James Joyce not for everyone - including some Dubliners...Jim's Deals of the day
DUBLIN - I felt a little guilty arriving on the very, very green shores of Ireland and not having ever read a single word of James Joyce.
Not that I have anything against him; I just had other priorities.
But I felt a little guilty today as my excellent tour guide, Dave Harrington, a retired executive with Aer Lingus, walked me around Dublin and past some of the sights Joyce had made famous. One of them is a very cool pub, the Davy Byrnes.
It's not far from the chi-chi shops of Grafton Street, but it's quite fun to check out. WIth the sun finally peeking through these parts and temperatures up around 12-15 degrees, everybody and his sister was out enjoying the relative warmth.
As I was saying, though, I felt badly about not having read any Joyce. Until Harrington confessed he hasn't, either, at least not all of Ulysses.
"I tell people, 'I can't remember if I read five pages 10 times or 10 pages five times,'" he recalled with a laugh, one of many he provided on a lovel afternoon tour.
Earlier, Harrington was talking about how Irish fans feel about the English when it comes to sports.
"We're not biased against the English," he insisted. "We don't care who beats them."
Delightful stuff.
Friday, however, it wasn't the English who were a local concern but the French. There was a big match in Dublin Friday night in the Heineken Cup rugby quarterfinals, with local heroes Leinster taking on the Clermont Auvergne of France.
The blue-and-yellow-clad French supporters were all over Temple Bar on Friday, shouting it up nicely and proving that England isn't the only country with lager louts.
It sounded menacing, but Harrington insisted it's all in good fun and that there was zero chance of any real problem.
Anyway, it was a fun couple hours on the tour and very instructive. Got to see part of Dublin Castle, as well as the Book of Kells and the incredibly sumptuous Long Room library at Trinity College. Haven't had any beer yet, but looking forward to a Harp later tonight (not much of a Guinness fan, I'm afraid, but I guess I should try one here).
Staying at the Clarence Hotel in Temple Bar, which is owned by the guys in U2. Very nice room with a partial view of the Liffey, not to mention a bottle of chilled Champagne in the room (they obviously must've thought someone else was coming). But there wasn't any hot water when I wanted to soak after a long day of walking, which is a drag.
Still, it's a cool spot in a great location and I'm looking forward to sampling some local pubs and maybe seeing some of the rugby match between sampling the goings-on at Augusta National.
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