We get up and check the weather on the iPad. It’s going to be cloudy for the next three days, so we decide to go back in to Dublin. When we arrive we discover that we are just in time for the Football match of Navy VS Notre Dame. Most of the people here are rooting for Notre Dame because the school is Catholic and their motto is “The Fighting Irish.”
We go to return to Gallagher Boxy House and get some of their magnetic Irish pancakes wrapped around a juicy, rare steak with a rich, creamy, white gravy. It is amazing.
After lunch we decide to go to Kilmainham Jail. We thought about taking a cab but it cost 15€. Instead we buy a two day “hop on hop off” bus pass for 18€. Then we take the bus to the Kilmainham Jail.
This jail was opened by the English in 1796. The English imprisoned lots of Irish at the jail during here the wars of independence.
There was even a guy who got married at the prison an hour before his execution. There is a story of another guy who was being taken to the jail to be shot, but he was so sick they had to deliver him in an ambulance. Then a doctor was directed to keep him alive long enough so they could kill him by firing squad. When he arrives at the jail he is lifted from the car and carried to the firing squad. But he is so sick he can’t standup without collapsing to the floor. So guess what? The jailers run inside and bring out a chair for him to sit on so they can shoot him. Then the guy starts to fall of the chair, so the jailers use the rope to tie the sick man to the chair. Finally, they put a small blindfold over his eyes and a small piece of paper with a red target on him and fired at the man.
The cells they put the prisoners are pretty grim. These small white rooms were shared by four to five people.
The room had a bucket on the floor and a small hole for the guards to watch you. During the Irish Famine it was illegal to beg. If you were caught begging you would be thrown in prison. People would purposely do stuff to get inside the prison because at least there you would get a small thing of grub, just a enough to keep you alive.
After the tour of the jail we got back on the “hop on bus” and rode around town. We did stop long enough to make reservations at Trocadero. We strolled around town and made a second stop at the Disney store to get Max a leprechaun Minnie Mouse.
Strolling back to the Trocadero we got our appetites up. We ordered some fried Brie cheese covered with a hot crunchy bread crumbs for an appetizer. For the main course we order two mac and cheeses, 1 steak and mashed potatoes, and a big juicy plate of lamb chops on top of creamy mashed potatoes. Delicious. While eating we found out that Notre Dame pounded Navy – 50 to 10. Will Navy ever succeed? 🙂
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