Posh Afternoon Tea to Pride Weekend

Niamh Connellan
Jun 25, 2017
7 min read

Updated: May 6, 2020

As always my sister has dragged her birthday out for a week, if not even longer, so celebrations for her 29th to round off her twenties, were no different, All beginning with the yearly birthday visit to Dublin Zoo and the annual zoo pass been renewed, to a visit to Open Gate Brewery for a few beverages to Birthday Brunch but the highlight of any of her celebrations has to be, the Posh Afternoon Tea we had in the Atrium Lounge in the Westin Hotel on Westmoreland Street, which we were able to arrange for the day of her birthday itself which was a added bonus. I got to enjoy the most unusual gin as part of my Peculiar Vegetarian Afternoon Tea where as the birthday girl and her encourage had the Traditional Afternoon Tea package.

Thanks to Paddy, getting last minute tickets to Aersosmith, we were able to not to miss a thing, with our good seats in the 3Arena and finally get to experience Steve Tyler and co on their Aero-Vederci Baby! Tour, which helped to mark another off my bucket list. Aerosmith didn't disappoint with their setlist and was worth the cost of the tickets.

To begin my long weekend off and continuing with Niamh extended birthday celebrations, we decided we be a tourist around Dublin for once, doing more of the adult alcoholic attractions on the first day of our tourist binge. Living near enough to Guinness storehouse, we decided to be begin there, and I was thinking to myself ,any excuse to have a pint in the morning, even if it was 9.30am it was great start to the day with a beautiful view of Dublin surroundings. Only way to follow up a tour of this facility, was a short trip to the Taste of Dublin in Iveagh Gardens enjoying the sun, food, Roe and Co whiskey and music supplied by the Swing cats in such a laid back enjoyable atmosphere before getting back on to the Hop on Hop off bus to continue our tourist marathon.

Perfect way to finish off the day, doing all this touristy stuff we did, was by of course drinking even more and enjoying the tour of both distilleries of Teeling Whiskey and Jameson Whiskey on Bow St. By the stage, we left Jameson Whiskey and all the whiskey I had drank, as not only had I been drinking my own but also that of my sister's too. All the whiskey helped to make the start of the weekender being a tourist really fun and being drunk helped too.

After the drunken antics of the first day of our tourist marathon around Dublin, we decided it was wise for a change of pace with tourist attractions we chose for day 2, especially as we were expecting our parents to arrive up by Mid afternoon. On the bucket list for the start of the day were attractions which we hadn't quite got around to yet, beginning with Dublin Writers Museum on Parnell Square. The museum occupies an original 18th-century house which accommodates the museum rooms, gallery, library, with a coffee shop and bookshop in the annexe behind. In the museum itself, through their collections and displays feature lives and works of Irish writers who made important contributions to literature. On display include a detailed replica of The Book of Kells, opening night programmes for Oscar Wilde play An Ideal Husband and even a first edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula with autographed letter. Continuing this literature themed tour, next up was the James Joyce Centre which is a museum dedicated to promote the life and works of James Joyce. The Museum is located within a restored 18th century Georgian townhouse situated at 35 North Great George's Street. Walking through the permanent exhibit consists of the furniture from the apartment in Paris, where Joyce wrote the majority of Finnegans Wake and the famous door to the home of Leopold Bloom, which was interesting enjoyable experiencing the history of Ulysses and other Joycean works.

We decided as we were that side of the city, our next port of call, had to be a visit to the GPO witness History museum which is a permanent museum located on O'Connell Street that brings the personalities and stories of all the people that were affected by the Easter Rising - Rebels, Crown Forces, Postal Workers and Civilians to life. As we always do, we enjoyed our visit to the musuem which was only topped by the fabulous 25 degree sun and heat in the courtyard at the top of the museum near cafe and bookshop with nice view of the spire and Irish flag flying in the breeze. As we were making great time, even though, it seemed to be flying by, as we were having so much fun, we some how still had time for one more attraction before our folks arrived up. With the gorgeous sun, we walked along the quays, passing the Custom House, neoclassical 18th century building, towards the CHQ building, home to the EPIC museum, which is the Irish Emigration museum showcasing the history and stories of the 70 million plus diaspora worldwide who claim Irish decent. The Exhibition consists of 20 individually themed galleries - Migration, Motivation, Influence and the Diaspora Today. With the time frame left before our parents arrived, we had to cut this enjoyable visit cut but not before witnessing Niamh attempting some Irish dancing steps which had me in stitches for the rest of the day. We collected the parents, who were up for the night to celebrate Niamh and our father birthday, which are a week of one another. With how beautiful the weather was, it was no surprise we ended up in a beer garden, which was a sign of how the rest of the day would turn out, fun had by all. , ,

