Breaking Some Records

First note of business: Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

It is now 6:44pm, I've had a full day, have one and half homework assignments complete and one and a half left to go. So I decided to take a break and update my blog. Honestly, I wasn't initially planning on posting today, but for a reason you'll read later I decided to do so.

Today started with the 1916 Rebellion Tour, which is a walking tour that details places of importance during the 1916 Rebellion. We walked through Dublin, stopping before statues of famous/influential people and sites important to the Rebellion. To the right you'll see a statue of O'Connell, which is high on a pedestal with other statues beneath him. If you look closely, you should be able to see bullet holes in his hand and cape. (Unless the picture ends up too small. In which case take my word for it, he has many bullet holes.)

Here you can see where Nelson's Pillar (a great, hulking monument to British power over/in Ireland) used to be. It was blown up in 1966 and replaced with the Spire of Dublin in 2003 (though apparently the actual name is Monument of Light). I want to share this with you, basically for the nicknames the statue has. Here we go:

The Binge Syringe

The Nail in the Pale

The Stiletto in the Ghetto

The Rod to God

The Erection in the Intersection

and

The Stiffy at the Liffey

Ha ha.

We then went to the Dublin Castle where the tour guide pointed out some very intersting things about the statue of justice. I forget the name of the man that made the statue, but he made it as a statement of the justice the Irish could expect from England. Instead of having a blindfold (like our statue of Justice) she does not, so any justice served would not be blind to race, religion, etc. She is also holding the scales away from her with just her thumb and pointer finger, like one would do with a dirty diaper or something equally as unpleasant. Her sword is also drawn and pointing up, rather than being sheathed or pointing down, which suggests that violent is not a last resort. Finally she has "her face to the castle and arse to the city" which effectively says that Ireland can expect no justice.

Went to Ryan's Pub for lunch, a Victorian pub from about 140 years ago, with Bethany and Dina. It was kind of out of the way so no one else went with us, but so very worth it. It's an absolutely beautiful pub with great food. We sat in the small side room, that has a small window that opens and closes at the bar, where women were previously confined to sitting.

Mmmm. Lamb stew.

After this we hopped the bus to go back into the city center, and took a walk through the scenic Merrion Square. It's a decent sized park in the city, with a playground for children. We went here to look for the Oscar Wilde statue, which we found but I won't post a picture of since this is already a picture heavy post. His statue has two nicknames that I know of: The Fag on the Crack and the Queer with a Sneer. Oh, the nicknames!

Now for something completely random, even more random than my unintentional trip to Dun Laoghaire......

Wait...what? What's that I'm doing? Why, I'm dressed up like Waldo from Where's Waldo! Only, here it's Wally. "But why?" you ask? Because Dublin is attempting to break the world record for the most Wallys in one area during a designated time frame. If the record does get broken, then I get to know that I helped Dublin with breaking a Guinness Book of World Records record! (And now I have a halloween costume for next year if I need it.) The Wallys were all around Merrion Square and the surrounding street on each side, and the streets were basically a mini-carnival. Games, prizes, huge slides, food, rides, music and much more.