Tag: History

EPIC the Irish Immigration Museum

EPIC the Irish Immigration Museum

by leeandpea ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

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EPIC the Irish Immigration Museum tells the stories of the 10 million people who left Ireland.

Our visit

EPIC is one of Dublin’s newest museums, opened in 2016 in the historic CHG building. With it’s modern facilities and highly interactive displays the museum is very appealing to families with young children. As a recent returning immigrant I was interested in reflecting on the experiences of Irish immigrants and their contribution to the countries they settled in. When Pea’s Dad had a job interview nearby, we decided to make a day of it.

For the first hour or so it was just me and Pea, while Pea’s Dad went to his interview. We asked about parking the Pea mobile when we booked tickets and were advised to fold it up and put it in one of the lockers. I don’t think any of us expected it to fit. It didn’t.  I felt obliged to push it around one-handed while attempting to control Pea with my free hand.  In the end, an obliging staff member agreed to store the buggy in a locked room, giving me both hands free for optimum toddler wrangling.

Upon arrival, visitors are given ‘passports’ with a space inside to stamp each of the sections as you move through the museum. This is such a nice idea. It’s practical, as it serves as a map of the museum and I found this much easier to navigate my way around than a traditional floor plan. It doubles up as an activity trail, as visitors stamp their own passports in the stamping machines in each room. This would be a great way to keep little people focused.

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The first few rooms focus on individual stories of immigrants, the reasons they may have left (famine, political strife, employment opportunities, missionary work). Later rooms cover the social, political and cultural impact of Irish immigrants worldwide. There were some really nice little touches throughout the museum. In one section, there’s a selection of old fashioned school tables with crayons, which kept Pea busy for a blissful twenty minutes or so. We had the most success, funnily enough, in a room decked out like a traditional Irish pub with little tables, traditional music and pub quizzes. The touch screen quizzes proved to be a great distraction for Pea, and gave me a much needed rest. I also really liked the ‘Achieving Infamy’ section with a myth-busting quiz about notorious Irish criminals.

When Pea’s Dad returned, we were all hungry and Pea was looking tired, so we stopped for lunch. Once Pea fell asleep in his pram we were able to go back for a second walk through and this time I was able to take my time to read the bits that interested me. There is a lot to take in, and even though we spent most of the day here there were still sections that I didn’t get to fully appreciate during Pea’s napping window.

I really liked the fact that the museum shines light on the positive impact immigrants have had in the world and not just on the tragic reasons for leaving the homeland. I had expected it all to be a bit heavy on famine and strife but it was much more balanced than that. The exhibits are interactive and innovative, making some subjects, such as sports, much more appealing to me than they generally would. While there’s nothing here to directly engage with very young children it’s overall very family friendly and Pea certainly found enough to keep himself occupied.

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Essential information

EPIC The Irish Immigration Museum is at the CHQ building Custom House Quay, Dublin 1. Open daily, 10-5. Admission is EUR 15 adults, EUR 7.50 for children 6-12, under 5’s go free. Step free access, accessible toilets, baby changing and lockers are available. The CHQ building has a gift shop and several food and beverage outlets for refuelling.

Richmond Barracks

Richmond Barracks

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A former British Army barracks built in 1810 amid fears of a Napoleonic invasion, Richmond Barracks is significant for its connection with the events of the 1916 Easter Rebellion. Following Irish Independence in 1922, the barracks took on various uses but was eventually reopened as a Museum in 2016. The Museum also incorporates the historic Goldenbridge Cemetary. I was keen to visit the Barracks for my own interest not because there was anything that seemed especially enticing for Pea. But you know, you can’t book a babysitter for everything, so this was a case of dragging him along and hoping for the best.

Our visit

Visitors to the Barracks can either take a guided or self-guided tour. The guided tour includes to Goldenbridge Cemetary so we chose the guided option. The Museum closes for lunch between 12.45 and 13.45 and we arrived at around 13.40. The next guided tour was due to begin at 14.00, so we headed towards the cafe to kill time before then.

As we walked down the corridor, I had a peek through the window of one of the locked rooms which is set up to resemble a school classroom. I involuntarily shuddered – the colour of the walls, the heavy wooden desks with the inkwells – it took me straight back to primary school. Irish classrooms haven’t really changed much over the years.

We gathered for our tour with our guide Niall. The tour began in the gymnasium – a nice open space for Pea to run around in with minimal risk of injury to himself or disturbance of others. We learned that every person in the country arrested for involvement in the 1916 rebellion – more than 3,000 – was brought to this very gymnasium where they learned of their fate. It was either prison in England or Wales or execution. The gymnasium is used as an exhibition space and the current exhibition, 77 Women, focuses on the women who were detained at Richmond barracks for their involvement in 1916. You can read more about them here, and the background to the centrepiece of the exhibition, a commemorative quilt celebrating the lives of all 77 women. I would have liked to have spent a bit more time looking at the quilt and reading about the women but Pea was being…well, just Pea.

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The tour then moved into the main part of the barracks, or at least what remains of the original barracks building. There’s the classroom, which we didn’t access as it was being used for filming purposes the following day. One room is a re-creation of a soldier’s quarters and the remaining two rooms are re-creations of the residential dwellings that became of the site during two different periods.

