Saturday, 19-Oct-2024
I’d done a lovely walking tour of my neighborhood with a local guide, back when I’d first moved into my apartment here in the Liberties. I hadn’t planned on taking another tour… but my friend Brian was visiting, so when I saw the open invitation I’d floated the idea by him. Unsurprisingly, he was quite excited for the chance to learn a bit of the more personal history of the area, so we roused ourselves vaguely early one morning, and made our way onward for the tour!
As before, it was simply lovely. Anthony was (and likely still is) an amazing guide – we walked, he shared stories of the neighborhood, and we got the opportunity to learn more about the personal history of this small portion of Dublin. Stories about the local personalities, about the industries that had shaped the area, and even about some small turns of phrase that were born here.
I can’t recall if I mentioned it in my post about the first tour I took, but my favorite phrase from Dublin is “Beyond the Pale”. In short, back many years ago, Dublin itself was known as “the pale”. Or, more accurately, the fence around Dublin was a “Pale”… and so anything outside the city was “Beyond the Pale”, or a place that good folk wouldn’t go.
It was a fun tour, and a great opportunity to take a lovely walk while connecting a bit more with this new place that I call home.
Link to a cool article about the phrase “Beyond the Pale” – https://www.cntraveler.com/story/what-beyond-the-pale-actually-means
