Tomorrow morning at about 6.15 the four of us will pile back into the Galaxy for a final fling on Irish roads up to the airport, leaving Mum to get a few extra hours sleep and a day of family history research in the Dublin library. We have a 9.20 flight to Abu Dhabi to get, and given the Oslo airport fiasco, will be taking few chances. Mum has a late afternoon flight to London and on to Perth.
I'm at a bit of a loss to summarise Ireland. It has been, I think I can fairly say, been a bit anticlimactic. After the highs of Legoland, France and Norway, we were looking for some Irish romanticism to quench our European thirst, but somehow we just didn't find it. Cashel, our first night destination was probably the best. The hotel, the town, the castle, the ruins, the restaurant bar, were all what we were hoping for.
From that point on though, pretty much nothing was. The house we rented in Cordal oozed with character, but was also undeniably just plain old in some respects. For me the character made up to some extent for the uninspiring setting, but for Justine it kind of accentuated it. The pub in Cordal, the only walking-distance attraction was soulless, and we only went there once. Castleisland, the nearest town, was functional, not bucolic. The countryside was flat, not rolling. Even the drives were only spectacular in isolated locations.
I was hoping the Dublin stay would fix everything, but if anything, it just made it worse. If you had the time and inclination to bar-hop, then you could certainly have a great time. But there's wasn't much else that we saw on a two-day swing through. The town is pretty drab for the most part, colourless, graffiti ridden and run down. I don't know if that is just the current economic climate, but I don't think you can run down a city in that sort of timeframe. When the sun came out, and we were in the right part of town, it was a lot more attractive - but then it was like an Irish Theme Park full of tourists. I wonder if I even saw a Dubliner in those parts of town, other than a busker / hawker / beggar. We had good meals - Aidan and I had a great lunch at the Porterhouse brew pub - but the whole experience has left me nonplussed. It makes the football stand out even more, as something that was real and a part of Irish life.
I have spent most of the week trying to avoid saying that the whole place is hugely over-rated, getting on a plane and flying out, never to return. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if I don't come back here, given how many other places there are to see in the world. However, there is a part of me that recognises that this is probably a bit unfair. Certainly we didn't quite hit the mark with the places we went / stayed and what we did, but there are too many good things said about the place for me to think that we have done a comprehensive survey. We did go to places that by all accounts should have been inspiring, and they were decidedly not for the main part. Ruins aside, I can't say I was inspired at all, except maybe for the 2km stretch highlighted in the photo on the 'into the blue' post. Lots of things have been ok, but no more than that. The overall impression has been disappointing.
Interestingly, all of the people we have dealt with here have been incredibly friendly and helpful, and they have possibly been the most positive part of the whole experience. However, I couldn't help notice how few smiling faces you see in the street. Again, maybe that is the local economic conditions at work, but it hasn't felt a jovial place when we have been out and about.
I have to think about it more before I make any final conclusions. At times today I have been photographing decrepit parts of the city to illustrate a highly negative summary; and at other times I have tried to find images to tell a more positive story. To be honest, the first one would be a lot easier to write and illustrate. Maybe if we were here longer we'd have found a deeper side to the place. As it was, I can't shake the feeling that it was a bunch of ruins waiting to happen, living off past glories and hoping no-one will notice.
Location:Dublin, with one eye on Abu Dhabi
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