The RipTide Movement

There was a request for a report on the music scene over here in Dublin. You'll be glad to know that I haven't been slacking in my duties. Ok, I have. However, yesterday when Beth, RJ and I were out walking Grafton Street, we saw a couple of bands playing. One of them in particular caught our attention: The RipTide Movement.

In fact, they caught our attention enough to buy their CD. Today while touring the country, we popped the CD in and listened to it a few times through. I have to say that I really like what I heard. I'd classify it as bluesy rock sound with a hint of The Doors. The hint of The Doors comes from the vocalist, Mal Tuohy, who sounds eerily like Jim Morrison.

On their website they say that they are influenced by CCR, Rory Gallagher, The Doors, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones. So I guess I'm not too far off with my impressions.

I'm no music critic, but I know what I like when I hear it. I particularly like their song: "Alive Inside," which I've learned hit #13 on the Irish charts as an independent release. These boys got some chops. Go check them out.

Kilmainham Gaol

Beth and I went down to the City Centre today for a couple of reasons. First off, Beth wanted to see the city. Secondly, I needed to help her get her bearings on how to get around in Dublin. Today's lesson involved riding the bus and the Luas (a light rail that runs through the city). The first destination we aimed for was Kilmainham Gaol.

Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced "jail") is an essential stop on a tour of Dublin - I'd even recommend that it is the first stop on your tour of Dublin. It really gets you familiarized with the history of the city and the country.

I'm not trying to say the country is full of convicts and that the history of the country revolves around the jail. However, the jail maps two important historical events of the country: The Potato Famine and The Easter Rising/Fight for Independence.

The interesting aspect to the Potato Famine is that to keep beggars off the street, they'd often incarcerate them at Kilmainham for some period of time. In the jail's history (over 100 years from the late 1700's through 1924 when it was closed), 800-1000 people were usually jailed per year. During the years of the Potato Famine, that number rose to over 9000 in one year. The meager rations they received in jail was more than they were getting at home. Kilmainham Gaol may well have saved hundreds/thousands of peoples lives.

The other piece of history that I referred to was The Easter Rising - which was the beginning of the country's fight for independence from England. In 1916, a group of Irish Republicans seized the General Post Office and other important landmarks in the City Centre and held off the British army for 1 week before they surrendered, unconditionally, to the army's overwhelming numbers.

This wasn't necessarily what caused the Irish movement for independence, though. There were uprising before, but they never were able to create the tidal wave of support that this movement eventually did. What really caused the support for independence was the execution of all the Irish Republicans at Kilmainham Gaol. In all 90 people were sentenced to death and 15 (mostly the leaders) were executed within a week of their sentence. The jail is a grim reminder of those executions as some of the cells have name placards over their doors commemorating the fallen heroes.

All in all, it was an excellent experience. However, we dropped out of the tour early because RJ was getting a little restless. A fun day for the family, but I think a little more walking than Beth was expecting.

Don't Kiss Me, I'm not Irish, I'm Sleeping

Well, unfortunately, I don't have a very interesting story to tell about St. Patrick's Day in Dublin. Beth and RJ were still pretty jet-lagged from the flight over and didn't wake up until about 11am. I wasn't much better myself, waking up at 10am. Either way, organizing a 1-year old and getting him onto a bus to get to City Center was out of the question, so . . .

We spent the day shopping out by our apartment. We heard Irish music at IKEA, spent some green at Homebase (similar to a Sears - tools, furniture, home items), and bought some Corned Beef at Tesco.

All-in-all it was a lazy St. Patty's day, but it was still a wonderful day because I got to spend it with Beth and RJ.

And all you get is a picture of a cat with a green hat on. Sorry.

Touchdown In Dublin

We touched down in Dublin today - Beth, RJ and I - with little incident. RJ was himself, squeaking like a canary throughout the airport and kept it up until the flight crew finally dimmed the lights 3 hours into the flight. At that point he fell right asleep.

The hard part will be getting him onto the new time schedule. We are currently 5 hours ahead of home (Ireland doesn't go onto daylight savings time until the end of March - usually it's 6 hours ahead). RJ took a couple short naps today and only got three hours of sleep on the plane (which is better than Beth or I did). He's sleeping now, but I'm hoping he doesn't wake up in the middle of the night.

Beth is adjusting similarly - she is sleeping now, trying to catch up herself. After all tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day in Ireland. We haven't made any real plans tomorrow. We're thinking that we'll be heading downtown for the parade - but we'll see what time everybody wakes up.

The First Family Airplane Trip

I took a few days off of blogging because, well, I was home with my family whom I hadn't seen in three weeks. It's quite amazing to see how much RJ has changed in those three weeks. He loves walking now! If he's awake, he's walking.

The weekend was just a little stressful, though. That's because today all three of us get on the airplane back to Ireland. The stress was due to the fact that we had to pack for Beth and RJ for a 6-week stay in Ireland.

I'm not sure how we're going to get through security yet. We have a full compliment of checked bags, carry-on luggage, carry-on hand bags, a car seat and a stroller. We'll see how we do. I have the limo picking us up forty five minute early just to make sure we have enough time to get through security.

We'll see how RJ does on the plane (and how we all do at the airport). Wish us luck!

Any Jacobites in the House?

On my tour of the Boyne River Valley, I stopped at another famous site: The Battle of the Boyne site along the Boyne River. This was where William the Orange defeated James the II in 1690. So what, you say? Yeah, that's what I said, too. So I did a little research.

This was one of the roots of the Protestant and Catholic conflict in Ireland. William the Orange (a.k.a William III) was the reigning protestant King of England, Scotland and Ireland. He deposed his father-in-law, James II - a Catholic under the guise of freeing the English Protestants from James II's Catholic tyranny.

James II fled to France where he had support from King Louis XIV of France. In 1689, James II, gathered an army of Jacobites and French and landed in Kinsale in Ireland (southwest of Cork) and marched all the way up to meet King William III's troupes along the Boyne River in July of 1690.

William III's 36,000 men went on to defeat the 23,500 men of James II's army in three days. This remains the largest battle to have occurred on the island of Ireland. This is sometimes recognized as a key point to the complete colonization of Ireland by the British. In fact, in the 1920's Irish Republican Army (Catholics) blew up a monument at the battle site as well as a statue of William III (Protestant) at Trinity College in Dublin.

So the question remains: What the hell is a Jacobite?

A Jacobite is a supporter of the Catholic King James II. It's taken from the latin for James - which is Jacob. The Jacobite movement is the movement to restore the House of Stuart to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland. The current rulers are of the House of Windsor.

One final question: If I'm in Ireland, should I visit the Battle of the Boyne site?

No. For four Euro, you can see a limited museum and walk the grounds. Actually, you can walk the grounds for free - you get what you pay for there. Drive past the site and move on to the burial mound a Newgrainge. If you want information on the battle, go to a library and find a book on it.

One last piece of trivia - William III and his wife Queen Mary II (daughter of James II) are the namesakes for William & Mary College in Virginia.

The Hill of Slane

Just west of Newgrainge, is the town of Slane. Slane sits on the River Boyne and is overlooked by the Hill of Slane. The significance of the Hill of Slane is that it is said that in 433 A.D., St. Patrick lit the paschal fire on this hill in defiance of the pagan kings that ruled at the time. As you can see here, St. Patrick is still up to his charitable ways, holding on to a hat for a young lassie who lost it.

There are some wonderful views from the Hill of Slane. You can see East all the way to Drogheda and the Irish Sea. Best of all its free! This is a highly recommended stop if you're in the area.