I just spent a week in Dublin. It was our annual family vacation. Anne and Jackie flew in from Seattle. Andy wrapped up his 70 days in Europe here. And I took a break from researching. I had a hunch Dublin would be great for a week of family fun…and it was brilliant.
The city is safe, thriving, easy, and extremely accessible. Each night we enjoyed fun and affordable entertainment. Andy drank enough beer to tarnish its allure. Both kids connected with their Irish heritage. (In a week Andy will be back as school–Notre Dame…trying out for the “Irish Guard”–the big intimidating guys who precede the marching band at fighting Irish football events.) We were all pretty wide eyed at the thriving late night scene in Temple Bar. In Dublin the girls are wrapped up like party favors. The guys look like they’re on the way home from a hurling match.
And Ireland’s becoming a melting pot. It seemed everywhere we went young Polish people were serving us: bringing breakfast, cleaning our hotel rooms, taking our tickets. Ireland’s a land long famous for exporting its labor, but today the economy is booming and they’re experiencing a population boom–of immigrants. Of the 10% of Ireland’s population that is not Irish, most are Polish (Catholic, kept down by a bully neighbor…they can relate).
Poles are famously hard working here. My friend who runs a youth hostel employs a Pole who unnerves him by almost shouting “I can do dat” every time he’s given a task. It’s disorienting to hear rough Irish types (historically the under-class at home as well as abroad) talking about their Polish housecleaners like a great latest accessory. “I’ve got a wonderful new Pole…very low maintenance…don’t know how I managed without.”
Except for the beans at breakfast…forget “eating Irish” in Dublin. Going local here is going ethnic. I was at a multi-national food court and it was confusing: Chinese were cooking Mexican, Poles were running the Old Time American diner, a Spaniard was serving sushi, and Irish were running the Thai. Save your craving for pub grub for the small towns.
Yesterday, I was at Croke Park with 50,000 Irish football fans (like soccer but you can run with the ball as long as you bounce or kick it every three steps). Each fan paid €30 ($40) for a ticket. I get talking to my friend, telling him I went to the Abbey Theater the night before to see a play by Oscar Wilde. He asked me the cost. I said €30. He said to his wife, “imagine paying €30 to see a play?” I reminded him that, to a playgoer, spending €30 to see the game we were at would be just as strange.
Ireland’s charming rough edge is surviving its new affluence…but it’s becoming a little less rough. We spent €30 outside the stadium so everyone in my family would have a scarf or hat or flag with the correct colors (gold and green–we were rooting for Donegal). I remember twenty years ago–when the “colors” were cheap dye on crepe paper hats for a buck. I was in the humble stadium on this same spot (where Europe’s thunderous third biggest stadium stands today). The rain was causing my colors to run from my hat down my face–gold and green…still for Donegal even back then. I put the hat atop the umbrella next to me…not thinking it would run in eight small rivlets…coloring those around me. Luckily, they were Donegal fans too. Colors hold fast today. With affluence, the Irish no longer bleed on each other.
During that game twenty years ago I’ll never forget the creative cursing. My vocabulary grew like never before. The Irish–even in polite company–have always been loose with the “F word.” The Irish rock star Bono got in trouble on American TV for saying it, but the station avoided the FCC fine–apparently on a technicality: because, in common Irish usage, it’s considered an adjective rather than a verb.
On this current trip I’ve noticed the Irish don’t say the F-word so much. A decade ago it was f-in’ this and f-in’ that. And the air’s cleaner of smoke too. There’s no smoke indoors anywhere. Pubs come with fresh air and a few blokes smoking outside the front door.
Today, I had breakfast with Noel Dempsey, the Irish minister of communication–who, cabbies I interviewed in the last few days figure, is in line to be Ireland’s next prime minister.
(I made friends with Noel in Seattle when I was the Grand Marshal for St. Patrick’s Day and he was the visiting dignitary. Noel explained that each St. Patrick’s day the demand for Irish dignitaries empties their country of politicians as they fan out to St. Paddy’s Day festivals around the world. They post a listing of all the requests each winter and if you don’t choose one, you’ll get assigned a destination. He liked Seattle.)
Noel said Ireland is very pleased with the performance of their economy. In 1987 their per capita income was 65 percent of the European average. Today it’s 130 percent.
