whiskey

during my day in Cork, I took the opportunity to visit the J. Jameson & Son’s Old Midleton whiskey distillery. it was my first experience with using Bus Eireann for local connections, and what a good relationship we developed (why don’t we have public transportation that is this easy to use in the U.S.?). the facility that we toured was in use until 1975, and the distilling process has since moved to a larger one on the same site. whiskey in Ireland is made either here or at Bushmills in the North. that produced in Midleton is transported to the Dublin facility for bottling and packaging.

not knowing anything about the process, I found the tour at least informative, but I have since discovered that our ‘guide’ did little more than recite the information provided on the pamphlet. it felt like something aimed directly at tourists for whom English was not a first language (and there were quite a few on our tour).

the barley is dried out in a kiln using anthracite, which is a smokeless fuel that results in the distinctive taste of Irish whiskey. that made in Scotland uses peat to fuel the fire, which gives the drink a smokey taste. Irish whiskey is also distilled three times, in contrast to twice for Scotch whisky and once for bourbon. initially, to test the proof of whiskey after it was distilled it was set on fire. if it didn’t burn, the proof wasn’t high enough. if it exploded, it was too strong and given over to the workers at the distillery.

the top photo is of the masher, where the dried out barley is mixed with boiling water. during the process the starches in the grains are converted into fermentation sugars, resulting in a liquid known as “wort”, which is then sent on to “washbacks” for fermentation.

the bottom photo is the oldest building on the site, dating to 1794, when it was built as a woollen mill. it was used as a military barracks during the Napoelonic wards, and was turned into the distillery in 1825. the waterwheel at the side dates to 1852. it’s 22ft in diameter and made of cast iron. it also functioned until 1975.

at the end of the tour, i took the opportunity to compare bourbon, scotch, and whiskey, discovering that i don’t much care for any of them!

more on Belfast pubs: the Duke of York & Crown Bar

on my walking tour of Belfast, since it was early afternoon, we popped in to the Duke of York pub, just around the corner from St. Anne’s Cathedral. the area surrounding the pub was once the hub of newspaper publishing in Belfast. the Belfast Telegraph, Irish News, and Sunday World are still located in the area and paraphernalia from the old presses hang on the walls of the Duke of York. (see the first photo)

they also have quite a collection of whiskey signs, most notably here, Old Bushmill’s, which is distilled on in Bushmills on the Antrim Coast.

the Crown Bar Liquor Saloon over the road from the Hotel Europa is also quite something to behold, and worth a look if you’re in Belfast. it has the best snugs I saw anywhere in my travels, and they were all filled up when I stopped in for dinner. because it’s just across from the Hotel Europa, it suffered repeated damage from bomb blasts. but through it all it survived and provides a visual feast to go with your pint of Guinness or tumbler of whiskey.

Cork & St. Finn Barre’s

Cork is Ireland’s third most populous city — slightly bigger than Madison, and also a university town. It was initially established as a monastic settlement by St. Finnbar, for whom the cathedral here is named. it was granted a charter by King John in 1185 and, along with much of the southwest, has long been a bastion for rebels and rebelliousness. the Cork harbor is the second largest natural harbor in the world, after that in Sydney.
Cork is also home to a sizable university and classes had begun the day before we arrived. we went out for a drink in a pub in the center of town and it turned out that on Mondays they have pub quizzes! as big fans of such activities, Nicolette and I ponied up and got to participate. the other teams came up with quite an array of names, some witty, some scandalous, some corny, and some not so much. it didn’t bode well that the first question (given as a throw-away easy one) stumped us entirely. (who did Cork beat to advance in the GAA finals? the match happened two days earlier; Cork beat Tyrone.) we certainly didn’t win anything, up against Irish college students, passionate about their trivia and armed with iPhones, but we had a great time and generally impressed ourselves with the corners of our brains from which we extracted answers.
just as the quiz was wrapping up, a horde of students walked in; we learned from one of them that classes, in fact, began that Monday. and all these students, wandering in to a pub at at half ten, eleven o’clock on a Monday (when bar time is half eleven or midnight …), not only were they American (one was wearing his Greek letters — dead giveaway), but they were from the University of San Diego. Nicolette travels thousands of miles to get away from life in San Diego, and we end up at a bar with a gaggle of San Diego students.
but never fear, none of my other pub experiences involved Americans on such a massive or undesired scale. 🙂

pubs

one of the many pubs claiming “oldest” something, this one in Belfast.
many of the older establishments are hidden in back alleys, for reasons dating to initial phases of settlement and plantation. because of the proximity to Scotland, many of the earliest non-native Irish settlers to Northern Ireland were of conservative Scot persuasion. with them, these Scots brought certain ideas about the display of vices. in other words, the enjoyment of spirits had to go on in back alleys where nosy neighbors or religious leaders wouldn’t spot you succumbing to vice. as an additional consequence, often situated next to these pubs were gambling halls. immediately to my left as i took this picture was a Paddy Power betting spot. (which, i just discovered, is the official betting partner of RTE, Ireland’s national television and radio broadcaster.) stand in front of a pub pretty much anywhere and there’ll be a betting hall within sight.

