We decided to spend Christmas in Ireland with family. My two brothers were coming to Ireland with their families from Australia, so it was going to be a big one. As always it was great to see family.
I had a great night out with some old school mates, some I had not seen in over 25 years, it was great to reminisce about the old school days and to hear how well everyone seem to be doing. A great bunch if girls.
My youngest sister also organised a pub crawl, something that she does each year at Christmas time, 12 pubs with a drink in each one, and a set of rules to go along with the drinks. It was a great evening out, I had forgotten how many pubs there are in Dublin city centre, and each one with a unique atmosphere.
The list of Pubs in Dublin City Centre:
Toners
Doheny & Nesbitt
Foleys Lounge
O’Donoghues Bar
37 Dawson Street (with Sam’s as a potential backup)
Café en Seine
Kehoe’s
The Duke
The Bailey
O’Neill’s Bar and Restaurant
The Mercantile Bar and Live Music Venue
4 Dame Lane (with The Czech Inn as a potential backup
A statue of Molly Malone (Tart wheeling the cart is the nick name) passed by her on our pub crawl.
The pub crawl group.
Christ Church
Leo my Brother and Martin the husband. Looking good lads
Christmas day was wonderful, my parents did an amazing job of feeding over 30 people for dinner. A Christmas I will not forget. My Mum and Dad truly are amazing people, I don’t know how they do it. I don’t like having more than 8 people for dinner as it just gets too much for me, but mam and dad just seem to take it in their stride.
Mam and Dad with some of the Grandchildren
My Dad with his 4 Sons
Mam and Dad with the Australian Grandsons
My two nephews were keen to see as much of Ireland as they could, Each family member took them to a few different places. One of the days we went to Kilmainham Jail and the boys learned all about the 1916 rising and all about the political prisoners that were held there. They enjoyed going to Trinity College and they thought it was great to walk into The Long Room Library at Trinity College and to see the book of Kells.
A bit of Trinity College history
Queen Elizabeth once said “I founded Trinity College in 1592 to enlighten and educate the Irish—or, as the English monarch herself put it rather more bluntly, to “reform…the barbarism of this rude people.”
Trinity, in the end, turned out to be more enlightened than its English counterparts at Cambridge and Oxford, being the first of the three to admit women (in 1903).
Kilmainham Jail
Trinity College
Another day M&I took them to Kilkenny one of my favourite counties in Ireland. The Kilkenny Castle is worth a visit, they had all the rooms decorated for the Christmas session, it was just beautiful.
Kilkenny Castle and grounds
It would not be the same coming to Ireland without visiting the Phoenix park, the largest enclosed park in any Europe city. It is 710 hectares and has several resident fallow deer.
Overall another great holiday and wonderful Christmas in Ireland.
Bringing in the Australia New Year with family in an Irish pub. Yahoo
