August 18, 2018
After an overnight flight from the Seychelles, we had a 7 hour layover at the de Gaulle Airport in Paris. Seven hours was long enough to justify clearing French immigration before proceeding onto Dublin (1). We took a train to the Gate du Nord and had a marvellous baguette (2) and chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) for breakfast.
We had a nice walk to Ile de la Cité, the historic heart of the city, where Notre Dame Cathedral (and thousands of tourists) is located. In the park behind the cathedral, we happened upon the Rock Choir (a group of women from the U.K.) who were singing rock and pop songs from the 1980s.
When we arrived at Dublin, the immigration officer asked where we were staying. When I replied "Temple Bar," she responded: "Temple Bar on a Saturday night? At least you can sleep on the plane back to the States tomorrow" (3).
We wandered over to the Abbey Theatre to see what was playing, and bought tickets for a play called "Jimmy's Hall." The play centers on Jimmy Gralton, who helped build a community education and dance hall in Ireland in the 1920s before emigrating to the U.S. He returned to Ireland during the depression in the early 1930s (with his "yankee passport") and worked to revive the hall and its mission (4). He was met with resistance from local landowners and the parish priest for his radical ideas. He was eventually deported by the Irish government, reportedly the first and only time someone born in Ireland was deported from the Irish State. I knew little about the 1930s in the Ireland as the country was forming an identity outside the U.K. (especially regarding the different visions of the role the Catholic church would play in the Irish State), but the play provided the necessary context.
The play combined straight acting, period music (In English and Irish), dancing, recitations from relevant statutes and rulings, historical recorded voices, and a short film of Irish government officials meeting with sitting cardinals. Despite having had no sleep for a day and a half (5), I was on the edge of my seat. The National Theatre Company were first rate. For example, the actor playing the local priest (a bad guy) played the role with subtlety and came across as someone genuinely concerned with protecting the youth of the village.
It turned out to be one of the best theatre experiences I have had in some time. The play provided much food for thought, and I plan to follow up with some reading on the relevant period of Irish history. At the end of the performance the crowd rose for a genuine and heart-felt standing ovation (6).
The following morning, we went in search of tea and scones. We fell into conversation with an Irishman near us. He was in Dublin for what he called "The Irish Superbowl," pitting Galway (his team, represented by maroon colors which we saw all over Dublin) against Limerick (in Kelly Green, also seen all over Dublin) in a hurling match. He described hurling as like "hockey without the ice." He went on to reminisce about his years living in Boston, his marriage to an Italian woman, his Italian wife's parent's family history, his grandmother who lived to 107 years old, and how tickets to hurling matches got harder to buy (and more expensive) when women started attending the matches.
(1) While both France and Ireland are both in the E.U., they have separate immigration processes. France is in the Schengen zone of common European border controls, while Ireland is not, linking itself to UK immigration to facilitate travel between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (which is part of the UK (a)).
(a) The Ireland/Northern Ireland border is one of the stickiest points in the current Brexit negotiations. If a hard border is re-established between Ireland (an E.U. member) and Northern Ireland (a non-E.U. member after Brexit), this could jeopardize the Good Friday Accord of 1998, which ended "the troubles" (i) in Northern Ireland. Another complication of these negotiations is that the current UK government depends on the support of a Unionist Northern Ireland party to maintain its majority in the UK Parliament.
(i) "The troubles" is the name given to the tension and violence between the I.R.A. (wanting Northern Ireland to be part of the Irish Republic, and associated with the Catholic population) and the Unionist faction (who wish for Northern Ireland to remain part if the U.K., and associated with the Protestant population). The troubles were particularly violent from the early 1970s until 1998.
(2) Somehow only the French can make a really good baguette, although there are bakeries in Hanoi, Vietnam (a former French colony) that come very close to the Parisian standard.
(3) Temple Bar is not actually a bar, but a neighborhood in Dublin. The name is derived from an old embankment (barr) protecting the neighborhood from flooding of the Liffey when the tide came in. The neighborhood is now known for the large number of bars (in the modern sense) where people gather for a libation or two. The neighborhood is reminiscent of Bourbon St. In New Orleans, complete with roving stag (i.e., bachelor) parties and henny (i.e. bacherorette) parties.
(4) The timeline is similar to my own paternal grandparents' journey. They also emigrated from Ireland in the 1920s and returned to Ireland (with their "yankee passports") in the 1930s. In the gent's loo (men's room) during the interval (intermission), I overheard an older gentleman telling his grandson about their family history during the 1930s.
(5) I cannot seem to sleep on planes.
(6) In some places (such as on Broadway) standing ovations have become perfunctory, with some shows (e.g., Mamma Mia) even requesting that the audience stand for the last musical number which, of course, pre-positions the audience for the standing ovation.
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