June 16 Ireland Day 1
Ireland, June 16, 2024
Our first day in Ireland was packed and our program got off to a really good start. Sunday morning, Meg, Riley and Cavainna met the group arriving from Boston in Dublin at 8:30 a.m. Dublin time.
We got coffee, connected with our taxi service, and headed for the residences at University College Dublin where most of us were able to check into our rooms right away.
We all stowed our gear and headed straight back into the city on the 39A bus.
Even though most of us were thoroughly jet lagged, we pushed through it and took our first of many walking tours of the city.
We got off the bus near St. Stephen’s Green and, because we arrived on Bloomsday—the yearly celebration of the great novel Ulysses by James Joyce—we got to see bits of the event firsthand. On Duke Street, we heard a live rendition of the song "On Raglan Road" written by the poet Patrick Kavanagh. All along Grafton Street we were serenaded by buskers. We walked past Trinity College to the Liffey, the river that runs through the center of Dublin, dividing its north side from its south side.
From there, we returned to Stephen’s Green and spent some time with the wildlife...
…then headed over to Chatham Street and Sheehan’s Pub where we had our first group meal—fish and chips, Guinness pie, bangers and mash, lamb stew, and burgers. The atmosphere was great, and the food was very good.
We did a bit of grocery shopping in Marks and Spencer’s before we got back on the bus to UCD. Most of us turned in very early. We had a really good first day!
