Political Ireland

I managed to take the Hop Off, Hop On bus that my Dublin City Pass included (I waited for a half hour for the wrong Hop On, Hop Off bus). The tour guide was amusing but perhaps thought he was a little too clever. I sat on the upper deck and it was sunny enough that I worried about forgetting to apply SPF lotion. Being alone I was asked by a French man to move so he could sit with his female companion and I flatly refused.  Then they talked behind me and never listened to the funny and informative guide. Then a very big Canadian man sat with me and talked. Why do people take tours if they won't listen to the narrative?

I got off the bus for the IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and got excited to see a huge portrait of Octavia Butler. The exhibit had something to do with her series Exogenesis but don't ask me what! Perhaps this museum's art was a bit too modern for me.

A small exhibit about the movement to repeal Amendment 8 that criminalized abortions was interesting.  

Then I went to the Kilmainham 

Gaol (prison) Museum, a lovely stroll of 10 minutes away, where the republican insurgents of 1916 were incarcerated.  

It seems to me that everything in Ireland is by definition political...and their history is very complicated. 

I want to understand it.