Once we dropped the parents off at the train station for their train home, we continued on with our tourist marathon, beginning off at Dublinia, which is a historical recreation museum focusing on the Viking and Medieval history of Dublin which is located in a part of Dublin's Christ Church Cathedral, known as the Synod Hall. The museum has recreations of Medieval era buildings, street scenes and actors playing the role of Vikings and Medieval Dubliners in full costume who enact with the visitors which was fun. After making our way through the museum, we climbed the 96 steps to the top of the St Michael's Tower the Archangel where we got to enjoy the nice view of the surrounding area. A short stroll from Dublinia, we were in the grounds of Dublin Castle, as we had the Dublin Passes on us, we were able to do the self guiding tour of the State Apartments and exhibitions. The State Apartments dominate the south range of the Upper Courtyard which was quite significant, as it was in that very courtyard almost 2 years previously, that Ireland voted overwhelmingly in favour for Same Sex Marriage and that love is love. The State Apartments were built as residential and public quarters of the viceregal court and were the seat of the executive. St Patrick’s Hall is one of Ireland’s greatest ceremonial rooms and is nowadays is the venue for the inauguration of the president and been used to entertain several State visitors including John F. Kennedy, Princess Grace of Monaco and Queen Elizabeth II.

As we had the Dublin Passes, we said we finally do the Irish Rock Museum, which is located in Temple Bar which we were both surprised how much more we enjoyed the tour than we thought we would, due in part to our brilliant guide Dave. The tour takes you on a journey as you enter the world of a musician, through several stages of the life of a working performer, such a real working rehearsal room and recording spaces, decorated with artist memorabilia who have recorded in those studios, continue in the U2 room before heading for the live room, then towards backstage in the green room and finally on the stage of the Button Factory. We finished our tour and experience in another building across the street, in which is full of historic recording machinery and Apollo Studios, which is home the memorabilia of Thin Lizzy and Rory Gallagher. Next on our agenda of our tourist marathon, was a stop off at the Little Museum of Dublin, located near St. Stephen Green, to check out their new exhibition 'A little history about the Dublin pub'. We found it fun and interesting to see some of the old Guinness memorabilia, the history of pubs in Dublin and get to sit in a pub snug as part of the exhibition. To finish off our massive undertaking that was our tourist marathon, we went to the Wax Museum Plus in their new location on Westmoreland St. which was Niamh first time visiting in their location. We were wrecked after all the fun we had over the weekend doing this tourist marathon around Dublin City, it is a hard life having such fun on your holiday locally.

Anyone would think after such a fun packed weekend doing our tourist marathon, we should be wrecked but of course we needed something to kill those Monday blues, like anyone needs any excuse to go see Nashville in Concert with Una Healy as the support act, which we had tickets for in the 3 Arena that we thoroughly enjoyed and couldn't wait to see the stars of the show live again hopefully in the future.

That time of year where we celebrate the social and self acceptance, achievements, legal rights, and pride that is Dublin Pride Parade was finally upon us. The morning began in the Odeon for the Pre-Pride Bunch that Irish Life was arranging and that Rob invited Paddy and myself to.The spread of drink and food that Irish life had laid on was unreal as was the face paints, choir, Drag show and overall pride theme. Just before the parade itself, we three made our way towards the St Stephen Green and the Pre-Parade area where we met up with Clare and Sheila for a few mins before the parade. Paddy, Rob and me marched with Irish Life. We meet up with Clare, Shiela and Niamh at the end of the route near Smithfield before heading to Nealons to get the real celebrations under way. The weather, company and atmosphere made the Pride such a fun enjoyable one to remember. 🌈🏳️‍🌈 Love is Love