DUBLIN - Ireland 2014 - page 136

the Midleton tour near Cork (in the huge original factory, here ) are better experiences. If
you do take this tour, volunteer energetically when offered the chance: This will get you a
coveted seat at the whiskey taste-test table at the tour's end.
Cost and Hours: €14, 10 percent discount if booked online, daily 9:30-18:30, last tour
at 17:15, Bow Street, tel. [phone], www.jamesonwhiskey.com .
Cobblestone Pub
Hiding in a derelict-looking building at the top of the square, this pub offers Dublin's least
glitzy and most rewarding traditional-music venue. The candlelit walls, covered with pho-
tos of honored trad musicians, set the tone. Music is revered here, as reflected in the un-
derstated sign: “Listening area, please respect musicians.”
Cost and Hours: Free, Mon-Sat 16:00-23:45, Sun 13:00-23:00, trad-music sessions
Mon-Tue at 21:00, Wed-Sat at 19:00, Sun at 14:00; at north end of square, 100 yards from
Old Jameson Distillery's brick chimney tower; tel. [phone], www.cobblestonepub.ie .
Outer Dublin
The Kilmainham Gaol and the Guinness Storehouse are located west of the old center and
can be combined in one visit, linked by a 20-minute walk, a five-minute taxi ride, or pub-
lic bus #51B or #78A. (To ride the bus from the jail to the Guinness Storehouse, leave the
prison and take three rights—crossing no streets—to reach the bus stop.) Another option
is to take a hop-on, hop-off bus (see here ) : City Sightseeing Dublin stops right at Kilmain-
ham Gaol, while Dublin Bus Tour stops 200 yards away, in front of the modern art mu-
seum in Kilmainham hospital. Both tours stop at the Guinness Storehouse.
From Famine to Revolution
After the Great Potato Famine (1845-1849), destitute rural Irish moved to the city
in droves, seeking work and causing a housing shortage. Unscrupulous landlords
came up with a solution: Subdivide the city's once-grand mansions into tiny rooms
and cram poor renters into them. Dublin became one of the most densely popu-
lated cities in Europe—one of every three Dubliners lived in a slum. On Henrietta
Street, once a wealthy Dublin address, these new tenements bulged with humanity.
According to the 1911 census, one district counted 835 people living in 15 houses
(many with a single outhouse in back or a communal chamber pot in the room). In
cramped, putrid quarters like this, tuberculosis was rampant, and infant mortality
skyrocketed.