Dublin was fun, though not as enjoyable for me as the countryside. The high point for me, of course, was the Guinness Storehouse. But that came last.
We got up this morning at 7am (OK, it became more like 8:15am) to eat a quick breakfast and catch the "hop-on, hop-off" tour bus that stopped at our hotel at 9. We got off at the first stop, near the General Post Office where the IRA siezed the building in 1916 and declared independence from Britain (and were subsequently shelled into submission). It also happened to be the location of the 400' Metal Spike Of Annihilation, to my glee.
Our next stop was Trinity College, where we saw the Book Of Kells. I thought of my friend of the same name. It was really cool to see something that had been written 1200 years ago. They also had an example of an ancient stone engraved with the Ogham writing system. I had read about Ogham several months ago while browsing Wikipedia for information about alternate writing systems like the runic alphabet, and was pleasantly surprised to come across a real example of it.
We then headed to the library of one of the universities in Dublin, which housed a Genealogy Research Center. We sat down with a helpful, friendly old woman and did some research on the history of the McCormack family. It seems that Cormaic was a very popular name around the time that the patronymic naming system arose in Scotland, so many clans named Mac Cormaic arose simultaneously in different areas. As such, it'd be difficult to track down exactly where we originated. But it's probable that the clan originally arose in the highlands of Scotland, branching out from the Buchanan clan, and then migrated to Ulster, Ireland in the Plantation Of Ulster that took place in the mid-1600s. From there, some of the family likely emigrated to Jamaica in the mass exodus that occurred in the early 1700s when a six-year drought struck and life became very difficult in Ireland. From Jamaica it's a short hop to Cuba, where my grandfather's uncle, Lyndon McCormack, was born.
The woman at the Genealogy Research Center also answered other questions of ours about things like the Gaelic language, her childhood in Ireland, etc. We learned that family names weren't just derived from the father's first name; they were also sometimes based on a career or a deformity. In fact, the head of the 'Sullivan' clan must have lost an eye somehow, because the name 'Sullivan' comes from the Old Irish súlo (eye) aon (one), or 'one-eye'. I wonder if Scotty knows of the origin of his name.
After eating a light lunch at a café, we headed to the highlight of the day: the Guinness Storehouse. There we spent an hour or two, seeing how the beer is made, old advertisements and packaging designs, etc. Finally, we headed to the Gravity Bar on the seventh floor, which provides a 360° view of Dublin, and enjoyed our free pints of Guinness. The timing put us there at sunset, which made the view quite enjoyable.
When we left the Storehouse (with loads of Guinness merchandise in hand), we pondered what to do next. My parents and Natalia took a taxi back to the hotel, while Andrés and I headed for the famous Temple Bar. We had a few pints and enjoyed the guitarist and banjo player who were playing traditional Irish music. I tried a Black & Tan (with Harp as the ale), and decided I don't like it much. It tastes like a Guinness, except with more of the carbonation I was happy to be rid of. No thank you.
After several pints, we started to get tired and think of going home. However, a glance at the clock revealed that it was only 7pm. Man, did we feel lame. Regardless, we have to get up at 4:30am tomorrow morning for our flights, so we ignored the bitter criticism of conscience and caught a taxi home. We found that Papi and Natalia were having dinner at the hotel restaurant, so we went down and joined them. I realized I was not as sober as I had assumed, and did my best to behave appropriately in front of Natalia, but I'm not entirely sure that I succeeded.
It is time now for sleep. Tomorrow I fly back to the land of fast food and warmness.