centre of Dublin.You may take the bus 123 from O'Connell Street or bus 51B & 78A from Aston Quay.
The adress is : Dublin 8 / St James's Gate

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Phone: +353 (1) 408 4800
Website: http://www.guinnessstorehouse.com/home/home.asp
Other Contact: Fax+353 (1) 408 4965

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Local Customs: Molly Malone - the "tart with the cart"

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Written by globetrott

on Jan 4, 2008

Molly Malone - the "tart with the

cart"

"Sweet Moly Malone" is one of the best-known songs by the "Dubliners" and other folk-bands, and everybody seems to know and to love Molly Malone, whose sculpture you can see in the centre of Dublin, in Suffolkstreet, close to Trinity College. Molly was living in Dublin of the 17th century - it is mainly a ledgend, you may read more about it , when you click on my link below !
Molly Malone traded fish from her wheel barrow during the day and was working as a pr*stitute during the night. She caught a fever and died much too young...
In Dublin�s fair city,
Where the Girls are so pretty,
I first set my eyes,
On sweet Molly Malone,
As she wheeled her wheel barrow,
Through the streets broad and narrow,
Crying cockles and mussels,
Alive alive o!

Alive alive o!
Alive alive o!
Crying "cockles and mussels!!",
Alive alive o!

She was a fish monger,
And sure it was no wonder,
For so were her
Father and Mother before,
And they both wheeled their barrow,
Through the streets broad and narrow,
Crying "cockles and mussels!!",
Alive alive o!

Alive alive o!
Alive alive o!
Crying cockles and mussels,
Alive alive o!

She died of a fever,
And no one could save her,
And that was the end
Of sweet Molly Malone,
But her ghost wheels her barrow,
Through the streets broad and narrow,
Crying "cockles and mussels !!",
Alive alive o!

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Website: http://www.askaboutireland.ie/show_narrative_page.do?page_id=604&version=text_only

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Local Customs: James Joyce

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Written by globetrott

on Jan 4, 2008

James Joyce was born 1882 in Dublin and died in Zurich in 1941.Joyce is certainly the best-known of all Irish novelists and you will see this great sculpture in Earl-street in Dublin, not far from O'Connelstreet (b.t.w. the local people call this monument the "Hick with the Stick" . His most famous books are Ulysses and Finnegan's wake.
Close to the sculpture there is a museum about James Joyce.
As you may see on my picture, it is quite usual for people in Ireland to sit on the basement of such monuments in the street and take a rest or a picknick, so it is hard to get a picture of just the sculpture :-((
Every year at "Bloomsday", (june 16th) fans of James Joyce meet in order to visit all the places that Leopold Bloom, main character of the novel Ulysses had visited in that book.

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Local Customs: William Butler Yeats

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Updated by globetrott

on Jan 12, 2008

the grave of William Butler Yeats

in Drumcliff

William Butler Yeats, one of Irelands most important poets and dramatists was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1923.
William Butler Yeats was born in Sandymount, County Dublin, in June 13th, 1865 and he died in Menton, France on January 28th, 1939.
Yeats is buried in Drumcliff, just about 7 km north of the town of Sligo. The inscription on his grave-stone was taken out of one of his poems :
Cast a cold eye
on life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!

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Local Customs: Kiss the Blarney-Stone - watching it is more fun !

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Written by globetrott

on Jan 5, 2008

this is where it takes place

by globetrott , 4 more photos

Kissing the "Blarney-Stone" is an old tradition in Ireland and lots of tourists spread the word about it to all parts of the world, so this crazy custom is still going on ! May I tell you a secret ? Its much more fun to watch it than to do it !!!
According to an old ledgends there is a magic stone on top of the castle, and who-ever kisses it, will get the gift of eloquence.
"Blarney" is also an expression used for words that are used by someone in order to achieve something, without really meaning to do what he had promised.
Queen Elisabeth I tried to force Lord Blarney to acknowledge her officially but Lord Blarney used a thousands words in order to avoid that...
The Queen finally shouted : "That is all Blarney, what he says, he does not mean!!".
Kissing the Blarney-stone is in fact not really easy : At first you have to step up to the very top of the castle, lay back, while a strong man will hold your feet. You have to bend backwards and kiss the stone that is a part of the stone-fence outside of the castle-brim. There is an iron-fence in order to make sure, you will not fall down, but of course you belongings - glasses, hat ect. may do so - see my pictures !!
I have not done it myself, and psst, don't tell anyone : watching that scenery is a lot better than doing it yourself !!

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Local Customs: Celtic gods were adopted by christianity

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Written by globetrott

on Jan 5, 2008

by globetrott , 2 more photos