Buddy's Blog

We took a bus tour to Northern Ireland. The coastline, like most of Ireland, is lovely.

First stop was the ruins of Dunluce Castle on the cliff on the North Atlantic. The ruins as well as the Giant’s Causeway were featured in Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy. 

Here is a short video of the coastline.

The trail toward the Giant’s Causeway:

This is the Causeway. It wasn’t as spectacular as I had envisioned.

To see this next formation was another ten minute hike, and FrauG was tired, so we didn’t go. We took a shuttle back to our bus.

We stopped in Belfast on the way back to Dublin. We should have gone to see the Titanic museum. There’s not much to see in downtown Belfast. And the city doesn’t have the same wonderful ambience as Dublin.

The mural Belfast Spring was painted in 2023. It represents the importance of the flax industry to the city. Linen is made from flax flowers.

The next day in Dublin we went to the Jameson distillery.

It cost 30 euros per, and all it was was a tasting and an AV show of the history of, and how they make whiskey.

There was no distillery. That had moved to Cork. And the guy who did the presentation, asked for tips at the end. The all day trip to Northern Ireland only cost 60 euros. I thought the Jameson gig was a rip-off. We should have gone to the Guinness Storehouse instead, but Frau G was too tired.

Up the coast from Dublin 10 or 15 miles is the town of Malahide and the Malahide Castle.

The castle is about a ten minute walk from the town. Along the way are statues carved from trees.

I think this used to be a church.

The Talbot family still owns the castle. They still use the greater part as their residence. These were a few of the pictures that I took on the tour. This first is the entry hall.

That one over the fireplace is a Rubens.

He wasn’t the brightest of our seconds in command. I lost a few newspapers over that one.

From March 2014

On the way walking to St, Patrick’s Cathedral we passed the Christ Church Cathedral. It’s big. I had to take pictures of the two different parts. This is the right half.

This is the left half.

Then I found out where Effie went to work after I closed down my comic.

This is St. Patricks.

Johnathan Swift is the Elvis of Dublin. He’s buried in the church.

Just south of Dublin is Dún Laoghaire. They changed the name to Kingstown after King George IV in 1821. They changed it back to Dún Laoghaire in 1920 when Ireland gained some independence while leading up to becoming a republic.

This is the Kilmainham Gaol. That’s where the British imprisoned the Irish freedom fighters at the beginning of the last century.

These were the nicer cells. Below is the wall where they shot the leaders of the rebellion.

On the plaque you’ll see the name of Joseph Plunkett who was shot when he was 28 years old. Grace, his bride of a few hours, never remarried. She remained active in the struggle. Here is a song written about the tragedy. It’s worth listening to.  She was active in the resistance. Here is her cell. She painted the picture.

Trinity University is old. It was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I, and it was alma mater to just about every famous Irish person you can think of. But the best part about it is that it’s just a couple blocks away from the Temple Bar neighborhood an all the pubs. And the students make good use of the neighborhood.  Just outside the main entrance is a statue of Molly Malone…

As you notice, a couple parts of her anatomy have been pretty well polished.

So here are some shots of the University:

The great hall is the ancient library. It’s almost as long as a football field. Most of thebooks are off the shelves and are being cleaned.

This is the symbol of Ireland. It’s called the Brian Boru Harp, but it’s really a couple hundred years newer. King Brian Boru was killed in 1014 at the Battle of Clontarf.

We also saw the Book of Kells, but photos were not allowed.

Frau G and I sailed from NYC to South Hampton on the Queen Mary II. We had sailed on it once before, but from South Hampton to NYC. It’s an old. classy ship. Not at all like the floating Disney Lands they have today. It’s a good way to go to Europe – no jet lag. We were a week at sea and then we took a train to Holyhead, stayed over night, then caught the ferry to Dublin.

We stayed in the Temple Bar neighborhood, right near the Ha’ Penny Bridge. It’s called the Ha’ Penny Bridge because when they built it in 1816 it cost a ha’ penny to cross it.

Here’s the bridge at night:

 That’s the old part of Dublin where just about every fourth door is a pub. The first afternoon and evening we sat at the Ha’ Penny Bridge Inn, and I tried just about every beer they had on tap. Count ’em.

Then the Irish band showed up. They were from Sarasota, 15 miles from where I live. Here they are singing Folsom Prison Blues..

Bar tab was 99 euros. The nine days we were there we hit a lot of pubs.

This next one was the best…

It was late, and we stopped in for a last beer. The MC came up from the downstairs and said there was a free comedy show. So we went downstairs. It was packed, mainly with Temple University students. (I’ll post pics of Temple tomorrow)  We were the only old people there and Americans ta’ boot. There were six stand-up comics. The first was the MC. He mentioned something about wanking, and Frau G says “What does that mean?” That brought the house down. It didn’t stop. She was the hit of the show all night long.

More tomorrow.

Go back to December 1990. President Bush is facing another global crisis!

I’M BAAAACK! Back from Dublin. Dublin and the Irish are just plain terrific. We sailed over to South Hampton on the Queen Mary II. This is the second time on the Mary, and it’s by far my favorite ship. So grown up. And, as you know, I’m a classy guy, and I like grown up stuff. Dublin was wonderful. And the Irish are wonderful as well, and they sure know how to have a good time. I’ll post some photos and talk about it this week. Meantime, this is from August of 1997…