Ireland — Day 1 in Dublin

This week begins a new travel photography series. It begins with a four-day stay in Dublin, Ireland. After that we flew to Amsterdam to catch a Royal Caribbean ship, Brilliance of the Seas, on which we headed to . . . Ireland. During this series I’ll be showing you many sights in both Ireland and Northern Ireland, after which we’ll go transatlantic to Ponta Delgada in the Azores. Reaching Tampa, I’m going to keep you captive for a back-to-back aboard Brilliance of the Seas for a look at the Mayan ruins of Chichén Itzá. So, stick with this series and you’ll see over the coming months quite a diverse set of cruise destinations.

We’re going to start our look at Dublin with some general sightseeing, starting with the statue of legendary fishwife Molly Malone of Cockles & Mussels fame:

But I’m taking things a bit out of order. Let’s head over to O’Connell Street Lower and have a look around beginning with this beautiful façade at the corner with Abbey Street Lower:

In the median almost directly across from the building above is a statue of Irish nationalist William Smith O’Brien. This statue was erected in the 1880s in Dublin’s South Quays area before making its way to O’Connell Street in 1929:

About 480 feet/145 meters north of Mr. O’Brien stands a 394-foot/120-meter stainless steel needle. This is the Spire of Dublin, which was completed on 21 January 2003. Not hugely popular when it was first proposed, it ‘in’spired (see what I did there?) several less than flattering nicknames. Those included “The Stiletto in the Ghetto”, “The Spire in the Mire”, and my personal favorite as told to us by our Hop-On/Hop-Off guide, “The Stiffy on the Liffey” (referring to the nearby River Liffey):

Heading back south toward the River Liffey is another monument. The subject of this memorial is Daniel O’Connell, known as ‘The Liberator’, who was the de facto leader of Ireland’s Roman Catholic majority during the first half of the 19^th century.

We’re now going to take in the sights along the River Liffey, which cuts Dublin in two and is home to some of Dublin’s residents:

Hanging a right and proceeding west we reach the Ha’penny Bridge, officially called the Liffey Bridge. This cast iron pedestrian bridge is a fun place to hang out for a while and snap some people photos:

Continuing on, make sure you zoom your camera across the river for views of the Temple Bar section of Dublin:

Today’s last two shots were taken from atop Ha’penny Bridge facing east. The second shot is zoomed in on the classically styled Custom House, and behind that building you can see the much more modern International Financial Services Centre: