A Trip to Ireland, Chapter 3.

A Trip to Ireland, Chapter 3.

13th May 2026

Following a good night’s sleep, a cup of tea, and a shower I went to the Dublin Bus office in O’Connell Street to buy a 3 day Leap Visitor Card. For €18.00 this would give me unlimited travel for my stay in Dublin, on Dublin City Bus services (operated by Dublin Bus and Go-Ahead Ireland), Luas (tram), DART and Commuter Rail in Zone 1. That’s quite a big area which would allow me to explore some places on the coast as well as the city itself. It also answered my “how am I going to get to the Ferry Port on Friday afternoon?” question.

My first trip was on the Luas Green Line tram across the Liffey to the stop at Trinity.

I made my way through the streets south of the river to Dublin Castle. A large part of Dublin Castle was closed in order to finalize preparations for Ireland’s hosting of the EU Presidency. From what I saw in the bits of the castle campus that were open those preparations involved men with brushes and rollers ensuring that the great and the good who will attend hundreds of conferences, meetings, dinners and cultural events will continue to believe that the whole world smells like new paint 😉

I got a coffee at the Silk Road Cafe in the Chester Beatty Library, which was in the part of the castle grounds which was still open, and drank it on a seat overlooking the Dubh Linn Garden with its sea serpent like patterns cut into the lawn. The lawn is either on or near the site of the original dubh linn or ‘black pool’. Here the Vikings set up a harbour and trading base. It was this pool that gave its name to the city of Dublin.

From the Dubh Linn Garden I walked to the colourful Temple Bar area, had a look around the free exhibition in the Photo Museum of Ireland. I crossed back over the Liffey via Ha’penny Bridge, got a sandwich for lunch and found a bench by the river. Of course that was when the rain showers arrived, accompanied by a chill wind. Trams being weatherproof I rode out to The Point on the Red Line. There were many visitors from the far east on the tram, all of whom seemed to want two seats each. Also a ticket inspector appeared and checked tickets and cards. It’s been a good while since I saw one of those in London. The Dublin North Docklands has been redeveloped with many huge office and apartment blocks but here and there short terraces of Victorian houses remain, dwarfed by the new buildings. The Point tram stop is surrounded by large buildings including a trendy hotel, a cinema, and the 3Arena a large live music venue tacked onto the rear of the facade of an old railway goods depot. An unpleasant vicious wind howled through the canyons between the new blocks. I got the next tram out of there and road back through the city to Heuston. By the time I got there the sun was out and the wind had eased. I paid a visit to Anna Livia, better known as The Floozie in the Jacuzzi, who has been relocated from O’Connell Street to Croppies Memorial Park near the river.

The Floozie’s former place is now occupied by a massive shiny spike which has for some months sported an unofficial Palestinian flag that the authorities can't work out how to get down 😂 Three cheers for whoever is responsible.

I took the opportunity given by the break in the weather to walk back along the Liffey, swapping banks at the bridges, past the Guinness Brewery and ending up again in Temple Bar.

Another torrential and horizontal rain squall had me looking for shelter and I popped into the National Photographic Archive Library in Meeting House Square, drawn by a large sign advertising a Live Aid exhibition. This told the story of the famous 1985 simultaneous charity concerts in London and Philadelphia organized by local (born in Dún Laoghaire) singer Bob Geldof and Scottish musician. The exhibition’s walls full of words and pictures feature the performers involved, and how the whole thing was organized. It really can’t be 46 years ago though. I refuse to believe it 😲

I went into the terrible tourist trap that is the Temple Bar pub really intending to do a Wetherspoon and just use their toilets but my resolve weakened I and stopped for a pint because it was raining outside again. Over £10 for a Guinness? WTAF?!. Should have stuck to plan A. It wasn’t even an exceptional pint and their awning leaked so it was raining “inside” too. At least I’ll know better if there’s a next time. Treat this as a Public Service Announcement.

I left Temple Bar and walked through the wet streets to Tara Street station, passing an unexpected ex-London Routemaster bus on the way. RM811 is now providing afternoon tea trips in Dublin, painted in a blue and yellow livery. At Tara Street I caught the 1600 DART train to Howth. I was struck on the train by the number of religious adverts displayed in the carriages, nearly as many as the gambling ads in the UK. Also lots of ads for flooring companies for some reason. Travelling northwards out of the city I noticed several terraces of single storey back-to-back cottages and then the houses got larger and the areas apparently more affluent.

The village of Howth on a peninsula to the north of Dublin has an active fishing harbour and a large marina for leisure craft. (The “ow” in the name rhymes with the thing you use to shoot arrows.) The West Pier is lined with fish restaurants and fishmongers. I walked to the end of West Pier but not East Pier because it was very long and the weather was looking threatening. I imagine Howth is a very busy place in high summer being easy to get to and with tourist boat trips to the island of Ireland’s Eye just to the north. I was shadowed around Howth by a large group of Spanish school students. Also a very large Greater Black Backed Gull - OK there might have been more than one of those.

Having had a good walk around the harbour I considered stopping for dinner but decided that would end up being a rather late return to Dublin so I returned to the station. I walked to the far end of the platform to avoid the noisy students. I arrived back at Connolly Station at 1820 with aching feet, grabbed a can of beer and a salad from the supermarket and spent the evening horizontal in front of the laptop and the TV - having now worked out that the antenna cable not being plugged in was why there was no signal. I now had 8 channels and the only thing on worth watching was Endeavour. No Eurovision of course (not that I’d have watched it) because Ireland and RTE had boycotted that because of the genociders.

I went to bed with a rough idea of a plan for the next day and a wish that the weather forecast was better.