Time for more pictures from Day 1 of my trip to Ireland. Day 1 we mostly hung around the Grafton Street area and I got to see some of the filming location of one of my all-time favorite movie: ONCE!
In this collection is the 3rd location from the movie I saw and the 2nd most important to me. It is the location where Guy and Girl had their first “date”. You don’t see much of the exterior of the coffee shop where they go to have lunch after she brings him her hoover to have him fix it.
It is here that she tells Guy that her dad taught her to play piano because it was easier on the fingers than violin. The instrument he played and couldn’t after he got arthritis and that ultimately lead to his suicide.
Here is the 2nd collection of images from Day 1 in Ireland:
Andy wanted me to take this picture for Kyle since he is going into landscaping.
More buskers! With a dancer!
Dang it! Just 1 camera setting away from this being a great picture. That is the challenge of street photography though!
Coming back to get our poem.
The poem!
the crowd groans
when their beloved Cyclones
lose
others choose
the Hawkeyesand get disappointed when they don’t rise
to the occasions
a grown man cries
when the Wildcats
shit the bed
but when your team wins-that’s
as good as it can get
then everybody throws their hats
up in the air
it’s nuts how much we care
Dan K. Sigurd dank-k-sigurd.com
Another look at where Guy met Girl. Without all the annoying people!
I should have taken at least a peek, but I didn’t.
Busker!
Reminds me of New Orleans.
I think this is a good goal. Let’s all give a sh!t together!
We went into like a mall to visit like a tourist shop.
A statue of Luke Kelly.
An actor, musician, and co-founder of the Dubliners.
Thanks sticker! I like to think so!
If you are wondering about “Nobody Could Hear the Music” here is a little information from their website:
After decades of cover-up of the abuse of children, the questions of what was done to children in Irish institutions, how it was done and where it was done have been answered in painful detail, but other more difficult and more disturbing questions remain; the questions of why this abuse was allowed to happen and what is to be done now, for the future.
I believe that those involved – the people who experienced cruel and inhumane treatment, the perpetrators, the colluders and those who stood idly by while children were exploited, raped and tortured – know the why. It was because children like us didn’t matter. We were rubbish children and so people felt they could do whatever they wanted to us without consequences. And they were right; they didn’t have to face consequences at the time the abuse happened, and they haven’t had to face any consequences since.
The latest manifestation of indifference towards the feelings of those abused by the Christian Brothers is the insistence on not just maintaining, but celebrating the Artane Boys Band. For many men and their families, the Artane Band is a stark reminder of the brutality visited upon them as children, and it is hard to understand why anybody would want a new generation of young people to march under a banner tarnished by such an ugly history of violence and abuse. Out of respect for the abused children of the past and the innocent participants of the present, it is time for the Artane Band and School of Music to end the pain. Change the uniform. Change the name.
https://www.nobodycouldhearthemusic.com/statement
What? Catholics were abusing children! I’m shocked! Shocked I tell you!
This was basically the first mall in Ireland. Guy and Girl do walk through here in the movie too.
Time for another filming location from ONCE!
Where Girl and Guy had their first “date”.
What it looks like today.
A duck boat drove by.
Inside this store was the music store where Girl and Guy performed the Academy Award winning “Falling Slowly”. But there is nothing in there that even resembles the music store.
Just good advice in general.
At least there is still music being made upstairs.
From inside the Coffee Shop.
Had to get some food and sit where they sat!
The key to their bathroom is on a ladle. But, it wasn’t locked.
Amazing poster in the basement. James Cameron’s first movie he directed was Piranha II.
Andy took this picture of me setting in the window from ONCE!
I remember keeping this beard because I thought everyone in Ireland would have a beard. I was wrong. But more about that later.
Beautiful Victorian architecture in a country she tried to starve to death.
That is it for the 2nd collection of Ireland Day 1 pictures. Plenty more to come next Friday!
I love this – I recognize and/or went to a ton of these places, but didn’t remember explicitly each being in Once. That’s wonderful!
I DID drag Jon into the camera store, and it was just okay.