On Saturday, my parents were still on their vacation so we went and did 3 very different events put on by the festival committee. The first thing that we did was the Treasure Hunt through the city. We were given tasks to do at 8 different sites in the center of Dublin and we were able to get free admission into some really nice places. One of the places that we went to was St. Patrick's Cathedral. And we happened to arrive at the best time because we were able to catch a choral performance there and take a break before moving onto the next stop on the map.
The team is all set for the hunt!!
Such a beautiful performance
After the treasure hunt, we decided to go relax for a little but and widen our cultural palette by attending the Irish Beer and Whiskey Fest. This was held outside the city center and in a big warehouse. Inside you were able to purchase half pints of craft beers and cider, and small glasses of Irish whiskey all from local breweries from the country. We had some fun trying different types of beer and cider and then tasting each others too.
I also was able to cross another thing off my Ireland bucket list because I finally met someone named Seamus!!!!!! We were talking to this really nice group of lads and it was brought up in conversation. They remarked that there father had that name and he while he was a shy guy, we could be convinced into getting a picture with him!! And that is what happened.
Me, Seamus, and his son John
After what turned into an eventful afternoon, we had a relaxed evening by attending the Ceili House Live concert at the National Concert Hall. My family went our cousin and his cousin that was in town the same time. They had five different performance groups that performed traditional music and variations off the traditional that were more internationally influenced. My favorite performance was probably the first group. It was three sisters from Glasgow that performed songs that they learned from their grandmother. They sung in amazing harmonies but also played the tin whistle, fiddle, and uilleann pipes.
The stage is all set!
Day two of the festival was just time for me to explore what I wanted to see because my parents left that morning and I had signed up for a couple events through "I Love My City". The first event was very interesting in a historical way. It was a short lecture on the forgotten history of Dublin. The lecturer is a professor at UCD and highlighted 4 different places in Dublin that have an amazing story, but for some reason has been forgotten through the decades. If you are interested about this type of stuff here is the guys website where he explains some of these stories:
http://comeheretome.com/
After the lecture I had some down time before my next event that night so I happened upon Merrion Square where they had created a small festival geared towards kids and families. They had science workshops for kids to practice different science techniques, magic/clown performances, big puzzle games, and even a little urban farm with some animals for kids to pet and hold.
bunnies at the urban farm!
World Champion juggler
Comedy audience participation performance
When it finally came time, I went to my last event of the day called "The Pipes, The Pipes". It was a performance of jigs, reels, and slides performed by three uilleann pipes performers. What made it interesting is that they had 2 artists there creating live art on a projected screen in time to the music. It was interesting watching the art change with whatever song was played and how the artist interpreted the music.
Day three of the festival was more low key for myself and I only went into the city for the big festival ceili that was happening that night. If you have ever participated in any form of folk dancing, ceili dancing is very similar. It is based off of dancing with a partner and either in a line or with another group you dance a pattern of moves and just have fun, We ended up doing about 3 hours of dancing broken up with guest performances of step dancing professionals and other music groups. I had too much fun dancing that it all just flew by when the three hours were up.
Day four of the festival was the big day because it was actually St. Patrick's Day and the parade was coming to town. I was smart enough to get down to the parade route early enough to secure a spot right on the barrier and got a front row seat to the whole parade. The parade itself was a lot of fun listening to the different bands that came and watching the performance "floats" show why they are proud to be Irish. I ended up making a friend at the parade and we spent several hours more together when the parade ended
All ready for the big day!!!
St. Patrick himself showed up
Bagpipes band!!
After the parade, we decided to be smart and enjoy celebrating the day back at the Irish Beer and Whiskey Fest where I knew people were more considerate and that very few people would actually get too drunk. So we both ended up trying more ciders and visiting my favorites from Saturday again. It was a great way to end the festival with a couple glasses of cider and still being able to get back to our rooms safe and sound.
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