Cockles and Mussels

"Dublin Day" was pretty much the biggest day of the whole 35-day cruise. For starters, the ship stayed in Dublin way into the evening, didn’t leave until 11PM, the only such late departure. Local Irish entertainers boarded the ship and put on two shows, at 7:45PM and 9:45PM. The showroom was absolutely packed for both shows, first time that’s happened since the long cruise started.

Word was out that the show was absolutely marvelous, and it WAS. The clogging “Riverdance” dancing style had a spike in popularity about a dozen years ago. I got a look at it in Radio City back then, but I appreciated it more tonight. The ship showroom is much smaller than Radio City, and the sounds and vibrations of these incredibly fast-moving feet…. were so much more….well, real and amazing. You feel their breathing, their straining, their energy and strength.

I only saw pieces of the two shows, during the few minutes of available break time. The chamber trio, the ballroom dance trio, and the piano bar guy did their normal hours, with sparse audiences in the early evening. In addition to passengers watching the Irish dancers, other passengers were still out on the town in Dublin, hitting the pubs. Still other people were already crashed out in their cabins from the day’s exertions.

Dorky tourist that I am, earlier in the day I posed for a photo with the statue of Molly Malone and her wheelbarrow in downtown Dublin today. An Irish cabdriver snickered at the idea of it, as I discussed it later in the back of the cab going back to the ship, with a fair amount of Irish ale in my bloodstream.

The statue was installed only 20 years ago, but any dorky tourist (me) with the “Molly Malone” tune in his head, will fancy himself standing in the same spot where the original Molly Malone strolled 100 years ago, or 150 years ago, or whatever it was. The cabdriver pooh-poohed this, saying “Molly Malone” just a nursery song for kids, with as much historical validity as “Yankee Doodle”.
Yankee Doodle did WHAT? Stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni? Yeah right, that makes sense. In any case, Molly Malone is as fictional a name as Leroy Brown. But if there were a statue of ol’ Leroy in the South Side of Chicago…..I’d get a photo of myself with him too. I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of that tune since 1974.

Perhaps my favorite Irish souvenir is a 2’ x 3’ map of Dublin, blown up to show all the actual buildings, and with ALL pubs indicated. With cool pub names like Darky Kelly, Confession Box, Deaf Judge, Foggy Dew, Stags Head, Bleeding Horse, etc etc, the map was pretty entertaining. I only drank at 3 pubs, but I stuck my head in the doorway of another dozen as I wandered around, slightly buzzed. The map listed about 200 different drinking establishments in downtown Dublin.

The town was absolutely TEEMING with people on this particular day. (because it’s summer?) Not so much in the pubs, but out on the streets, in the daytime shopping area. Throngs, a la Manhattan. A huge amount of kids. I heard later on that 50% of Dublin’s population is under 30. And they were very Irish-looking.

I was very much in need of a nap when I got back from my little pub crawl, but my early start time tonight (5:30) only allowed a few minutes of snooze. Then -- as mentioned above -- it was pretty slow for a awhile. Once the Irish shows were over and the ship pulled out of Dublin, there was enough late night folks to make the last hour (11 to midnight) a lot of fun. The day’s events seem to call for an impromptu “St Patrick’s Day in July”, so we jumped in with both feet, doing Danny Boy, McNamara’s Band, When Irish Eyes Are Smiling , and of course Molly Malone.

Molly and Me

business is booming

obligatory pub hopping

footbridge over the River Liffey, right in the center of downtown Dublin