Irish Holiday Part 2 - Howth

 We spent most of our Ireland trip in cities, so it was nice to take a few opportunities to get outside built up areas.  During the stay in Dublin, we took local commuter rail out to see Howth, located on a little peninsula on the edge of Dublin harbour.  Our primary activity was the 14 km cliff walk!

Finding the start of the path was a bit tricky.  It turned out to be this small gap in the wall on 

the side of the road!

Once we found the path, it turned out to be quite pretty, first with fields, then atop the cliffs.

Using goats grazing to keep the gorse under control!

A Martello tower, the first that we saw on the walk.

Starting the cliff part of the cliff walk :)

Very cute little cove.

Selfie with lighthouse.

Ferry heading to Dublin.

Another view of the lighthouse.

Coming into Howth we got to see another Martello tower!

After the hike, feeling footsore (at least I was, Arthur was fine), we enjoyed some fish and chips before heading back into Dublin.

Irish Holiday Part 1 - Dublin

 In August, Arthur and I had a two-week holiday in Ireland.  The holiday came together very quickly as some other plans fell through, so for a good part of the time we were pretty much winging it.

We started in Dublin, as we were able to take a direct flight from Vancouver with Air Canada.  

History was certainly a big part of the tour, which should be no surprise to those who know us!  Arthur in particular is interested in 20th Century history, so there was a bit emphasis on seeing locations associated with the Irish War of Independence, Irish Civil War and the Troubles.  So we started our tour near our hotel at St Stephen's Green, a lovely park in the centre of Dublin that was one of the focal points of the 1916 Easter Rising.  The Easter Rising is full of bizarre stories, that would be laughable if not for the large number or people killed or maimed.  The Irish Volunteers, being aware of the newspaper stories about the Great War, knew that trenches were the most important feature of the Western Front, so obviously they would be needed in Dublin.  As a result, the Volunteers in St Stephen's Green started digging trenches, with no idea of the actual purpose of trenches in modern warfare.  When British soldiers arrived, they occupied the upper floors of multi-storey buildings around the park and fired down on the men in the park, so the trenches they'd dug ended up having no particular value.

Anyway, the modern park is very beautiful :)

We carried on straight to the GPO, or the General Post Office, which was the headquarters for the Easter Rising.  The GPO is on O'Connell Street.  There used to be a grand pillar with a statue of Royal Navy Admiral Nelson in front of the GPO.  This has since been replaced by the Spire, which was installed in time for the millennium.

The GPO is still a functioning post office, but it also has a great museum of the Easter Rising, as well of An Post, the Irish Postal Service.

The Irish are quite keen on supporting human rights around the world, and there are public expressions of their support such as this eternal flame for prisoners of conscience sponsored by Amnesty International, which we found near the Custom House.

We weren't able to visit Dublin Castle.  Here is one of the entrances though!

One of the museums we visited was called Dublinia, with a focus on Viking-era and medieval Dublin.  They had replica armour to try on! 

And lots of carefully researched replicas.

We went to Kilmainham Gaol, the first of a surprising number of museums based on former prisons that we visited in Ireland.  It was necessary to book this one in advance, so be aware of that if you ever want to go there!  Kilmainham is quite historically significant, with many Irish patriots having been interred there, including most of the participants in the Easter Rising, 14 of whom were executed in the Stonebreaker's Yard.

This is the 'modern' east wing of the Gaol, built in the nineteenth century.  It introduced modern concepts like light and direct supervision for prisoners. If it looks familiar, it may be because many movies were filmed here!

After visiting the Gaol, I finally indulged in a pint of Guinness!

In the eastern part of Dublin, there is the gigantic Phoenix Park, where we found the 62 m tall Wellington Monument, apparently the tallest obelisk in Europe.

I was very surprised to see a deer less than 10 m from me in the park, completely chill and unbothered.

We found the Magazine Fort in Phoenix Park.  It was not open to visitors when we were there - shortly after we returned to Vancouver I received a notice that the renos were complete and we were now welcome to visit!  D'oh!

Dublin is a city that celebrates its literary scions.  One of the most famous James Joyce, and his famous work Ulysses.  So it was fun to find his own statue.

As well as little reminders of Ulysses like this plaque in a sidewalk in front of the statue of Moore.

Vampire Hunt!

Last night at the Trumpeter Society monthly game night, Corey and I playtested some rules for vampires in Sword Weirdos - part my plans for a game based on the movie Sinners.  Arthur helped to create a cozy little table for us to play the game on - a cemetery attached to an Orthodox church. The scenario I came up with had three vampire hunters (Dr Stack, and his colleagues Arthur and Quincy) moving into the cemetery to find the crypt of the vampire so they could put an end to his nocturnal activities.  Father Alexei (Alyosha), inside the church with his scholarly brother, Deacon Ivan (aka Vanya), is not going to react well to a group of ne'er-do-wells desecrating graves in his churchyard.  Alyosha's simple brother is the groundskeeper Pavel, who is in the churchyard, and dissolute brother Dmitri has appeared at the church door to harass the pious elder brother.  Meanwhile, a group of Roma are camping in the field next door. 

The vampire starts off by attacking Roma dancer Sara.  

This does not go well for the vampire!  The Roma swarm the vampire, knocking him down and terrifying him so he transforms into a cloud and flees.  This is what the young folk these days call, FAFO!

Dr Stack and his colleagues open the vampire's crypt, but find that it is empty!  Of course it is, the vampire is busy getting his ass kicked by the Roma!  Meanwhile, Pavel summons Father Alexei about the intruders in the graveyard.  Father Alexei confronts Dr Stack, but the good doctor convinces the priest that his actions are correct.  In game terms, Dr Stack and Father Alexei each rolled a will test, and Stack prevailed.

Having learnt his lesson from the Roma, the vampire takes a different approach against the hunters.  He casts Charm on Arthur, draws him away from his colleagues, and transforms Arthur into a vampiric thrall.

The vampire sends his new thrall against his former friends.  Quincy fails his test to attack his friend, but Dr Stack has no such qualms and pounds a stake into Arthur's heart.

The vampire then charms Vanya and converts him into a thrall.

Vampire thrall Vanya attacks the hunters, and decapitates Dr Stack!

Quincy attempts to attack the vampire, but is himself converted.  Meanwhile Fr Alexei and Dmitri dispatch Vanya.

Next they confront and defeat Quincy.

At this point, I stopped taking photos.  The vampire managed to convert gravedigger Pavel, the remaining brothers defeated him, and finally the vampire decided to withdraw from the cemetery.

The game was a good test of what we can expect for the next scenario. Before the next game, we will prepare profiles for all the main characters plus generic profiles for background characters.  Most characters will start the game unarmed, but they will have the option to find or fabricate weapons, and we will have cards for each useful item that players can get.  The vampire learnt a valuable lesson:  better to charm potential victims and convert them individually than to attack a group!  A change for next time, to promote safety in numbers, is that if the vampire tries to charm someone in a group, they get to use the highest Will in the group to counter the vampire's efforts.  As the next game will be a multi-player game, one of the plans is for players to change sides if their character is vampirised - we'll see how that goes!