A Day in Dublin | Hush Camo Jacket

What to do when one child has an exceptional closure day and the other two are at school? Well organise some childcare for the two in school and take yourself and your teenager off to Dublin! Because while we were on holidays at Easter, I realised that none of my kids have actually been in Dublin city centre. We've driven around the city endless times en route to visit family but never stopped and had a look around. I thought it was about time I showed my first born the city I worked, lived and studied in during my late teens and 20's.

We headed down early morning on the bus with no fixed plans other than to do the Kilmainham Gaol tour, which is number 1 on the TripAdvisor guide to Dublin. Before we headed to find a bus to take us to Kilmainham, we had time to walk around Trinity College grounds, where I had my graduation ceremony some 24 years ago (😱) and my son, who is obsessed with the iPhone portrait mode, took about 50 pictures of my outfit for the day. 

Jacket - c/o Hush 

Cream Jumper - Woolovers (cashmere & cotton)

Leather cross body saddle bag - River Island (preloved)

Jeans - MiH (preloved)

Glasses - Specsavers Balmain

It only arrived the day before, but this camouflage jacket from hush completely changed my planned Dublin outfit because I had to wear it straight away. I'd had a hush military khaki jacket a few years back but sold it to a friend as it was too big for me so when hush invited me to chose something from the collection, I decided to be brave and chose the camouflage version in a size 8 - sizing down for me but making it at neater fit, which is what I wanted.

I've since worn it a few times - not really with any variation in the rest of my outfit as it's a bit of a feature jacket but I really like that it's not your typical mum kind of jacket yet it's not too tragic for a mum to wear. If that makes sense?

My top tip for a jacket like this is to wear it with more formal shoes and a nice bag. If I wear it with trainers, it's all too much 'down with the young 'uns' on me. I wore it with these Dune Loafers that day in Dublin. They're featuring rather a lot on this blog recently...

Dune Guilt Loafers

But back to our day out and we were investigating bus times to take us to the Gaol when we got chatted up by the DoDublin bus tour hustlers and eventually after a bit of bargaining on our part, we cut a deal for a day ticket on their hop on/hop off bus. Now I had looked into doing a bus trip before we left but it was working out expensive and my plan instead was to get a day ticket on Dublin Bus and just take public transport. But my son was free on the DoDublin bus and I got a reduced rate on my ticket so I changed my mind.

And it turned out to be a brilliant idea because although I know my way around the city, I don't really remember too much of the fun facts about it and it's changed lots since I lived there.

So we did half of the trip from College Green all through Dublin 7, past the Guinness factory and Christchurch, out to Kilmainham Gaol where we disembarked. I had no expectations for the tour I have to say and I'm not an Irish history buff by any means but I learned more in 30 minutes than the nuns taught me in 6 years of secondary school. The passion of our tour guide was the reason - he had such enthusiasm for Irish History. The Gaol is grim in places and beautiful in others and filled to the brim with stories. I was blown away by the Victorian part of the building - just like the prison in Paddington 2!

I wanted to do a wee dance ala Hugh Grant at the end of the movie 'Listen to the rain on the roof......'

The tours are only about €10 and you really do need to book in advance as people were being turned away when we arrived. 

After we came out of the museum, we jumped straight on the bus again and did the second part of the tour taking us up around the Phoenix Park and zoo, along the quays to O'Connell Street and over to the south side of the city, past the mecca that is Mattress Mick's (local joke)

to St Stephen's Green, where we disembarked to walk up Grafton Street, over the Ha'penny bridge

to Henry Street where we worshipped at the mecca that is Penney's Mary Street! And I met my niece who works in the buying office...

We made a few purchases before we walked back to catch the bus up to Belfast at the Customs House. I'd share more photos but they mostly contain my son.

And the best bit? Hanging out with my 14 year old who still enjoys being with me and having a laugh - and shopping in Penneys...he is such a savvy shopper too. I taught him well.

Ax
Disclaimer - I was gifted my Hush jacket but was not obliged to blog about it. Some of my links are affiliate links which means that the company knows you came to their website from here and may pay me a small commission should you purchase & keep something. This doesn't change the price of the product and the modest income I make from this goes towards the running costs of this blog. Thank you for supporting the brands that support this blog.