Spotted: coloured bunting flapping in the wind like Bhutanese prayer flags but spelling 'The Village Square' outside Rathgar's Presbyterian church. This church and its grounds had never seen so many visitors in the BC days, now we flock to its benches and granite stone steps for worship of a different kind. The worship of the social life--albeit the 'social distanced' life. I like this allusion to 'village' status which, before lockdown, had never seemed to ring true. A sense of place and community deepened through remoteness.
My Saturday was spent predominantly on the saddle of my bike for a 'mystery tour of Dublin', which works as follows: The tour participants each dream up two to three locations around the city which they would like to visit and show to the other tour-ist(s). You meet at a named location and set off to the first mystery spot. The rough geography of each stop can be shared the evening before--without giving away the golden ticket--in order to decide on the order and route. I dreamt up this master plan myself and remain extremely proud. It's pandemic proofed.
Today's tour took us through the enchanted forest of St. Anne's Park, under Dublin's last remaining medieval archway, into a pizzeria (twice), around relics of the rising, beside sword suppliers' shop fronts and finally, admiring rearing white horses in the windows of a pebble dash home. This last stop took us out of the saddle and into the fire of sectarian surmising.. These white horses, as my tour partner suggested, were used by Protestant families to assert their identity. The white horse iconography comes from the infamous William of Orange and his own white steed, ridden into The Battle of the Boyne. These particular stone steeds were seen in the window of a humble dwelling in Kimmage. I've heard tell that inhabitants of big houses put them in their fan lights to keep them safe during the terror of 1798.
It might be heresy but either way, a nice horsey.
xoxo be a tourist again
Tour locations without the riddle:
1. https://www.thejournal.ie/tree-sculpture-raheny-4387926-Dec2018/
2. http://readscutlers.com/
3. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/st-audoens-gate
4. https://rcsiheritage.blogspot.com/2015/12/surgeons-insurgents-rcsi-and-easter.html#:~:text=Royal%20College%20of%20Surgeons%20in%20Ireland%20c.1900&text=Even%20regular%20passers%2Dby%20may,from%20the%201916%20Easter%20Rising.
5. https://www.newstalk.com/news/heres-why-you-should-go-visit-uimhir-6-on-dublins-harcourt-street-690179
6. https://comeheretome.com/2019/05/20/the-white-horse-in-the-fanlight/
Comments