DUBLIN - Ireland 2014 - page 97

• Turn west (left) down people-filled Henry Street (Dubliners' favorite shopping lane),
then wander to the right into the nearby...
Moore Street Market: Many merchants here have staffed the same stalls for decades.
Start a conversation. It's a great workaday scene. You'll see lots of mums with strollers—a
reminder that Ireland is one of Europe's youngest countries, with more than 35 percent of
the population under the age of 25 (Mon-Sat 8:00-18:00, closed Sun).
• Return to O'Connell Street. A block east (right) of O'Connell, down Cathedral Street,
detour to...
St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral: Although this is Dublin's leading Catholic church, it rather
curiously isn't a “cathedral.” The pope declared Christ Church to be a cathedral in the 12th
century—and later, gave St. Patrick's the same designation. (The Vatican has chosen to
stubbornly ignore the fact that Christ Church and St. Patrick's haven't been Catholic for
centuries.) Completed in 1821, this Neoclassical church is in the style of a Greek temple.
• Back on O'Connell Street, head up the street (north) until you find the statue of...
Father Matthew: A leader of the temperance movement of the 1830s, Father Matthew
was responsible, some historians claim, for enough Irish peasants staying sober to enable
Daniel O'Connell to organize them into a political force. (Perhaps studying this example,
the USSR was careful to keep the price of vodka affordable.)
Nearby, the fancy Gresham Hotel is a good place for an elegant tea or beer. In an earli-
er era, the beautiful people alighted here during visits to Dublin. In the 1960s, Richard
Burton and Liz Taylor stayed at the hotel while he was filming The Spy Who Came In from
the Cold . (In those days, parts of Dublin were drab enough to pass for an Eastern Bloc
city.)
• Standing boldly at the top of O'Connell Street is a monument to...
Charles Stewart Parnell: Ringing the monument are the names of the four ancient
provinces of Ireland and all 32 Irish counties (including North and South, since this
was erected before Irish independence). It's meant to honor Charles Stewart Parnell
(1846-1891), the member of Parliament who nearly won Home Rule for Ireland in the late
1800s (and who served time at Kilmainham Gaol). A Cambridge-educated Protestant of
landed-gentry stock, Parnell envisioned a modern, free Irish nation of Catholics—but not
set up as a religious state. The Irish people, who remembered their grandparents' harsh
evictions during the famine, came to love Parnell (despite his privileged birth) for his tire-
less work to secure fair rents and land tenure. Momentum seemed to be on his side. With
theBritishprimeministerofthetime,WilliamGladstone,favoringasimilarformofHome
Rule, it looked as if Ireland was on its way toward independence as a Commonwealth
nation, similar to Canada or Australia. Then a sex scandal broke around Parnell and his
mistress, the wife of another Parliament member. The press, egged on by the powerful