In Dublin's Fair City

Ireland's Old Parliament, Now The Bank of Ireland

Sweet Molly!

In Dublins fair city, where the girls are so pretty,

I once met a girl called sweet Molly Malone,

As she wheeled her wheelbarrow, through the streets broad and narrow,

Cryng cockles and mussels` Alive alive o

Hey, don’t just go breezing off to a pub the moment you hit town.  Stop by and pay your respects to Molly, or as she is known by the locals, “The tart with the cart.”  She hangs out on Grafton Street.  Her statue, with its eternally rotund features is not as old as you’d think.  1988.  At the same time, city fathers proclaimed 13 June Molly Malone Day.  What does that mean, exactly?  Far as I know, there was no Molly Malone, or at least not just one.  Lots of fishmongers, many of them women.  And, the song, written by James Yorkston, a Scotsman, wasn’t published until the early 1880s, in Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England.  See, those sneaky Irish are at it again.  A Scot mentions Dublin in a song published in America and England and the Irish claim it as their own and make it Dublin’s ‘unofficial anthem.’

But, a country that brews Guinness and distills Jameson can be forgiven any number of transgressions.  Amen! And we’ll all drink to that!  The secret is safe. I won’t tell a soul.

Entry to the old Jameson Distillery 

View of Dublin from the top floor of Guinness Brewery

Besides gazing longingly at Molly’s assets, what else is there to do?

How much time do you have?  I’ve already written about Guinness Stout and Jameson Whiskey.  Between tours and drinking, those two alone will use up the best part of a day.

http://stroudallover.blogspot.de/2013/08/a-little-bit-of-ireland-lot-of-guinness.html

http://stroudallover.blogspot.de/2013/09/jameson-whiskey-its-irish-really.html

Yep, you can see castles and churches.  Figure those out for yourself.  But, the first thing I’d do is grab a hop-on-hop-off bus and take a whirlwind tour of the city, which will take you right past Molly Malone.  Don’t worry; the bus supplies earphones and commentary. Dublin ain’t New York.  Won’t take any time at all to spot a bus and buy your ticket right outside the train station.  A complete circle of the ville takes about an hour.  Gives you a great overview of Ireland’s largest city, with a population of over half a million souls.  Hop-on-hop off is not just an expression.  When you find something interesting and decide to hop off, another bus will come along ten minutes later.  A ticket lasts all day.

Another thing to consider that combines two of my favorite interests:  a literary pub tour.  The hours for the tour change with the seasons, so you’re on your own for scheduling.  However, if you’re not familiar with Irish writers, I’ll carelessly drop a few names:  James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Brendan Behan, George Bernard Shaw, to mention only a few.  This is not to say they lived their entire lives in Dublin, but there is a connection to the city. But as James Joyce famously remarked, “Ireland sober is Ireland stiff.”  A pub tour is a good compromise between literature and sobriety.  A good many writers felt the same.  My favorite quote about Dublin comes from J.P.  Donleavy, author of The Ginger Man, and other novels:  “When I die I want to decompose in a barrel of porter and have it served in all the pubs in Dublin.”

Always time for a pub and a Stout!

And of course a pub lunch

I’ve given Joyce’s Ullyses a good shot, both sober and otherwise.  No dice.  Couldn’t gulp down the prose under any conditions.  The pundits call it the greatest novel.  I found it a disconnected ramble.  But, if you want a taste of Joyce, Dubliners is a wonderful collection of sketches of Dublin life.  Many of the sentences in that short book are cogent.

A bit about the Irish Republic’s government:  parliamentary system, much like other European parliaments. The original parliament building was closed with the Act of Union (with England) in 1800.  Since then, the old parliament building has been The Bank of Ireland.  It sits right next to Trinity College.  Ireland is a part of the European Union and the currency is the Euro.

Best of all, Dublin is a city for strolling, soaking in the atmosphere and chatting with people you didn’t know five minutes ago.  The first thing you notice is the charm of Dublin’s historic shabbiness.  That’s just another way of saying “a comfortable pair of well-worn shoes.”  Easy to fit in here.  Do a bit of shopping.  Stop in a pub.  Make a hundred friends.  Sketch out the plot for your first novel.  You can always marvel at the crusty vellum (calfskin) text of The Book of Kells (800 A.D.) at Trinity College later, or read about the long hard road to Irish independence and visit those sites where Irish statehood was written in blood and tears.  See Dublin Castle and The Garden of Remembrance.  Don't neglect those. But, first, let’s rub elbows down tha pub, have a pint of your favorite, and breathe some air in Dublin’s fair city.

Butler's also offers tours of the factory

From the Book of Kells

Jameson Whiskey: It's Irish, really!

Entrance to the old Bow Street Distillery

Courtyard of the Bow Street Distillery.  Note the old copper 'pot' still.

Before you’re admitted to the exclusive Irish Whiskey club, you have to answer a few invasive questions.  What is Celtic and what is Gaelic?  How do you say ‘Cheers’ in Irish?  How do you pronounce Celtic?  What time do you go to work and is your wife alone?

