It’s our last whole day and evening fully on our own until, well, we get to Piraeus in 10 days – we are making the most of it by having a museum day – hitting all the spots we will not when we are on the tour. We start the day out walking (well, that’s how we start every day, so we guess we really didn’t need to tell you that) to the Kilmainham Gaol. It is a nice relatively flat walk through the city, passing the Guinness factory and the Modern Art Museum (where we will go next) along the way. Tickets booked in advance, we arrive at the proscribed time and join a group of about 20 others for the tour.

The Kilmainham Gaol is fascinating from the historical perspective of the Easter uprising political prisoners but also from the general populace prisoners. For more than 100 years the Gaol was in operation an housed thousands of men, women and children (some as young as 2 years old – I kid you not) for crimes like begging (that was the 2 year old, and it was of course during the great famine) to public drunkenness to trespassing or other minor offenses. Their laws back then were so draconian, it was just crazy.

We start off in the court room, then move into the jail proper to view the different cells and wings of the prison. There are all sorts of stories about the different prisoners and plaques on the walls for different “famous” inhabitants, plus carvings above the doors for some of the more long-term residents. Then we move out into the courtyard where the executions were held – particularly from the Easter uprising – where I plaque memorializing the 14 leaders killed against this wall. Then back inside to a little museum area with 3 floors of displays all about the Gaol and the uprising. Pretty good peek into the history of the city.

Taking our leave of the Gaol, we walk though the gardens, past the officer’s graveyards…

…and over to the Modern Art museum – which isn’t typically our thing, but it was a really great museum.  Some of the exhibits were amazing – a “grave” blanket, which had small white stones like those found in a graveyard sewn onto a child’s blanket, a collage/painting from the AIDs epidemic with homophobic magazine covers painted over in heavy acrylic; an entire miniature city built completely out of newsprint and cards advertising properties from the Irish Times newspaper. That was just mind blowing!

Plus, some great opportunities to play photographer and make this cool weird photo of the clock tower looking out through colored wrapped windows.

Next it was the Decorative Arts and History museum which was ginormous!!!! Housed in the Collins Barracks, the building alone is something to see, but the exhibits inside – well – they were all excellent but overwhelming!!! Some of our favorites though included an exhibit with a whole bunch of dioramas an elementary school class made depicting what they did during the pandemic lockdowns, the reproductions of period rooms and furnishings, and the silver “garden” – a garden made of silver and wood blocks.

The walk back to the hotel takes us along the river and then past the Christchurch Cathedral, which we will visit on our tour tomorrow, so for today, we just take some photos from the beautiful exterior grounds

Making a pit stop at the hotel (which is right across the street from the cathedral) we manage to book last minute tickets to the Rock and Roll museum for later in the afternoon! Yay! This was definitely on our list, but we didn’t know if we’d have time for it.  

And it is totally worth it! We arrive early, of course, and snag a beer and wine in the bar – the Crowbar – love the name! – then join our tour of about 10 people. This is a truly fascinating walk through the annals of the Temple Lane Recording Studios – which btw is a working studio still owned by the original founders (when we are on the tour there is actually a recording going on in one studio, and a party in another). There are gold records on the walls for acts from Rory Gallagher (a hugely popular local artist) to U2 to Thin Lizzy (because who knew Thin Lizzy was Irish? Yeah, not me). Michael Jackson’s pajama top (some funny story about his recording session here and the owner asking for his top or something like that – it was a typically Michael Jackson thing to do, and funnier at the time.) There is an entire room dedicated to U2 and stories abound of the recordings the artists and everything in between.

The studio is actually 2 buildings, and once we are through this one, we head over to the other building around the corner for the more “museum-y” type experience. Here there are active recording studios as well, but upstairs in a room at the front of the building is a shrine to Thin Lizzy and Phil Lynott. The Lynott family donated all this to the studio museum to display to the world – and there was some controversy about trying to get it back, or something, the details escape me – but Phil’s mom said no, she wanted the equipment and everything to stay right here and be well protected and loved. At any rate, his guitars are here, his death notice, multiple photos, an old juke box that may or may not have been his (can’t remember) and and entire sound board that definitely wasn’t his, but was still used today for different recordings.

Totally worthwhile tour! And it ran over by about 20 or 30 minutes, because the guide was so full of fun and interesting information, none of us could stop listening or asking questions. Very fun. Out on the streets of Temple Bar, we pass the wall of Fame on the outside of the recording studio then do our best to avoid the partying crowds that are jamming up the streets. Hoo boy – yep – Temple Bar on any random night – but particularly on a Saturday night!

Dinner is on the way back to the hotel at a food market we had scoped out earlier. Perfectly suited to us – we can order from different stations and get exactly what we want – which is a burger for Ed and dumplings for me. Yum. And we snagged a great table by the bar, so we had beverages and food out of the way of the general hub bub – and all was right with the world.

A night cap at the hotel (plus our bucket of ice for the room and our room beer) and we are in for the evening. One last day on our own – then tomorrow night – the tour begins with our welcome dinner.