CIMS  Annual Outing to Dublin on Sat 4 June 2016

Branch Members and friends from Armagh, Ballyholme, Carnmoney, Cregagh, Eglantine, Holywood, Malone, Portadown and Tandragee travelled to Dublin by Enterprise train. The 43 Members and friends included a couple who had travelled from southern England to take part.

 On arrival in Dublin Connolly we were met by our Guide, Dave Swift, and our coach for the day. We then proceeded to St Patrick's Cathedral for a Service of Holy Communion, celebrated by the Dean’s Vicar, Canon Charles Mullen, assisted by our General Secretary, the Very Revd Gregory Dunstan, Dean of Armagh. In St Patrick's we were joined by Richard Evans who had helped organise the day. Before leaving St Patrick's members had the opportunity to see the "Tree of Life", an artificial tree on which labels could be hung with names to be remembered.

 From St Patrick's we then crossed the Liffey to the Museum of Decorative Arts and History in the former Collins Barracks. There we had lunch in Brambles Café before a brief visit two galleries:

-       Soldiers and Chiefs - The Irish at War at Home and Abroad from 1550 to the present day – here we will saw Irish involvement in WW1 including the 36^th Ulster Division

-       Recovered voices; Stories from the Irish at War (1914-15) in video and audio.

 We then travelled a short distance to the Irish National War Memorial Gardens at Islandbridge (designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens). Glorious weather allowed members to explore the Memorial and the sunken rose gardens.

Our final visit was to the GPO Witness History exhibition on the events of Easter 1916. Our Guide Dave Swift had provided some of the uniforms and artefacts for the exhibition.

We then crossed the road to the Gresham for an enjoyable and well presented evening meal before returning to Belfast.