Our first stop, Day One. I forget the name of the park [Phoenix Park?] but it's in Dublin and houses the house of the President and the American embassy, as well as a whole lot of protected deer. Two stories for the park. As we drove past the president's house we could see a light in the window. The previous president lit a candle in the window as a sign that Irish who had immigrated away in times of trouble and Ireland's economic decline (now reversed) would always be welcome home; there would always be a candle burning in the window to light them the way home. The new president has continued the tradition. The cross represents the point ehere the Pope stood (in 1978?) and spoke mass. Approx. 1 million Irish gathered in the park that day. Since the population was only 3 million at the time that meant about 1 in 3 of the entire population were gathered in one spot in Dublin to hear mass at the same time! Apparently they also had a huge party in the parklands around the cross after the Irish soccer team got into the Fifa World Cup for the first time with the breweries setting up stalls and giving away free piss while Ronan Keating crooned into the microphone but was largely ignored for the Guiness.