Summary:
Trinity Climbers trip to Glendalough, County Wicklow, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, February, 2007.
Another excellent trip, made especially pleasant by the blessing of fine weather.
Saturday: Acorn Buttress. Three routes. From right to left, Fascilis Descendus (HS 4b), Provo (VS 4c), and one other route (most likely Inferno).
Sunday: Expectancy. Two routes. An abseil route to the right us was also put to use by our group and several others passing by.

( Much more detailed description follows... )

If you aren't Irish or have not lived in Ireland at least for a while the following entry may not make much sense.

Crisps

Tayto is synonymous with crisps in many part of Ireland and it seem strange how only now have the released the deceptively simple "ready salted" flavour. The package resembles an Argentinian Football player, light blue and white vertical stripes. The crisps themselves are fairly predictable, my only complaint is a more lightly salted crisps would make it easier to eat excessive quantities but in the long run that is probably for the best.
Not only have Tayto released this new flavour but they have released Podge and Rodge branded crisps for culchies. The crisps are rippled and seem suspiciously like existing varieties but I've only tried the Buffalo Breath flavour so far.

North Side Guinness
Guiness must have realised that any new product would cannibalise their existing market so for a little over a year now they have run the Guinness Brewhouse Series releasing variations on the traditional Guinness Stout. The most recent Northstar stout has been entirely underwhelming and for my money you may as well drink Beamish. The previous Toucan brew was nice enough, less heavy for the summer months. Still I'd much rather go to the Porter House and drink their various stouts. For such a nation of drinkers it is a shame we have such limited variety in our beers.

Ireland may be famous as the home of Guinness. Guiness although the most famous is not the only type of stout you can drink, for starters there are also Beamish and Murphys (the latter is largely drunk by people from Cork).
Having visited Belgium where every pub has a different beer of its own it is disappointing that Ireland has such little variety. The Porter House is one of the few pubs in Dublin which serves its own brews. This week they held "stout fest" serving four different varieties of the black stuff: Pint of Plain; Wrassler XXXX; Oyster Stout; and lastly but most bizarrely Chocolate Truffle Stout. The first three flavours are regularly available, the Pint of Plain is a good solid solid stout you could drink it all evening. I enjoy a pint of Oyster Stout occassionaly but it is rather tangy and I wouldn't drink it all evening.
The Chocolate truffle stout tastes every bit as bizarre as it sounds, like as if someone dumped a spoonful of Cocoa in your pint (with a hint of smokiness). I doubt they will add it to the regular menu but it was certainly an interesting change from the usual.