DUBLIN:A city steeped in history, culture, entertainment

Over the years, many of those who have toured Dublin, Ireland have continued to crow about its beauty and its friendly welcoming people. So, when the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the clearing house for over 260 airlines sent an invitation to attend its 72nd Annual General Meeting (AGM), I accepted with delight as I saw it as an opportunity to explore the city that colleagues and others have so glowingly spoken of. I happened to be one of the two Nigerian journalists sponsored by IATA for what is regarded by many as the biggest ever annual aviation summit in history.

Held in Royal Dublin Society (RDS), it is a conference, concert and exhibition venue founded in 1731 in the heart of the city, it attracted many of the key players and organisatons in aviation from across the world. It was four days of intense deliberation and analysis of trends, development and performance of aviation at the AGM but it was also spiced with lots of fun with a lot to eat and drink and for years to come would remain evergreen in one’s memory given the exciting and savoury nature of the gathering.

A tour of the city made the difference for many of the delegates, including this reporter, who had longed for the opportunity to visit Dublin, which from many accounts one has read and stories told, is naturally beautiful city, clean and lush greenery with rich history and the nerve centre of the fabled Irish nationalism.

One of the features of the people, which are easily noticed by a first time visitor to the city, is the fact that the Irish are quick as a flash in inventing brilliant nicknames for anything and everything that catches their fancy. For instance, there is a statue in one of the streets in Dublin called ‘The Molly Malone’ of the famous ballad.

Her nickname is ‘The Tart with the Cart’ – because the poor girl has a rather too low-cut outfit on her! She is the one with the ‘cockles and mussels…’ The hop-on-hop off tour bus used for the city tour made it quite possible and convenient to extensively explore many of the city’s rich tourist attractions and historic sites to one’s fill.

With such notable and iconic institutions as St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Trinity College, National Gallery and Dublin Castle forming part of the itinerary. Dublin is famed for its pub culture as there are no shortages of pubs in the city. It is said to be a national past time for the people as the first job for many Irish teenagers and youths is working at the pubs at pubs’ hands.

It is also most noted and sought after spot for socialisation and gatherings of all sorts by the people. A local columnist once wrote of this pub culture thus: “The ‘drink responsibly’ slogan is risibly bland and useless … drink culture lives on.” Believe us, truer words were never written.

We finished our Dublin experience with a tour of the Guinness Brewery. Two Dublin evenings provided us with captivating Irish music and dancing. A visit to Dublin is not complete without visiting the Guinness Store House.

Guinness Storehouse is a Guinnessthemed tourist attraction at St. James’s Gate Brewery. Since opening in 2000, it has received over four million visitors. The Storehouse covers seven floors surrounding a glass atrium shaped in the form of a pint of Guinness.

The ground floor introduces the beer’s four ingredients (water, barley, hops and yeast), and the brewery’s founder, Arthur Guinness. Other floors feature the history of Guinness advertising and include an interactive exhibit on responsible drinking.

The seventh floor houses the Gravity Bar with views of Dublin and where visitors may drink a pint of Guinness included in the price of admission,which was €18 in March 2015, described as “overpriced” by Condé Nast Traveler. In 2006, a new wing opened incorporating a live installation of the present day brewing process.

The building in which the Storehouse is located was constructed in 1902 as a fermentation plant for the St. James’s Gate Brewery (where yeast is added to the brew). The building was designed in the style of the Chicago School of Architecture and was the first multi-storey steel-framed building to be constructed in Ireland.

The building was used continuously as the fermentation plant of the brewery until its closure in 1988, when a new fermentation plant was completed near the River Liffey. The Guinness Storehouse explains the history of Guinness.

The story is told through various interactive exhibition areas including ingredients, brewing, transport, cooperage, advertising and sponsorship. At the base of the atrium lies a copy of the 9,000-year lease signed by Arthur Guinness on the brewery site. In the Perfect Pint bar, visitors may pour their own pint of Guinness.

The Brewery Bar on the fifth floor offers Irish cuisine, using Guinness both in the cooking and as an accompaniment to food. The backdrop of Dublin in the mid-1980s – an austere bleak city landscape draping with sectarianism, church-controlled education and cultural introversion – makes one realise how far it has come.

Dublin today is very different. It is a culturally diverse, cosmopolitan city with two feet planted firmly in the 21st Century. It is Europe’s IT capital, home to Google, Facebook, and PayPal; it is becoming a serious culinary centre; and there are cranes all over the skyline, so the future looks bright.

The city, which is the capital of Ireland, was founded by the Norman Vikings in 988 AD. Arthur Guinness is noted to have once said to the people thus: “I know my lot as I have also Swedish roots – I used to say to them in Ireland while living there for 23-years that you lot would still be living in the huts in the countryside if we had not come to organise and to urbanise you into the cities and towns.”

The Viking’s early conquest, the Norman invasion of the late 12th Century and its beginning of more than 700 years of direct English and later British involvement caused them to appreciate its secession from the United Kingdom. It later became the Independent Irish Free State in1937 to be called Ireland.

The main tourist attraction to see the Viking’s history is in the Dublinia and The Medieval Viking World located in the Christ Church Cathedral. The other large cathedral, St. Patrick’s, is right beside the Christ Church.

When Oyinade, a friend of mine first arrived in Dublin, she said the food was terrible. “There were lot of fast food and fine dining places where the food wasn’t that fine. There was nothing in between. Now there is fresh, creative food for all tastes. It’s a revolution.” It is only a small part of Dublin’s revival.

Its more traditional virtues of creative culture and literary virtuosity remain central to the city’s lifeblood. “This is a city of words,” said Brian Horgan of the Abbey Theatre. That fine institution founded by Augusta, Lady Gregory and William Butler Yeats at the turn of the 20th Century and which over that century premiered works by J. M. Synge, Sean O’Casey, Hugh Leonard and Brian Friel. For all the high-tech swirls, barista outlets and cocktail mixologists, what makes Dublin such a compelling modern city is the traditional reference points.

Apart from the theatres and art galleries, there are the streets of impeccable Georgian architecture, Victorian pubs that have barely changed in a century, and the hospitality and good companionship of locals – the craic, to invoke an overused word.

There are pubs on every corner of the city; many of them under lit Victorian cubby holes that resonate with history, contemplation and conversation. You get the feeling the city has been built on conversations in the pub. Traditions of hospitality also extend to the hotels.

I stayed at one of the finest-The Ballsbridge Hotel, not too far from the United States Embassy. The Ballsbridge is grander but what I liked about it is its warmth, generosity and heartfelt Irish hospitality. At its restaurant, I had a stunning meal that reflects the new lively cuisine. Would I wish to return there? No question; Ireland is one laid-back country.

They enjoy a good time and the pubs are filled with laughter and hilarious stories. The people are engaging and their humour is contagious. Ireland’s sports do dominate much of conversation, although, my knowledge of cricket, Irish football and rugby is minimal to say the least.

Fans’ appreciation in those sports is intense and continuing – it is a major part of their lives. You couldn’t be more pleased with Ireland, a beautiful country filled with lush green fields and ocean vistas that left you almost speechless and friendly people whose Irish and Gaelic accents would at times result in you asking, “what did he say?”