August 12 - Dún Laoghaire and Erin go bragh!

Once again I’m having a catchup day.  Today we’re in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland, a port near Dublin. A couple of nights ago I learned how to  say the name of the place.  The Irish pronounce it “Dun Leary.”   I never would have guessed it. 

Since I last wrote we had a typical sea day with several lectures, food and of course trivia.  

Two nights ago I had dinner at a hosted table with some very interesting people.  There was a nice couple from Australia I’ve sailed with before, a widow from New York, and a British couple who currently live in Florida.  The British woman is a novelist who has written seven historical fiction novels.   We had a good conversation about how she got started doing that and I think I might have to try taking inspiration from her. Our host was the Chief Security Officer, a nice young man from Scotland who is getting off the ship for a break at home on Tuesday.  As an aside, I love listening to a Scotsman talk.  I like the brogue.

We’ve had a couple of shows after dinner each night.  One was a magic show which was good; I think I’ve seen a few that were a little better, but it was enjoyable.  After the magic show I went to the Club and the music selection was great and I did dance  a little.  The musicians seem to be very good which I always appreciate.  Last night was the welcome aboard dinner and first formal night.  I was at a  nice table, but truthfully I don't really like the food too much on those nights.  It all just seems too rich for my taste.  I went to the show which was the first by the onboard cast and it was okay.  I’ve seen it several times on other ships and perhaps I’m getting jaded.  Afterwards the time change really caught up with me and I went to bed – early for me.

This morning I awoke to a beautiful day and headed out on a tour.  Several of the tours went into Dublin and I thought about taking one of those but all of them had descriptions indicating there would be lots of walking and going up and down steps and that’s not my thing anymore.  Instead I opted to take one going to the Powerscourt Distillery and Estate.  The estate has a garden which is ranked in the top 10 in the world and I thought that sounded nice on such a beautiful day. 

We set off with our Polish driver Sylvester and Irish guide Neal.  The guide was fantastic because he told us a great deal about the history of not just Powerscourt, but also Ireland and the potato famine.  I found it fascinating.  Here are just a couple of tidbits of information I learned.  A census done before the famine which lasted from 1845 to 1852 found that the population of Ireland was about 8.5 million.  During the famine it’s estimated that more than 1 million died of starvation and another more than 1 million fled the country, immigrating to the US, Canada and Australia.  Potatoes had been introduced from South America and they were easy to grow and easily stored so by the 1840s it was estimated that the average Irishman ate 14 pounds of potatoes per day.  When the potato blight arrived it could kill an entire crop in a day.  Not only did it kill the planted crop but it also killed and made inedible stored potatoes.  Other countries in Europe also got the blight but their populations were not as dependent on them.  Neal told us that while there had been periodic uprisings against the English who had owned Ireland for centuries, it was the potato famine that caused the great troubles which led to the formation of the Republic of Ireland in 1922.  The Irish didn’t fault their absentee English landowners for the blight coming, but they absolutely faulted them for how it was handled.  Not much assistance was forthcoming to help feed the people.  Instead, the British decided to get rid of the people by sending many of them on ships to other countries like the US, Canada and Australia.  The ships carrying people to the US had a death rate on the voyage of 1 out of 10.  Those going to the other British colonies like Canada and Australia had a fatality rate of 3 out of 10 on the voyage.  The difference was that the US required  better conditions on ships arriving there (mainly Ellis Island) than the British possessions.  Mind you, I’m relying in Neal’s information; this isn’t an account that I’ve researched.  Anyway, it was clearly a dreadful time in Ireland.

Enough about the history I learned.   Powerscourt was an estate given by George IV to an English noble family.  The estate encompassed 40,000 acres.  A grand house was built and the family had tenant farmers who farmed the land and paid them rents.  It costs a lot of money to keep up one of these places and the owners sold the estate in the 20th century to the Slazenger family.  I knew that name because a long time ago I had a Slazenger tennis racket.  The family decided to completely renovate the manor house and spent a lot of money doing that.  The job was just about done when there was a big fire which destroyed much of it.  In order to rebuild the Slazengers decided to sell off some land for a golf course and for a small housing development.  The house is not open to the public but the beautiful gardens are. Additionally the family opened a whiskey distillery which we visited, and sampled, after the garden.

The gardens are beautiful and I couldn’t have had a nicer day.  Everything looked lush and green and it smelled wonderful as I walked around.  At one time there were 100 gardeners but now with more modern technology, and I’m sure some cutbacks, there are around a dozen.

Powerscourt

Here are a few garden photos.

Next we walked through the adjacent Fercullen distillery.  I’m not a whiskey lover but it was interesting to hear about and see how it’s made.  I found it interesting to learn that after whiskey is distilled it’s all aged in American oak barrels.  Some barrels were previously used to age bourbon or sherry and the difference in the barrel obviously can impact both the color and the taste of the whiskey.  After our tour we went to the tasting room where we tasted four whiskeys and accompanied those with some local patés and cheeses.  As I said, I’m not a whiskey lover so I think it was a little lost on me (the food was good!).  I did also find it interesting that our distillery guide in describing the whiskeys talked about notes of this or that fruit or spice, just as one would hear about notes of wine.

Just to prove I really was here.  I wore green today - it's Ireland after all!

After our little interlude we headed back to town and our tender to return to the ship.  It was a picture-perfect day.  Tonight we have four Irish tenors who will be performing after dinner.   I’m looking forward to that.  Tomorrow we’ll be on the other side of the Irish Sea in Scotland.  So for now, Sin é.  That means “that’s it” in Irish and the little bit of Irish Neal taught us.