the next day in ireland was grey and a bit damp.
i took the bus out of dublin once more, this time headed south for dún laoghaire, pronounced ‘done LEER-y.’
(an aside: irish is a really interesting language. compared to greek, the language which i last encountered, it is an absolute enigma, and that is saying something; greek uses a different alphabet and still managed to be easier to read. ask me to pronounce ‘cógaisíocht’ and i’d be walking out of the φαρμακείο with something potent indeed.)
dún laoghaire, while less charming than howth, was still a lovely little town, with a prominent, quite industrial harbour at its centre. very unexpectedly for the irish sea and the month of october, just south of the harbour is a bustling swimming spot. all of those people pictured here leapt into the sea shortly before or after this photo was taken.
nope.
nope nope nope nope.
around the corner was another, more famous bathing spot, called the forty foot for reasons unbeknownst to me (i think it’s forty feet deep? tide was high and i could not tell).
james joyce (who we’ll hear more on in just a moment) famously began his novel ulysses with reference to forty foot as “the sea, the snotgreen sea, the scrotumtightening sea,” and i don’t think even he had taken a dip in mid-october. forty foot was also a location of some significance in one of my favourite depressing queer novels, at swim, two boys by jamie o’neill–due to joyce’s impact, it is by far the most famous literary swimming hole in the world. supposedy, the frigid water is meant to have some health benefit, but i was not compelled to strip off and see for myself.
just up the hill from the forty foot is an old stone tower in which joyce once (briefly and tumultuously) stayed, and where he began writing ulysses. it has since been turned into a james joyce museum, albeit a small and slightly niche one.
i made my way back into town and stopped for a cream tea before hopping back on the bus to dublin, my right ankle troubling me even more than it had the evening before.
the next day was my last in ireland, and despite google’s sage advice to rest my feet, i spent the morning limping around the nearby phoenix park, which was quite lovely–and enormous, especially for an urban green space.
there are a number of deer who inhabit in the park. despite many, many signs encouraging against it, they are often fed carrots by tourists and as such are quite friendly and sociable. i met this lovely stag basking in the sunlight and being fed puffed corn cakes:
i hobbled about in the greenery for a few hours before heading to the irish museum of decorative arts, which had an impressive collection and also more ample seating opportunities than the park had on offer.
i will not bore you with the details, but let me just say: i have never seen more glassware in my life, and there is only so much glassware one can stand to look at for an afternoon. i left that particular hall pretty quickly, but there was more than enough to keep me occupied for a while.
by the time i was through there, it was due time to wrap up my things back at the airbnb, have a quick takeaway dinner, and get to bed.
just like that, i left the next morning for london with a tempered impression of ireland. my six nights in dublin managed to feel rushed and dragged out simultaneously. it is very possible that i missed all the good and interesting bits by being a person who does not drink, but at least now i know! maybe time will settle my thoughts on the place, but at the time i could only think of the excitement to come.
a busy weekend was on the horizon.
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