Its been a busy day in the world of mold here in my lab. I wont bore you with the details but I was very close to posting a pic of one of the mold I've been looking at all morning. Instead I've randomly posted the picture above. I think I actually have about 4 or 5 pictures of this building.

This is the Customs House in Dublin. It is a large building right off of the Liffy- the main river that flows through Dublin. In Gaelic it is known as "Teach an Chustaim". Teach means house and is pronounced more like tee-achk. Built in the 18th century it cost the huge total of 200,000 pounds. The outside walls of the building all depict Ireland's coat of arms and rivers.

It contains the Department of Environment, Heritage, and Local Government. Being on the Liffy was the ideal place to put the Customs House since the ships would pull up and dock all along its front and pay the necessary taxes and duties. There are still very large boat hooks all along side the wall. I'm not sure how often boats actually dock in the area anymore.

During the war of 1921 War of Independence, the IRA burnt the Custom House down. One of the many tragic results of this war was that a large and irreplaceable amount of historical records were destroyed. The Irish have always been noted for their historical records and thus parish records of births, deaths, and marriages as old as the Middle Ages were lost.

Docked down the river from the Custom House is a replica of an Irish Famine Ship. I am planning on doing a post later explaining parts of the famine exodus and ships.

Have a great day- I've got to get back to the microscope!