Love your news letter. As another lover of History and of Europe…it just makes one dream of the beautiful places. ALWAYS watch your show…wouldn’t miss it!
Ruth
Heinz baked beans are a part of every workingman’s breakfast in the UK and Ireland.
Beans, beans that magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot!
Love your TV show. My husband and I have watched it every week for over 6 years. We rarely miss one. Have just bought all the England/Britain books. Planning to follow “in your footsteps” next spring, hopefully. Love your method of travel. The only way for an artisit and writer (us) to see Europe! Thanks for all your tips!
Your Europe book is the best. And the newsletters are truly great. I always read them, which is sort of strange considering I usually throw out most of my mailing list emails. Looking forward to my next trip.
Rick how about you and your wife or son compete on CBS’s Amazing Race! I’d love to see you win a milions dollars!
Greetings from Vancouver Island.
We took your tour of Ireland last fall and I still remember it fondly. I tell everyone “I’d go back in a minute” and hopefully we will go back again someday. I’d love to rent a cottage somewhere on the west coast for a month. it was so beautiful.
Great to read your blog and wish we could have been there too. The fact that they’ve made public places smoke free is a real bonus for us non-smokers! You’re right about Dublin being so multi-cultural. It was a very comfortable city to stay in. Not like those sterile big cities with too many tall buildings. Getting around Ireland by public transport (train and bus) is great. I’d recommend it – a great way to meet local people too.
And those Irish breakfasts are something else, aren’t they? Hope we see your latest tour on TV this winter.
Rick, loved your description of how Ireland is becoming a melting pot. What you described here is even more exciting than your TV shows on Ireland. It sounds like a fun place to be and I’m ready to go! (My wife, who also posts here occasionally, has gone, but I have not yet.)
I was amused by the person’s reaction to spending 30E to see a play when he has no problem with pricy football tix. I know people who are astonished that accomplished classical musicians make $120,000 a year to play in a symphony orchestra, yet they don’t blink that their favorite sports here gets five million a year, even if he gets hurt in game two and warms the bench the rest of the season.
Our local PBS station, in an act of total idiocy, has taken your off OFF while they do their fundraiser! And the shows they have put on are terrible, lame, all reruns from long ago (the 90s and 80s in some cases). I don’t know what they were thinking, but I called to complain.
Oh wow, those Irish Guards are HUGE! Isn’t there a 6’2″ requirement or something? We (the Florida Gators) played Notre Dame at the Sugar Bowl once and with the up-close view on the sidelines from our marching band, those guys were COOL! And very intimidating. :o)
My husband and I are spending one night in Dublin on our way home from a trip to Europe in September (if we still take it…)and we’re looking foward to a quick visit. We’re planning on returning to Ireland with the 8-voice church choir we sing in on a tour next year.
I like hearing about your travles.I look eagerly to the new season of TV shows. My two weeks in Ireland were wonderful. I owe it all to you,giving me the courage to strike out on a sols trip.In spring 2007 I will be touring France with a return visit to Italy. Keep on traveling. Charlie
My wife and I were lucky enough to spend a week in Dublin in early August, but were even more amazed when you and your family joined us on the same walking tour of Dublin!
After watching and enjoying your shows for so many years on PBS, it was as if a character from a novel had suddenly come to life–as part of our vacation.
We enjoyed the tour and especially the city of Dublin. The energy in that city makes you want to spend every waking hour walking the bustling steets and alleyways of downtown.
We found wonderful ethnic restaurants and the Guinness tastes better than I could have ever imagined.
We are now looking forward to getting back there within the next year.
Slainte!
My family and I spent 2 weeks in Ireland in nov 2005. We wouldnt have had the courage to plan the trip on our own without the help of your book and website.I made all the b&b reservations myself along with the car rental. We had been on escorted trips through europe but this was great it was on our own terms.We also met a nice couple from our home state of Michigan ,they to had their RS guide book with them too. The people of ireland were wonderful, our teenagers couldnt get over how nice and helpful everyone was.>Stephanie
Ive always loved the Irish use of the English language; thousands of words in their working vocabulary. Now I see where, in part, Rich Steves got his excellent use of words from – his heritage. Brooke
Beans are now common at breakfast in English B&B’s. So are hash browns in little triangles. The fried bread and tomato appear to be vanishing. (I was never a particular fan of the tomato, but I loved fried bread.)