Irish History Lesson

Today is our last day on the ship, and I have a few thoughts on that :-) But first, there was so much to think about and understand on our two stops in Irish ports.

On Tuesday, we docked in Belfast, Northern Ireland for the day. On Wednesday, the ship moved us to Dublin for two days. In Belfast, we used Pounds and were in the United Kingdom, but 90 miles away in Dublin, we used Euros and were in the independent Republic of Ireland, part of the European Union. I had to put a sign up on the library board to remind everyone (myself included) which country uses which currency! 

Remember Belfast in the 80's and early 90's news? Images of car bombs, fences between Protestant and Catholic neighbors, high unemployment, and a very gritty, coal-darkened city come to mind. Well, Belfast is still very gritty, and while the tensions between groups are still noticeable the late 90's peace agreement has led to normalcy. Belfast is now an up and coming tourist destination. We all visited the Ulster Museum which had history and artifacts from ancient to recent times, then Jr and Sr went to the brand new Titanic Belfast museum (it was built in the shipyards right next to where we docked.  Grandpa and I took a tour of "trouble murals" and neighborhoods where the "Troubles" were most prominent in years past. We wish we had longer in this fascinating place.

Dublin was a lot more like I expected Ireland to look like. On the first day, we took a trip out to County Wicklow to see the famous Irish countryside. It was green and beautiful as promised, but also full of historical clues. Part of our day was spent at the Powerscourt Estate, with a grand house and gardens and Ireland's highest waterfall. It is now a publicly accessible attraction, with many reminders of the time when a privileged few controlled most land and resources in Ireland. Yesterday, we spend the middle of the day in Dublin, visiting museums and walking around. I think my favorite was the "Dead Zoo" as the natural history museum is known by locals. It was full of taxidermied animals from an era when studying animals meant catching them and stuffing them. It sounds icky, but was actually quite interesting. Jr and Grandpa especially enjoyed identifying some of the fish species we had seen in all those aquariums. It is easier to tell what something is when it is stuffed and mounted next to its nameplate, though certainly less realistic.

There are pictures, but I'm going to save them for later. I need to finish packing, as we depart the ship tomorrow morning. If I have time after packing, I may try to blog some final thoughts before we leave the ship. Otherwise, those will happen when we get to London tomorrow. Rumor has it the flat we rented has actual internet!