On the 6th of May we went on an excursion into town. We followed a history trail and received a tour of Leinster House.
We saw St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Christchurch, The Bank of Ireland (which used to be where the parliament sat before the Act of Union), Trinity College and the GPO.
Cllr. Ronan Mc Mahon kindly organised the tour of Leinster House for us. We sat in the visitors’ gallery of the Dáil chambers and got to see where the government and the opposition sit. We also saw the elegantly decorated room where the Seanad sit. This room has Waterford crystal chandeliers and used to be a ballroom. The doors, the ceiling and the fire place, are original features from the 18th century.
We saw the paintings of some of the former Taoisigh of our country and the original proclamation. We also saw a tapestry which was presented to the Irish people by JFK when he visited in June 1963.
Before we left, we got to meet Lucinda Creighton and presented her with our book of essays “If I was a Minister for a day”. She was very impressed with our ideas and said that she would take some of them on board.