Gallagher

We bought bookmarks that include the Gallagher family crest and these words:

"Gallagher--This is the Anglicised form of the Gaelic Ó Gallchobhair meaning 'descendant of Gallchobhar.' This personal name is formed from the elements 'gall' meaning 'strange or foreign' and 'cahbhair' for 'help or support'. It signifies descent from Gallagher, who himself was descended from the King of Ireland, who reigned 624-654. The motto for Gallagher is 'Fidelity is my Glory'."

If you search for the name online, you will see histories of the name/family/tribe. There are some variations (for examples, see here and here), but they tend to agree that the first sign of the name was in County Donegal (the far northwest of the island), that the Gallaghers are descended from kings, and their motto means "Fidelity is my Glory" or "My Faith is my Glory."

Obviously, at least one branch of the family relocated to Swinford in County Mayo. According to Wikipedia there was an infamous Gallagher in the area: "Captain Gallagher (died 1818) was an Irish highwayman who, as one of the later Irish Rapparees (guerrillas), led a bandit group in the hills of the Irish countryside, armed with the Blunderbuss of the day, during the late 18th and early 19th century....Born in Bonniconlon, County Mayo he lived with his aunt in Derryronane, Swinford for much of his early life and was raised near the woods of Barnalyra (roughly the location of modern-day Ireland West Airport Knock). As he reached early adulthood, he and a group of others began raiding mail coaches as well as wealthy landowners and travellers throughout eastern Mayo and parts of southern County Sligo and western County Roscommon...Gallagher and his men raided the home of an extremely unpopular landlord in Killasser and forced him to eat half a dozen eviction notices he had recently drawn up for nearly half a dozen tenant farmers before escaping with silver and other valuables."

We saw Gallagher signs pretty much everywhere we went. Which makes sense, as it is one of the top 20 surnames in Ireland. We took photos of a few of them.

Here is a repeat of the photo of Matt standing in front of Gallagher's Boxty Totally Irish (a restaurant) in Dublin:

This real estate sign for Boyce Gallagher was in Newton, Cunningham, County Donegal:

Barry Gallagher was running for a seat on the Sligo County Council as an Independent for the election held on 24 May 2019. Despite (or because of?) the fact that he had stenciled his campaign "signs" on the sidewalks and sides of buildings throughout the Tobercurry area, he was not successful.

And, of course, we saw many Gallagher headstones, especially in Kilconduff Cemetery in Swinford. We didn't usually photograph them unless we thought they might be directly related to Matt, but this one for Joe Gallagher made its way into a wider shot of the cemetery:

Famine

Ireland has a long and storied history of invasion, oppression, emigration, immigration, and civil unrest. But the Great Famine of 1845 - 1849, in which approximately one million people died of starvation or associated diseases, and another one million emigrated (and thus Ireland lost 20-25% of its population of 8.5 million; in 2019, the population of Ireland and Northern Ireland is approximately 6.75 million), is arguably the most heart-breaking and infuriating event that the island has had to endure.

We learned that in Black '47 (the year 1847), 4,000 ships carrying food products grown in Ireland left Irish ports for other lands, while over 400,000 people died.

It seems that many of Matt's emigrant ancestors left Ireland during this period--and it became clear that it was commonplace for "new" Catholic Churches to be built in these same years. In other words, the Church was more interested in erecting new buildings than in spending the money to help feed their communities.

An infamous story is of Strokestown's Missing 1,490. These are the 1,490 tenants of the Strokestown Estate in County Roscommon that were forced to emigrate in 1847 by walking (escorted by a bailiff) from the estate to Dublin, a journey of nearly 104 miles. If they survived the journey, they were usually placed on coffin ships--often bound for Canada or the U.S. 30% of those who set sail on coffin ships didn't survive the journey. But miraculously, no lives were lost on the Jeanie Johnston. According to Wikipedia, "Between 1848 and 1855, the Jeanie Johnston made 16 voyages to North America, sailing to Quebec, Baltimore, and New York. On average, the length of the transatlantic journey was 47 days. The most passengers she ever carried was 254, from Tralee to Quebec on 17 April 1852. To put this number in perspective, the replica ship is only licensed to carry 40 people including crew."

Here is the replica of the Jeanie Johnston in the River Liffey, which can be toured (we didn't get a chance to do so):

We did visit the Famine Memorial sculpture, commemorating the famine victims in general and the Strokestown's Mission 1,490 in particular. This sculpture was created by Rowan Gillespie and unveiled in 1997:

A closeup of one of the figures:

A man carrying a child:

A starving dog follows the group, hoping for handouts that never come:

This plaque reads, "'Famine' by Rowan Gillespie, Unveiled by Her Excellency President Robinson, Commissioned and Donated to the People of Ireland, by Norma Smurfit, 29th May 1997, ‘A procession fraught with most striking and most melancholy interest, wending its painful and mournful way along the whole line of the river, to where the beautiful pile of the Custom house is distinguishable in the far distance…,’ Irish Quarterly Review, 1854”:

You can recreate the journey of the Strokestown's Missing 1,490. This photo is of an informational panel near the Famine Memorial that descibes the "National Famineway"; for more details, go to http://nationalfamineway.ie/.

The River Liffey

The River Liffey defines, divides, and unites Dublin. Its source is in the Wicklow Mountains and it flows for nearly 80 miles into the Irish Sea. It is used as a traffic and commercial corridor, electrical generation, recreational activities, and it supplies Dublin's drinking water and water for industrial uses (e.g., Intel takes about 2% of the water for cooling). Although it is fairly wide, long ago it was six times wider, so crossing it was a challenge. Nowadays, 24 bridges cross the River Liffey, and those that are in Dublin have their own website: http://www.bridgesofdublin.ie/

Historically, the northern side of the river has been the poorer, dirtier side, while the southern side has been wealthier and more educated. This has been changing in recent years, with both sides' real estate becoming quite pricey, and educational and employment opportunities becoming better distributed. A joke we heard several times goes like this:

"What do you call someone from the north side?"