Careful! The eternal salvation of your slushy, spirit-drinking soul depends on your answers.

Because I am of a generous Spirit, so to speak, I’ll sneak you my copy of the Cliff Notes:

In Ireland, Gaelic is the language, Celtic is the race.  But you can also say Celtic languages, which encompasses Scotch, Welch, and several others.  So how do you say ‘cheers’ in Gaelic? Sláinte!  That’s pronounced ‘slant-cha’ and it means health.

Only kidding about your wife.  Monogamy was meant to save Men from hell-on-earth.

How do you pronounce Celtic?  Damn this is getting tough.  American basketball fans always say ‘Sell-tic.’  The Irish and everyone else in the known world says ‘Kelt-tic.’  So, ya gotta decide, Punk.  Do ya wanna be a man of the world, drive fast cars, drink good whiskey, and be very close friends with gorgeous women, or do you wanna grow up to be a basketball fan? …hurry up, Punk, the clock’s ticking…

Next, let’s get some nasty little secrets out in the open.  Jameson is no longer owned by an Irish Company.  A foppish, Frenchy firm, Pernod-Ricard owns the paperwork.  Besides Jameson (Irish Distillers), you’d recognize a bunch of other names P-R scarped up in their unscrupulous efforts to dominate the spiritual world and look down their Gallic noses from a great distance.  Should you want to further arm yourself against this conspiracy, check this link and scroll down: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pernod_Ricard

As a public service, I ask that you help us kick those effete wine-swillers out of Ireland!  Send generous donations to stroudallover.blogspot.com.  I faithfully swear that all money will go directly to the Irish Whiskey Rebellion and that I will fight to the last drop.

Some would say that because of international corporate wheeling and dealing, Jameson is no longer truly an Irish whiskey.  I say to that:  Kiss my Blarney Stone.  The French may own it, but the Irish still make it.

Jameson has some other not so closely guarded secrets.  John Jameson started making Jameson whiskey in 1780, at the Bow Street Distillery in Dublin.  No longer.  In 1966 a bunch of Irish distillers joined forces and built the Midleton Distillery in Cork, where all of Jameson is now distilled.  The old Bow Street distillery has been turned into a visitor’s center, where they give tours and tell the Jameson story while you drink yourself silly.  They also offer ‘whiskey-tasting,’ which is a game of finding your preference before your taste buds and the rest of your body goes numb.

One of the biggest non-secrets is that John Jameson was not Irish.  He was a Scotsman!

Into the old Bow Street Distillery.  Get there early for the tours.  They fill up fast, unlike the Guinness tours which are continuous.  Just walking inside the old place is a treat. While you wait, there's a bar and a gift shop.  Yep, they do sell their whiskey right here!

Another use for whiskey bottles.

Which brings us to the question of how Irish Whiskey and Scotch Whiskey differ?  All whiskey starts out pretty much the same.  Barley.  Water.  Yeast.  Jameson also uses corn (maize). The barley is malted, meaning drenched with water and allowed to sprout.  Then it’s dried.  And here’s the main difference:  Scotch malted barley is dried using a peat fire, which imparts a smoky flavor, with some variations in smokiness.  Irish malted barley is dried in kilns, using pure hot air.  No smoky flavor. It’s then distilled to increase the alcoholic content.  With Jameson, it’s distilled three times.

The maturing process is essentially the same.  Jameson uses oak and oloroso sherry, and port casks or barrels.  Before it’s bottled, the whiskeys are ‘vatted’ together to allow the flavors to blend. Vatting still takes place in Dublin.

What’s the difference between a cask and a barrel?  None.  But there are differences between barrels.  A Brit beer barrel holds 36 Imperial gallons, or a little over 43 US gallons.  Cognac barrel = 79 usgal.  Bordeaux wine barrel = 59 usgal

Although Jameson does make a single malt variety, most of their whiskey is a combination of malted mash combined with un-malted mash and distilled in a pot still.  Lots of purists out there are going to call me on this and say there are a lot more differences.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  And, in whiskey making, every little change makes a difference in the final flavor, etc.  I say, dry up and pour!

At the distillery, you can do a tasting or op for one of those phuu-phuu drinks with fruity things and mounds of sugar that ruins good whiskey.  I'm keeping it a secret which way I lean.

The real stuff!

Citrus and stuff

Cherry and stuff

Fast Facts:  Jameson is the 3^rd largest single-distillery whiskey in the world.  Each year about 4 million cases (48 million bottles) are sold world-wide, making it the best selling Irish Whiskey!

Great, but what does it taste like?  Just purchased a bottle of Jameson 12 year old.  In a word, fabulous.  Smooth.  Soft hints of the sweetness of sherry, and the woodiness of oak.  Notes of cinnamon. The finish is smooth as glass, with full flavor and no burn.  Taste, like perversion, is such a personal matter that I hate to take a stand.  Scotch?  Irish?  I would never denigrate the Scots and their superb whiskies.  The breadth of flavors is extraordinary.  But, for now, I’m sticking with Jameson 12 Year Old.  Sláinte!

Smooth sippin'!!