Dancing on the Waves: Romania's Orphans and the Grand Canal

The Grand Canal is a remarkable treasure, an 86-mile secret passageway from Ringsend in the heart of Dublin to the River Shannon. In July 2005 John Mulligan set out to walk it despite a dodge knee, wrong shoes, and a lack of fitness. Initially he encountered urban lowlife, pollution, and a hemmed-in feeling, but on leaving the city behind he emerged into a world of hedgerows, wildflowers, birds, and gems of architecture and engineering. So this lively description of the Grand Canal Way is peppered with history, architecture, nature, and random encounters. But a chance meeting with a Romanian youth at Portobello Bridge on his first morning turned this walk into something more, a parallel reflection on his voluntary work trying to solve Romania's Holocaust, the notorious state orphanage system and all it's classic horrors.