Day 36 - Dublin

I woke early to the alarm and went down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast, it was not included in the price of the room, but I had had it last time I was here and it was just the same, a full plate of breakfast that tasted very good.

I went up back up to the room and got my laptop bag and came back down and jumped into a taxi to go back to the brewery. I went into the reception area and spoke to the man there to ask to go to the Archive area. The person was Nick who was the guide that took us around the brewery tour in May. He remembered me from then and we had a chat for a while before he phoned up to the Archive to check and I was allowed to go up to the Archive area.

Once there Deidre had available the extra papers I asked for last night and also the other books I looked through last visit. She also provided another book that she said might be interesting for me, but I was able to tell her I actually had a copy of the book at home so I could look at it there.

She left me to go through the papers at my leisure and I completed looking through them and took my notes as I went. I then went through the books I looked at last time and checked off the questions I had from my notes last time. When I had finished looking through everything, I spoke with Deidre and asked her to photocopy a couple of the papers so I could take them with me. She did this and I told her I was finished with all the papers and books and thanked her for all the help she provided to me over the two days.

I had also asked if the Archive would provide me with a letter of introduction from the Guinness Archive stating my name and that I am an independent researcher and have spent time in 2008 and this year in the Archive researching the History of Guinness Beer in Australia. I asked for this so I could use it as support as I ask other businesses or archives in Australia if I can do research with their company into their involvement with the Guinness Company in Australia.

I walked back to the hotel and wandered into all the pubs on the way back looking for new coasters. I was only successful in two of the pubs as the others had coasters I had already picked up already. I also stopped at a couple of supermarkets to look for Pringles cans and found two types I did not have as well.

Back at the hotel I sorted out all my new items that I had acquired and started thinking how I was going to get everything back onto the plane in my hand luggage. It should all fit as I have a large Guinness bag to use as well which I can say holds my duty free shopping.

After dropping the laptop bag and my bits and pieces I had picked up into the room I went back down and hailed a taxi and went to the Woolshed Baa for some lunch. They were showing some World Cup Rugby highlights so I ordered some lunch and sat and watched the games. When I had finished the lunch I went off for a walk.

I walked in a direction that I had not been before to see if I could find any more interesting places. It seems that in the inner suburbs of Dublin there is a church on every second street corner. I walked into an area that seemed quite poor as there we bordered up buildings and quite a bit of used items that looked broken in doorways and porches of the houses. It was an eye opener as the rest of Dublin is quite well kept. I continued walking and found a pub with a different coaster available so I got some off the barmaid and sat and had a drink for a while.

Leaving there I walked back down another street and then turned back towards the city. I got back to an area I knew and walked amongst the shops, stopping at a book store where they were having a sale I was able to pick up three books at a very good price. From there I walked into a Tesco supermarket and picked up one each of the current Guinness cans and a Heineken World Cup Rugby 2011 can to bring home.

I then walked back to the Woolshed Baa as they were showing more games in the European Champions League soccer games tonight. In the bar I managed to catch up with Paul who is one of the Barmen I had met last time. He is a very funny man and I sat at the bar talking with him until the soccer games started on the television. Just before the games kicked off, I finally caught up with Emma who we met in May. She is from down near Wollongong and has been over here for 4 years.

She asked me to say hi to the others who were with me in May and and we caught up on what we both had been doing since. She is married to a Frenchman and her parents came over to France and they had a family reunion there with her other sister as well. She was working on a different floor of the Baa that night so I did not get to spend much time with her but it was good to catch up.

I ordered some dinner as the place was starting to really get packed with people coming in to watch the different soccer games. There are four champions league games on at the same time and the pub is showing them all on different screens on different floods of the pub. My dinner arrived just before the games started. I at dinner and watched the first half of the games but it was so busy in the pub it was hard to concentrate on anything. So at half time I decided to go back to my own hotel to watch the rest of the game.

I said goodbye to Emma and Paul and hopped into a taxi and went back to the Harding Hotel. Dropped the shopping bags in my room I went down to the bar and got an orange juice and watched the last 30 minutes of the football. I then went back to the room and emptied out the four cans of beer, washed out the cans and dried them off before packing them into my luggage for tomorrow’s flight back to London.