(CNN) — St. Patrick's Day is a global phenomenon, and Irish pubs can be found everywhere from Peru to Lanza Rote. increase. Have an Irish feel without visiting, especially if you are one of the 70 million people in the world who can claim Irish heritage.
But to experience the modern energy of this small island nation, you need to visit. Most people start traveling the city of Dublin.
A compact, walkable capital, a Georgian granite landmark built on a low-rise skyline and human scale.
From Phoenix Park and Kilmainham Gaol in the west, follow the River Liffey through the city center, past the Guinness Storehouse, St. Patrick's Cathedral and Dublin Castle, and rejuvenate to the east. Docklands that turned into.
Standing on the Bat Bridge, you can see traditional Dublin, represented by old and new custom houses, and the new financial towers and crane sweeps beyond. I can do it. It will be even bigger.
The River Liffey runs through the center of Dublin.
Courtesy Gales McCormack
Europe's best
Designed by the same award-winning team as the Titanic Belfast Museum, about 10 million people have left Ireland for centuries for famine. Telling the story of people. To the economic need in opposition to religious persecution.
They went to England, America, Australia, etc. to build railroads and cultivate frontier territory.
They brought their culture, talked about the ambassadors of the new country, and created new Irish myths abroad. They and their descendants are diasporas that museums such as EPIC want to attract, and in 2013 the Irish tourism initiative The Gathering was dedicated to this audience only.
The farewell of tears and the return of longing have become part of the national identity. The airport's arrival area is full of homesick foreign signs and is hungry for Brennan bread and tight potato chips.
Music and Dance
Smithfield's cobblestones are at the top of the city It is a venue for live music of traditional music.
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Pubs are, of course, the best known Irish cultural exports, but many in Ireland, which has been hit by a pandemic. Was forced to close forever.
"Believe it or not, this is the capital of the country and where you can actually go and engage in that aspect of our culture on a daily basis. Not many, "Thomas said. Mulligan, whose father Tom took over Smithfield's pub 30 years ago and turned it into the hub of today's live music.
The revival of Irish traditional music became mainstream in the 1960s. This symbolizes the new national pride of this young country to commemorate its 100th anniversary of independence this year.
From "Danny Boy" (written by the Englishman) to "The Fields of Ascenry", Ireland's most famous folk songs were stories of asylum and longing, but now It's a popular standard. "She went through the fair" was a lost classic and regained popularity in Ireland after being rediscovered in the United States.
Similarly, country music is very popular in Ireland and has its own sub-genre: Country'n'Ireland. Riverdance was also a global phenomenon for Irish-Americans born in Chicago.
Literary tradition
Modernity and transformation have changed a lot here, but this city is it Dublin's life that makes what it is, and an institution with a history that has grown and still remains.
Founded in 1592, Trinity College is Ireland's oldest surviving university. Brian Boru's harp, Ireland's oldest model of national insignia, is held at Trinity College's magnificent long-room library, home to the 9th-century Gospel Book of Kells.
Richard Quest meets James Joyce's spoofed John Chevrin (left) at a Bewley's cafe.
Ireland is proud of its storytelling tradition. Four Nobel Laureates in Literature were born-W. B. Yeats, G. B. Shaw, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney all but one have reached the end of their lives on the foreign coast.
Two of Ireland's most famous writers, Oscar Wilde and James Joyce, are outraged with Paria and asylum for what was considered public decency at the time. Was a person.
Anglo-Irish artist Francis Bacon, a pioneering giant of contemporary art, left Ireland as a teenager to England. He was openly gay at the time when it was illegal on both islands. He would not have been easily accepted in his home society for much of his life.
But, like Wild and Joyce, he was accepted after his death. All content in his artist's studio was acquired by the Hulane Gallery in Dublin. There, they were reconstructed, just as Bacon was creating his legendary artwork. This is one of the city's best-preserved secrets, and above all, admission is free.
Swimming in the sea
Joyce spent much of his life in mainland Europe, but his The biggest work, Modernist Classic This year's 100th anniversary, Ulysses is a love letter to Odyssey following his hometown of Leopold Bloom on a one-day trip around Dublin.
The opening scene of the novel takes place at the Martello Tower on the coastline in the southern suburbs of Sandycove. Today, the James Joyce Museum is a pilgrimage site for fans celebrating Bloomsday every June. 16.
This area is a popular place for bathers, and swimming in the sea has become more and more popular since the hit of Covid.
Celebrities are also involved. Harry Styles was found swimming in a nearby Bico bus this week. He and his family followed in the footsteps of Matt Damon, who appeared there in 2020 after the blockade of Covid in the area.
CNN has joined the local group The Ripple Effect to swim early in the morning on a 40-foot cape.
"Many people started connecting outdoors because many people couldn't meet indoors during the blockade," explains member Katie Clark. .. "It was a good place to come to the sea and rediscover."
Regarding the name of the group, fellow member Mandy Lacey said, "Irish people make people. I love to help. It's our essence. I think the spillover is Irish. It's part of our history. Whether we experience difficult times, good times. Regardless, everyone is really, really, there to support each other. "
Swimming in the ocean is becoming more and more popular. Is increasing.
Remaining, leaving
Earlier this year, British filmmaker Kenneth Branagh Winning the Oscar "Belfast" is a semi-autobiographical film about a 30-year pre-conflict Northern Ireland childhood known as the Troubles, which fled the family to England. It ends with the dedication "for those who remain, for those who have left, and for all who have been lost."
But centuries ago, taking a vacation often meant permanent asylum, but now it's a door that sways in both directions.
Many Irish expatriates have reassessed their priorities in the wake of a pandemic and have returned home for a new life with a young family. And, as always, returnees bring in the expertise and knowledge they have gained abroad, which can help their homeland prosper.
In 2015, Ireland became the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage through popularity polls. Today, Ireland is far from the popular imaginative and homogeneous Catholic country. This country of immigrants has also been enriched by inward migration in recent decades. This modern and increasingly multicultural Ireland has new confidence.
Ireland has changed a lot since it was welcomed as the "Celtic Tiger" at the turn of the century. What followed was huge economic growth and great optimism for more than a decade. Today, like the rest of the world, Ireland is seeking a post-pandemic purpose.
But, as history shows, this small and young country can do that by first looking at each other and then turning the world outwards. I can do it.
