The price of a postcard mailed from Ireland to the United States is €2.20, which is about $2.36 these days. Why the high cost? Couldn’t say. Even the USPS has that beat, charging $1.45 for a card from the U.S. to Ireland.

So while I bought a fair number of cards in Ireland, priced from €0.25 to €1 each, I only sent four at the elevated trans-Atlantic price, mostly to people who had previously sent me cards from Europe. I mailed all them at the General Post Office on O’Connell Street, not far north of the River Liffey.

The building dates back to 1818 and played more of a part in Irish history than most main post offices in most countries. I’m referring to the Easter Rising, of course, when the GPO was rebel HQ. As such, it took a thorough shelling.

In the basement is GPO Witness History, a museum about the Easter Rising, opened on the occasion of the centennial in 2016. I suspect that most modern Irish agree that 1916 was a shining moment for Irish nationalism, but maybe there’s less agreement on the course of things after that.

In any case, the museum covered the knotty convolutions of Irish politics at the turn of the 20th century, then the week of the uprising day by day (confusion for just about everyone), including a video dramatizing the bad-to-worse situation inside the GPO, with some of the characters touching on how their failure would pave the way for a free Ireland. That would be a rocky road, with the rest of the displays dealing with the immediate aftermath of the Rising and subsequent bloody fight for independence and the civil war.

I especially liked the re-creation of some of the posters to be found on the walls of Dublin more than 100 years ago. Some political.

Some not.

Once upon a time, Nelson’s Pillar stood very near the GPO in the middle of O’Connell Street, as seen in the post-Rising photo above, naturally honoring the victor of Trafalgar. The IRA (apparently) blew it up in 1966. Nothing was put on the site until 2003, when the city of had the Spire of Dublin erected.

Definitely not honoring anyone in particular, especially not an Englishman. Not likely to inspire political ire, but who knows. Pin-like structures rising almost 400 feet might offend people in some future century for reasons we can’t possibly imagine.