The final part of the tour was of Goldenbridge Cemetary. The cemetery is only accessed through these tours or pre-booked appointments so it felt very special to gain access. Pea just wanted to play with the gravel on the ground so he stayed with his Dad near the entrance to the cemetery while I did my best to catch up with Niall’s tour.

Goldenbridge was the first Catholic Cemetary in Ireland since the Reformation. The most notable burials are W.T Cosgrave, the first president of the Irish Free State, and his son, Liam Cosgrave, a former Taoiseach. The thing that struck me most about seeing the grave (Liam is buried in the same plot as his father) is how modest it is.

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The story that will stay with me the longest though is that of 8-year-old Eugene Lynch. Eugene was killed while playing outside the Barracks. His death wasn’t instantaneous. He was taken to his grandmother’s pub and laid on a table where he bled out. He was buried in an unmarked grave in Goldenbridge, only recently discovered and given a headstone after more than 100 years.

I really enjoyed our visit to Richmond Barracks but most likely wouldn’t go back here with Pea until he is a few years older. The museum cafe, The Mess, is very child-friendly and has outdoor seating and a garden which Pea loved running around in so we would definitely come back for that.

Essential info

Richmond Barracks, off Bulfin Road, Inchicore Dublin 8. Open Monday – Friday, 10.00 – 16.00, access on Saturdays and Bank Holidays is only by pre-booked tours for minimum 6 people. Guided tours take place at 11.00 and 14.00 daily and cost EUR8. Self-guided tours cost EUR6. The museum closes for lunch between 12.45 – 13.45 daily, but the cafe is open then. It’s free to access the cafe and garden.

 

 

 

Drimnagh Castle

Drimnagh Castle

by leeandpea ♥ 4 Comments

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Drimnagh Castle is a Norman castle in south Dublin, distinguishable as the only known surviving Irish castle with a flooded moat. I learnt of its existence after a session of sofa exploration (Google maps, how would I survive without you?). It’s walkable from our home and I just love a good castle. It’s closed on the weekends though, so, even though I wasn’t sure how Pea-friendly it would be, I decided to chance it on one of our Friday Lee and Pea days.

Our visit

Pea’s Dad was again able to join us for this day out which helped assuage my concerns about its suitability for Pea. As it turned out, it would have been doable for me alone but considerably easier with a two-adults-to-one-Pea ratio. When we arrived, a member of staff emerged from the gardens and informed us we could either walk around the gardens and exterior for free or take a guided tour for a small fee. She initially seemed a bit sceptical about us taking the tour with Pea, but once we’d established a spot to park his pram she seemed happy enough.

Our tour guide was Richie, as knowledgeable as he was affable. It was just the three of us and another family of three on the tour. This worked in our favour as the pace was quite relaxed and Richie was happy to wait for us to catch up when Pea would invariably break free in pursuit of his own entertainment.

I won’t do justice to the full history of the castle but here’s a mico summary. It was built by the Barnewall family (originally de Berneval, Anglicised to Barnewall) on land granted to them in 1215 by King John. It remained in the Barnewall family until the time of James 1st when it was sold to Adam Loftus in 1607. Loftus was formerly Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland and also held another castle in South Dublin at Rathfarnham.

From there my timeline gets sketchy but at some time during the 20th century the castle was in use by the Christian Brothers and, as Richie wryly noted, it all went downhill from there.  In the 1960’s the castle fell into disrepair but thankfully restoration work was undertaken from 1986 to 1996.  Even better, the restoration work was completed by local young people as part of a community employment scheme. Since then it has been open to the public and used for film and television work, weddings and other events.

Richie did a great job of pointing out some of the distinctive features of the castle and bringing stories to life. I appreciate the macabre, so I loved seeing the Murder Hole (basically just a trap door above an entrance, used to tip boiling water over intruders). An unusual feature of the castle is the stairs leading from the undercroft to the great hall, as the steps turn to the left. The children’s room featured a hidden staircase through which they could escape to safety if the castle came under attack. The chandelier that hangs in the great hall isn’t an original feature but rather a prop from the film Excalibur. Gabriel Byrne, who grew up nearby, thought it looked so good there that he convinced the production team to leave it behind.

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The guided tour took about an hour and by the time we finished, we had about twenty minutes spare to enjoy the gardens and courtyard. These days, Pea is generally happy to have space to run around or to pull up grass or gravel and he had the opportunity here to do all three. The gardens are small but very pretty with a cute little bench at the rear.In the courtyard, there’s a mural of Eleanora Barnwell and her love Sean O’Byrne. I won’t go into the story of their romance but things didn’t work out too well for either of the star-crossed lovers and superstitious types believe Eleanora now haunts the castle.

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This turned out to be a surprisingly suitable family day out and I’m sure Pea and I will make a repeat visit in the not too distant future.

Essential info

Drimnagh Castle is at Long Mile Road, Dublin 12. Guided tours cost 5 EUR per adult and 3 EUR per child, we weren’t charged for Pea but I’m not clear at what age a child fee applies. The guided tour grants entry inside the castle building but the gardens can be enjoyed for free. Opening hours are Monday to Thursday 9.00am – 4.00pm and Fridays 9.00am – 12.30, the last tour on a Friday is at 11.00am. There are toilets on site and we left the Pea-mobile in the courtyard while we took the tour.