Ireland ~ Dublin (Day 2) 23Jul23

Our 2nd day in Ireland was all rain again; everyday's a raincoat. We started with a nice breakfast at the hotel, included, then set out on foot to our first adventure of the day @ the 14 Henrietta St museum. This is a famous Georgian era street for the elite, which then became law offices, then apartments, and then tenement slums. The building still stands, restored, 270 years later. The presentation was excellent ~ it arched along a timeline from 1740 to modern day and described many of the key historical events and periods in Ireland through the description of what happened in the house and with its residents... worth it.

We left the museum for our 2nd adventure ~ the Irish Rock & Roll Museum where we met our tour guide Scott, also a session drummer and member of the Emily 7 band. He was funny and informative regarding the many key Irish musicians in history including The Pogues, Thin Lizzy, Van Morrison, The Cranberries, Rory Galagher, The Corrs, of course U2, and others. Our tour covered 4 primary segments including the history & musicians of Irish R&R, an experience with drums & guitars (a 9yr old Spanish kid rocked), a recording studio, and a U2 focus. It was good and worth it. The recording studio and practice rooms were at Sun Studios, still active. While on tour I scored Dubliner inside info on the where to watch the hurling title game and where to see some good Gaelic music. Scott shared that both would be good at O'Donoghue's near Stephen's Green.

As we went to the pub I lead us down the famed Grafton Street - with plenty of shops, people and flower vendors. At O'Donoghues while I enjoyed a black & tan, some tunes, and the hurling game with locals, the rest of the team headed to Trinity College and the Epic Museum where they saw the cool famine sculptures and the ladies were captured and jailed for plenty of Irish blood.The hurling championship was very good with Limerick coming back in the 2nd half to win their 4th final in a row over Kilkeney 2-15 to 0-30, which really means 2x3+15=21 to 0x3+30=30... they never scored a 3 pt score but hammered through 1 pt shots from all over - like lax, a key is to clear your hands and bat from defense to take a righteous shot ~ Limerick missed very few and were young, big, and fast.