"The accused."

"What do you call someone from the south side?"

"Your Honor."

On our last night in Ireland, we took a Dublin Discovered boat tour of the River Liffey. The tour takes 45 minutes, but the distance can vary--if the tide is in, the boat can't fit under as many bridges. Here is our boat, the Spirit of Docklands, with the Ha'Penny Bridge in the background:

A pedestrian bridge, the Ha'Penny Bridge was built in 1816 as the Duke of Wellington Bridge. Now it is officially the Liffey Bridge, but everyone calls it the Ha'Penny Bridge. The Merchant's Arch is on the south side of the bridge:

This grated opening in the quay wall is where the River Poddle, which now an underground river, flows into the River Liffey. This tributary has a fascinating story that you can read if you click here (the 7:34 video included in the article is also fun).

We took a photo of Columbia Mills because we have some (unrelated) Columbia Mills buildings near us in Portland:

The Samuel Beckett Bridge, in the shape of Ireland's harp, opened in 2009:

Lots of construction going on in Dublin:

The Convention Centre Dublin opened in 2010. The architect was Eamonn Kevin Roche, an Irish-born American. The story is that he meant the building's design as a gift to Ireland, but he died (in March 2019) angry at the people of Dublin because their nickname for the building is "The Dyson Vacuum":

You can still find some old buildings among the new. We believe this was an Irish Rails Hotel that is being renovated for new use, but haven't been able to find a reference to it:

Getting artistic with the Samuel Beckett Bridge:

Google Dublin

We left the 1700s of the Old Library (and the 800s of the Book of Kells) and walked to the Silicon Docks, aka the Docklands.

We passed what was Boland's Mill (located on the Grand Canal). According to Wikipedia, "There are two six-storey stone warehouse buildings dating from the 1830s, and others on Barrow Street dating from the 1870s." Several of the old buildings are being renovated (that's a Google building in the background):

The old buildings are being renovated as part of a project called "Bolands Quay" (no apostrophe) and was purchased by Google in 2018 for €300 million. The project also includes these new buildings, still under construction. They will be the workplace of something like 3,000 Google employees:

Google already has seven or eight buildings in the area and about 8,000 existing employees (this is their EU headquarters)--representing something like 60 countries. Facebook, LinkedIn, Airbnb, and other big tech companies also have presences in the Silicon Docks. Of course, all this construction has raised fears of "San Francisco-fication" and Dublin's housing prices are reflecting the changes to the area.

We went to Google's Gordon House, which is its reception building:

A closeup:

The waiting area in the lobby:

The roof has panoramic views of Dublin, from the Wicklow Mountains to Dublin Bay. Here is an angle that shows what was the Gasometer building (and is now The Alliance, an upscale apartment building), with the Aviva Stadium in the background:

Here we are with Matt's colleagues, Wanja (pronounced "Vanya," from Germany) and Lilly (from Greece):

Book of Kells and the Long Room

On Wednesday, August 7, we went to Trinity College Dublin to see the Book of Kells and the Long Room library (aka, the Old Library at Trinity College).

Warning: We highly recommend the exhibit. However, the lines are long, so it is better to buy your tickets online in advance. The tickets are timed for every half hour, but it is still a mob scene inside.

Here is the 18th century Old Library building that houses the Book of Kells exhibit and the Long Room:

You are not allowed to photograph the pages from the Book of Kells itself, but you can take photos of the museum placards. Here's one about the illustrated alphabet:

Here's a peek at an illustrated page, borrowed from the Internet:

Photo from the Internet

Here is the Long Room of the Old Library at Trinity College, built in 1712:

Busts of white male literary greats line the gallery:

Circular staircase to reach the upper levels:

Wandering around Dublin

Just a few interesting things we saw wandering around Dublin.

"In honour of the seamen lost while serving on Irish merchant ships 1939 - 1945":

The Dublin Pearse railway station, first opened in 1834:

Pearse Street Garda station. According to Wikipedia, "An Garda Síochána, meaning 'the Guardian of the Peace'), more commonly referred to as the Gardaí, ('Guardians') or 'the Guards', is the police service of the Republic of Ireland":

We live near Lombard Street, so enjoyed seeing The Lombard, a bar, restaurant, and "townhouse":

Abbey Court Hostel:

We saw Apache Pizza shops throughout the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. We were bemused by the decision to name a pizza chain after a U.S. Native American tribe:

Back to Dublin - Hilton Garden Inn Dublin Custom House

After visiting Monasterevin, we returned our car to the Dublin Airport. Our chariot for this trip was a Toyota Corolla "Luna Sport" Hybrid. It drove well and got great mileage, but it was too small for us and we had a hard time crawling into it every day:

We took a taxi back to Dublin and checked into the Hilton Garden Inn Dublin Custom House, which is right next door to EPIC. They have a very good onsite restaurant called Oly's--we ate one dinner and both buffet breakfasts there.

The Custom House was just up the quay from us. According to Wikipedia, "[t]he Custom House...is a neoclassical 18th century building in Dublin, Ireland which houses the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government":

Our room resembled this one:

Photo from the Internet

The view over the River Liffey from our window (left):

Middle:

Right:

The lounge portion of the lobby:

Lucas, who checked us in: