Is it another pint yer havin'?

Otherwise titled "The one in which Kayla fights a losing battle with her memory in trying to recall the incredible number of things she did with her family in the short week they were here." Here goes.
My dad, Terese, Lisa, and Alice arrived in Dublin on Paddy's Day morning. Shortly after their arrival, we made our way through the crowds in city centre on the long walk to Croke Park Stadium, headquarters of the Gaelic Athletic Association, for the Gaelic hurling and football All Ireland Club Finals (that's a mouthful). I felt a little cruel forcing four exhausted people to trek across Dublin almost directly after alighting from the plane (indulge me in my vocabulary as well, please), especially as we didn't actually end up going to the match--the ticket queues were ridiculously long--but everyone remained remarkably cheerful. Such troopers.
Lisa and I had a very fun but not-particularly-wild Paddy's Day night (no, I didn't succumb and buy a Paddy's Day hat; I borrowed it from a crazy leprechaun from Donegal):

We had a couple days around Dublin and the surrounding suburbs: Howth, Dalkey, Bray, and Malahide (though I missed Bray due to my Celtic Myth class--it feels a little backwards saying that I skipped a trip for class).
Malahide Castle:

Everyone in Malahide:

Saturday we took an extremely ambitious day trip: Limerick, Bunratty Castle, the Cliffs of Mohr, Doolin, the Burren, Galway, and then back to Dublin.
Bunratty Castle/folk park:



All the buildings in the folk park were recreated to look inhabited, complete with burning peat fires (which smell delicious, by the way) and, in one, a woman making scones.
This picture is pretty terrible, but it's of a fairy tree by a freeway in County Clare:

We had actually just talked about this in Celtic Myth earlier that week; apparently there were plans a few years ago to cut it down during road construction, but an old storyteller argued that the tree is the fairies' resting place on their way to battle, and that terrible things would happen to anyone who damaged it (Celtic fairies are not the nicest of creatures). People are still quite superstitious in that part of the country; they changed the construction plans so the road bypasses the tree, and they even built a little fence to protect it.
Back to the Cliffs of Mohr, on a far nicer day this time:



Galway across Galway Bay:

A shot of the town that I didn't manage to get the first time I was there--flags of the tribes of Galway:

I wish I had another weekend to spend there; I am in love with Galway.
Easter Sunday, Lisa and I went to a service at Christ Church, where she got to experience the lovely tea-in-the-crypt phenomenon. We then went to a Sinn Féin rally/commemoration of the Republican Easter Rising of 1916.


We didn't stay to watch Gerry Adams speak, but we did see him across the crowd. I've been studying him all semester in my Northern Ireland class--he's the president of Sinn Féin and a former leader of the IRA--so it was really amazing to actually see him in person.
Next we went to Kilmainham Gaol. This place may look familiar to some of you; scenes from The Italian Job and Boondock Saints, among other films, were shot here:

Kilmainham Gaol is also where the leaders from the 1916 Uprising were executed by firing squad. It's quite gruesome, really. One of the leaders had been severely injured in the uprising; he wasn't expected to live more than a month or two, but officials pulled him from the hospital, strapped him to a chair (he was unable to stand), and shot him in this corner of the stonecutter's yard:


Easter Monday we rented a car and drove south into the Wicklow Mountains. I was extremely impressed with how well my dad adapted to driving on the wrong side. He seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself here (Terese maybe isn't so sure):

Up in the mountains (it can't be green all the time!):




A return to Glendalough, where we went for IES orientation; it was nice to come back when I wasn't horrifically jet lagged and trying desperately to maintain awkward conversation with a bunch of other horrifically jet lagged people:




We also went to Avoca, Ireland's oldest working woolen mill:

Sunset in the country:


I'm so glad they were able to make it over; besides the fact that it was nice to see them (and introduce them to such marvels as Bulmers, digestive biscuits, and wildly schizophrenic weather), spending time with them reminded me how much I've been taking Ireland and Dublin for granted. I feel re-energized for my last three or so weeks to get out and experience everything I can. If only professors would stop assigning final papers.
Sorry, random moment, but I just glanced out of my window and feel as though you all need to know that there is an immense rainbow in Dundrum right now.
I'm going to end this with a video from a trad session that Lisa and I attended at Devitt's, the best pub ever. It's very much a pick-up, jam session type of thing; musicians just come in, grab a pint, and jump right into the music (and right back out again when they want another pint). It's an amazing atmosphere. Let's just say that by this point the bartenders and I are on a first-name basis.