Homeland Adventures Part 1

I have just returned from my uber-exciting trip to Dublin and I have so many cool things to talk about! I will recount my adventures over a couple of posts for the sake of economy. I saw lots of tourist attractions and spent a rather ridiculous amount of money... But at the same time I economised on lots of others. One thing I did work out was that as a general rule, Ireland is about 20% cheaper than Denmark in NZ currency terms. By this I mean that 10 euros is NZ$20 while DKK100 is NZ$25, if this makes sense to anyone.

The main activities that I undertook were tours of the Guinness Brewery, the Jameson Distillery, and Kilmainham Gaol; a Church service; The Book of Kells; and a ride on what was essentially a very modern ferris wheel. In addition, there were lots of small side trips to the two main shopping streets, the bar district and the inner city park.

As a warning, this first post will probably be fact heavy and far too long, so pour yourself a wine, beer or other highly potent alcoholic beverage and steel yo'self.

Random thing #1: Dublin Spire

You may remember that I referred to a random spire, tower thing in the centre of Dublin in my last post. Well, I found out that it is called the Dublin Spire, has been nicknamed the "Stiletto in the Ghetto" (brilliant if I may say so myself) and was built for the city's millenium celebrations. Honestly, it seems about as useful as the tupperwaka (Thank the Stuff comment thread for that one) that the Government wants to build in NZ.

Activity #1: Kilmainham Gaol

West Wing passageway

This gaol was originally built in the 1700s and has been home to a number of famous Irish political prisoners. There were effectively two halves to the prison, the West wing which was the older, original part and the East wing which was built in the early 1800s. The West wing was dark, dingy and not unlike a rabbit warren whereas the East Wing was built in a newer architectural style called "Panopticon". This latter style is still the main format for most prisons today.

Panopticon means all-seeing eye, and referred to the style of prison where you have a ring of cells looking down onto an open space. A warden can at any time cast his eye around the cells and see everything that is going on. The idea behind this approach was that the best way to reform a prisoner was to take away his privacy.

It had also been worked out that light is good for you. Prisoners in the old cells, which were very dark, tended to go insane after a short period of time and also became afflicted with a variety of physical ills as well.

Panopticon Architecture

Place where prisoners were shot

The tour was very good value. I learned quite a lot about the nearly 1000 year struggle against British rule which could hardly be described as benevolent, and the numerous attempts at uprisings. I also learned about the rather unfortunate history of the prison. At one stage it was essentially a brothel, and the Chief Warden was effectively the pimp. For a long period there was no segregation of genders, everyone was just thrown in together and the inevitable result could be described as horrifying. During the great famine, many Irish committed petty crimes just to go to Gaol, because that way they could actually get something to eat. During this time the Gaol was totally overcrowded as you would have four to five people in a cell designed for one or two.

On the topic of the Great Famine, I learned something rather interesting. Apparently, famine affected many parts of Europe, particularly Belgium. But, whereas the Belgian government spent huge quantities of money importing food for their citizens, Britain refused to do the same for Ireland. It is for this reason that the famine was as bad as it was.

As for the political prisoners, I can't remember too many specific details, other than the fact that quite a few were executed, often publicly. We saw a yard where half a dozen people were executed by firing squad, and on the way into the gaol you could see above the main entrance the place where ropes were hung for public hangings.

Where public hangings took place

Activity #2: Jameson Distillery

The mashing stage of Whiskey production

This particular tour was rather disappointing. It wasn't that long and didn't really go into that much detail.  I learned about the basic whiskey making procedure, a small amount about the history of the brand, and received a "complimentary" whiskey (i.e. included in the ticket price). I found out that the main differences between American, Scotch and Jameson whiskeys is how many times they have been distilled. American is usually distilled only once, which gives it that characteristic bitterness. Scotch is distilled twice and the barley is malted over a peat fire giving Scotch more smoothness and a smoky flavour. Jameson is distilled three times making it very smooth and lending a sweetness to the whiskey also. Canadian Club is made from a mix of barley and rye which gives it that very sweet, almost caramel flavour.

Copper Pot Stills

One thing that was interesting was that Jameson still uses the "pot still" method of distilling, whereas most modern whiskey makers use "column distillation". "Pot stills" yield a lower alcohol volume per distillation so more distillations are needed to get the alcohol percentage up, and pot stills can only carry out batch distillations (i.e. one at a time). By this I mean they distill the raw product, draw off the condensate then put the condensate into another pot still and distill it again until the required alcohol content is reached. In contrast, the "column still" can yield up to 96% alcohol by volume and works continuously by having the raw product fed into the bottom of the column, the condensate goes through a series of stages in the column and the final product of distillation is drawn off the top.

As a result, all Jameson is single malt whiskey, whereas other brands like Johnny Walker can have a mix of up to 40 different malts in each bottle.

Activity #3: The Ferris Wheel thingy

Again, not that impressive. It was so far to walk to it, as it was down in the docklands and it didn't give that great a view of Dublin than if it had been in the city centre. But for the sake of posterity, I will pop in a photo of Dublin from the air with a lovely view up the River Liffey.

In the foreground is a development that has stalled due to the dire economic crisis in Dublin. To the left is where Dublin's financial district is.

On that note I shall conclude the first part in my miniseries. Look for the next one in the next day or two!