more to come …

now for some pictures …

i may be back from Ireland, but never fear, dear readers, anecdotes are yet to come. and this time, with pictures! first up, Belfast.

murals became an opportunity to express political opinions, to vent frustration, and to honor those who died during The Troubles. they’re painted on the ends of buildings all along Falls Road (Republican), Shankill Road (Loyalist), and Sandy Row (Loyalist)

this first one, painted on the end of a row of houses that also hosts a Sinn Fein bookstore in Falls Road, honors the memory of Bobby Sands, an IRA activist and MP who died while on hunger strike in 1981. the protest arose from the end of Special Category Status–a policy wherein political prisoners were treated similar to those of war and not required to do certain chores or required to wear prison garb. ultimately, 10 people died while on hunger strike in 1981 and Thatcher was not moved.

this second photo, also along Falls Road, illustrates more contemporary political themes. whereas the murals in Derry are more artistic in nature (illustrating specific events and completed by artists), those in Belfast are more subject to change to address political issues, particularly those of disenfranchised or repressed peoples. the ones along this wall included one on Cuba, one on the Basque region in Spain, and a protest of racist treatment.


this final picture is as you enter Sandy Row, a unionist stronghold nearer the center of Belfast. (Shankill Road radiates west, Falls Road roughly southwest). it echos the mural in the Bogside proclaiming Free Derry (more on that to come).

finally, a mural from Shankill Road honoring members of the Ulster Volunteer Force. the hand in the middle (seen here in both red and gold) is the symbol of Ulster. you’ll often see flags depicting the red hand of Ulster on a white background with red cross as a symbol of unionist sentiments. all along Shankill Road this day, in addition to flags with the red hand of Ulster, there were Union Jack banners running between street lights.

there may be peace, but, as i mentioned in a previous post, that doesn’t mean that problems are solved or wounds are healed. there is still occassion to have the “peace wall”, which runs through the middle of neighborhoods along Falls Road and Shankill Road.

sports

sport is big in Ireland. this weekend is the All-Ireland hurling final between Kilkenny and Tipperary and it’s been all over the radio and papers. Kilkenny has won the last three years but both teams are pretty intense.

in addition to hurling, there’s Gaelic football. teams are organized by counties–you can only play for your county and no trading from one to another, as with any of the other incarnations of football. the league also doesn’t distinguish between the counties north or south of the border, as the league benefits everyone of Gaelic extraction. it isn’t a professionalized sport the way football is in the States or elsewhere in Europe, and the money that the GAA comes by is used to promote Irish language and culture, to support local football teams for kids and the like. matches are played in Croke Park, an 80,000 seat stadium (also scene to a pretty terrible attack by the Black and Tans in November 1920 during the war for independence), which is the 4th largest venue in Europe.

i went from Belfast to Cork by way of Dublin on a Sunday afternoon. coming through town it seemed everyone was wearing the colors of their team, heading to watch the match at Croke Park. people hang banners in windows, on cars, wherever, and you can tell that you’ve left one county for another when the banners change.

no fat lady (or, it ain’t over yet …)

there may be a power-sharing government in the north, and the worst of the violence might be over, but the situation of the six counties is far from resolved. at the weekend there was rioting in East Belfast following a rally sponsored by Sinn Fein, but mostly it sounds like people are bored with it–drunk punks, basically. one of the people i’ve spoken with said that in previous times, whole families might go out to watch or participate in protests or rioting. definitely not so much any more.

part of the agreement of a few years back for power sharing is that eventually there will be a referendum held in both sets of counties (north and south) as to the question of unification. if the majority of both favor unification, then it’ll happen. right now, disposition in the north is such that a referendum held today wouldn’t result in unification. but, with the Protestant population holding steady or declining, and the Catholic population growing, it’s only a matter of time before things shift.

driving adventures

driving in Ireland is a collaborative venture. you, those following behind you, the oncoming traffic, the tour buses, the local dogs, and the sheep. right out of Cork the road is pretty straight, with room to pass and wide enough that the oncoming coaches don’t make you quite fear for your life. things get more dramatic depending upon where you go. Galway city centre is manic (and i managed to arrive just about rush hour), but people in vehicles are predictable. even facing down tour coaches in the Ring of Kerry is somewhat predictable: they are big, and you’ll back up to make room for them if necessary.

our most harrowing experience came driving from Dingle town to Tralee to drop Nico & Kelly at the train station. a dog was hopping in and out of the road, going nuts over two people on bikes, and you could tell that my oncoming presence wasn’t going to stop him. sure enough, *bounce* into the road he came …. but i reacted fast enough to prevent dog-splatter on the road and the car.

sheep in particular take a degree of ownership over the road, too. in more rural areas it’s no suprirse as they tend to outnumber humans on a significant scale. you’ll see them sticking heads through fences to get better grazing, walking along the birm on the side of the road for their morning snack. coming out of Maam Cross, three of them were strolling along the N-road like they were out for their usual Sunday constitutional. later that same day, driving through Connemara, i had my first direct sheep-in-the-road encounter.

as i said, using the roads is a collaborative effort.