NOREEN YUN AND MARIE HART ENJOY A STOUT AT THE SOURCE

THE GRAVITY BAR  OFFERS A SUPERB VIEW OF DUBLIN'S ROOFTOPS

In April,’08, I realized a dream come true by visiting Ireland, the land of my rather distant but nevertheless revered and certainly romanticized ancestors. My first day included a whirlwind tour of Dublin, the National Gallery and the GUINNESS STOREHOUSE which is what the company calls their brewery headquarters. By the time I reached the Guinness compound I was more than a bit jet-lagged and jittery so I cut the tour of Guinness brewing history short and took the elevator to the ninth floor to the famous circular GRAVITY BAR eager to collect my complimentary pint. Gravity is a large open space filled with people from all over the world, buzzing around the very functional and centrally-located bar area like bees buzz around melted ice-cream on a summer side-walk. There are small tables positioned around the perimeter so patrons can enjoy spectacular views of sky-scraper-less Dublin-town.

A STORM FORMS AND PASSES FASTER THAN SEAMUS CAN POUR A PINT

JAMES JOYCE QUOTES ARE ETCHED INTO THE WINDOWS

Quotes etched into the windows from such classic Joycean works as “Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” and the “Dubliners” draw the eye to famous Dublin land-marks like the Wellington monument, St Stephen’s Green and Trinity College.  Though lack-luster and long-ago, my English-major credentials were savvy enough to register a respectful pause. Against the back-drop of the Wicklow Mountains, I watched the sky turn from clear blue to a  cloudy, menacing hail-storm, then back to sunny again all in a ten-minute span. An unflappable bar-tender, not-surprisingly named, Seamus poured me the perfect, shamrock-topped pint which I downed with appropriate Irish-American alacrity. Now a pint of Guinness Stout is always good, but when it comes complimentary, as part of your tour it borders on greatness. I’d have gladly paid for a second but the pressures of tour life prevailed. We were off to the north in the morning and I needed a clear head to fully appreciate the sights I had signed up to see.  No worries. It seems they do serve Guinness in Derry.

                                          
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MADELEINE BEST HENN was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She graduated from La Salle University with a degree in English and a passion for the literature, landscape, and history of Ireland and the British Isles. She also indulged an interest in the well-being of the human psyche and went on to earn a nursing degree from Holy Family College.  Along with free-lance writing, she is employed as a psychiatric nurse and a mental health program administrator. Madeleine is a wife and mother; she is suitably proud of her own Irish heritage and currently resides in Hunterdon County, New Jersey.