In Dublin's fair city

We took a hop on - hop off bus around some of the highlights of Dublin. It gives an overview of places to see at least. I saw my first 'celebrity' - David Rasche who played Sledge Hammer in a TV series back in the 80s. (And was in United 93 more recently.) Are you all overwhelmed with excitement?

We only hopped off at two historical places: Trinity College, originally an elite Protestant university but more recently just elite; and Kilmainham Gaol where various political prisoners from Irish history joined the general prisoners for a bit of reformation. Parnell and later all the leaders of the Easter Uprising were in here, and this is where all but de Valera were executed by firing squad. The gaol had been built as a model prison

where inmates would be reformed by isolation, observation, silence, and hard work. Sadly the prison was overcrowded from almost the beginning so all of these 'ideals' went by the wayside. Indeed, the Irish Famine had this and all other gaols so overcrowded prisoners slept in the halls as well as the cells, and there was no chance at all of keeping them silent.

All sorts of famous Irishmen went through Trinity, but I can't remember any of them. Probably James Joyce, Oscar Wilde and so on...

We awaited summer, much as I remember waiting for it 15 years ago...