The Smith’s and Schmid’s hopped on a short DART train from Malahide to downtown Dublin to go the “EPIC” museum. The EPIC museum is relatively new to Dublin and is themed around Irish immigration worldwide. We had little knowledge of this museum but decided to give it a try. Turned out this was one of the best museums we have been to. Since it is new, it uses modern technology to tell of the Irish immigrants to far off places like Africa, England, Australia, America and Canada. The stories we heard of loved ones leaving for America in the 1850’s because of the potato famine were heartbreaking. Many of these Irish men, women and children left Ireland knowing they would never step back into Ireland again, not saying “See you later”, but “Goodbye” to their loved ones.
The second part of the museum explains the impact these Irish immigrants had on the lands they now called home. Whether it was working in mines, farms, factories, doctors, scientists, musicians or even John Kennedy being President of the United States.
Bottom line…..this is a must see museum!!!
One thing that impacted me was the restrictions on women’s rights.
After the EPIC museum we made our way to Ireland’s National Museum – similar to USA’s Smithsonian. We spent most of our time in the Archaeology Museum where artifacts were displayed from 400,000 BC to recent times. Showed artifacts from the original settlers, Vikings, and mainland Europeans. Highlight of the museum was the “Bog” people. These are people who died thousands of years ago and their bodies ended up in bogs which preserved them. Fingernails, hairstyles, and skin were clearly distinguishable.
To round out the day, we went on an Irish Music Pub crawl. We started the crawl at a bar in Temple Bar where our two musicians met us…a guitar player and fiddler. Want to know the difference between a fiddle and a violin? It’s call a fiddle except when go to sell it on eBay where it is called a violin😊.
We stopped at three different bars where the smooth Guinness beer flowed and the music never stopped. The musicians explained how the music was played in a pub and the importance of the music in Irish culture. The music was fantastic and stories were interesting/funny. This was the highlight of the day. Hopped on a late night train back to Malahide to end the day.
Adventures in Ireland 