We woke to beautiful blue skies and a big day in front of us. We were picked up at 9am by Julian from Little Gem Tours and set off on our Dublin exploration.
Our first stop was Trinity College old library to see The Book of Kells exhibition.
The Book of Kells, are a 9th century illuminated manuscript in Latin on vellum that documents the four Gospels of the life of Christ, with various other texts and tables. The Book of Kells is Ireland’s greatest cultural treasure and possibly the world’s most famous medieval manuscript. There are two books on display at a time. The “book” is written on vellum, a specially prepared calf skin, from the skins of 150 beasts. It is in four volumes. In 2000 one of the volumes was sent to Canberra for display as part of an “Illustrated” Books Exhibition, unfortunately it suffered minor damage to the text, they think, as a result of the engine vibration over the long time of the flight. The volumes we saw were truly remarkable for both their calligraphy and detailed colourful illustrations.
From there we went into the Long Room of the Old Library, passing under the coat of arms for Queen Elizabeth I, who founded Trinity College you walk into a magnificent space, filled with over 200,000 of the Library’s oldest books, it has been described as one of the most impressive libraries in the world and we cannot deny it. Either side of the nearly 65m length of the library are floor to ceiling shelves filled with books, each is systematically catalogued using a unique system of Latin letters and numbers. There are permanent wooden ladders fixed in each bookcase to allow access to the top shelves, and on the upper floor, there are hidden doorways to allow access from one bay to the next. And at the dividing walls for each bay on the ground floor are marble busts of famous philosophers, writers and Trinity College Alumni. The library also has a copy of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic and also the “Brian Boru” harp, the national symbol of Ireland.
From there we went to the National Museum and spent most of our time looking at the medieval section and the role of Brian Boru on the unification of Ireland during the times of many minor kings throughout the country and the Viking occupation in Ireland.
We moved onto the National Library to see the William Butler Yeats exhibition. Yeats was an Irish poet and one of the foremost literary figures of the 20th century. He was a pillar of the Irish Literary Establishment. One of his most famous and widely quoted poems is titled “When You Are Old”
( https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43283/when-you-are-old )
The exhibition was very good covering his life and times, with many audio visual displays of his works and life.
After seeing the exhibition we went up and had a look at the reading room. A magnificent domed room with many research tables arranged under it. So much light. In the entrance of the library there were stained glass windows of literary greats, we spotted one in honour of Dante. ?
Driving around Dublin is unusual in so many ways for a capital city. It is open, the streets are generally wide and with a building height limit of 34m there are no urban canyons. Georgian architecture dominates the city. There are four Georgian Squares in the city, each consisting of streets of Georgian Terraces around a well maintained central park. While most of the city parks are open to the public, there are still a few gated parks where access is only available to those with a key, usually the local community.
The south side (south of the River Liffey) of Dublin is the more prestigious/ affluent side of town, with the north being described as more edgy and less expensive. The largest minority in Dublin is the Polish community, sharing close ties through their catholic faith with the locals. There is a fair amount of graffiti around town and just a few murals. It is a clean city with little rubbish on the streets.
We drove by the new Guinness brewery. It produces the equivalent of 2 billion pints a year of Guinness, 1/3 of all Guinness is made there. It also produces a Guinness concentrate for export overseas. I think that explains why Guinness tastes so much better in Ireland.
On our travels around town we stopped and strolled numerous times. We called into City Hall, another domed building, it displayed statues of leading/formative Irish figures and the crests of the four Provinces ( Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster )
We walked around what is left of the old Dublin Castle and many government buildings, all with their own stories.
We called into Kings Park, the centre for the legal fraternity and out in the park in front of the building we found the “Hungry Tree”. A tree that is literally engulfing a bench seat, amazing how nature will take over if given a chance.
We had lunch in what claims to be the Oldest Pub in Ireland, The Brazen Head. Dating back to 1660, the original bar still exists today, although the pub has grown bigger around it.
Then it was time to go to the Hugh Lane Gallery. He was an art collector and philanthropist. With a keen eye for good art and low prices, he amassed an impressive collection of Impressionist art, including works by Renoir and Monet.
Across the road was a commemorative garden for the Irish struggle for independence, it has an impressive sculpture of an Irish folktale where people were turned into swans and later come back very aged. Symbolic of the eternal struggle of the Irish.
We took a drive through the new “Silicon Valley” end of town, the home of global businesses like Google, Facebook and Airbnb. The height restrictions have been relaxed in this area and new modern edifices are being erected there, so very different to the rest of Dublin. The area is also home to the recording studios of local band U2.
After that we went and had a look through Iveagh Garden donated to the city by the Guinness family. It was large and a part of it was sealed off in preparation for an outdoor concert. The garden itself looks like it would be beautiful at the right time of year, we saw it just as the roses were waiting on a new flourish of blooms and the hedges needed a good trim.
We then drove through Phoenix Park, covering 1750 acres it is the largest park in any capital in Europe. It was formerly a deer hunting park. It includes the city zoo, the Residence of the President and the US embassy. The Wellington monument that towers in the park is the tallest obelisk in Europe. The park also plays host to the Papal visits to Dublin. There is a huge cross commemorating the Papal visit in 2018. About 130-150k attended well down on previous visits that gave had attendances of up to a million people.
To end the day we did the tour of Kilmainham Gaol. This gaol in so many ways is a reflection of what has made Ireland (both the Republic and Northern Ireland). The prison tour was the highlight of my day. It was opened in 1796, and was designed to hold prisoners in single cells. The prisoners were kept in their cells for 23hrs a day, and allowed out for 1 hr of silent supervised walking everyday. There were both Catholic and Protestant chapels for the use of prisoners. About 10% of the prison population at any given time were political prisoners. During the potato famine the cells and prison became overcrowded due to harsh new laws by the British. As many as 5 prisoners were held in each cell with an overflow of prisoners held in corridors. The annual pass through rate of the gaol went from 1000 per year to over 9000 per year, primarily due to the introduction of a Vagrancy Act with made begging illegal, and punishable by imprisonment and/or transportation. This lead to a dramatic increase in disease throughout the prison.
The British Army took control of the gaol in 1910, at the time of an independence uprising, the next 14 years saw numerous Irish activists goaled and executed in the prison. Around 140 mainly political prisoners were executed, some hung and some shot. In one case a leading political activist who was sentenced to death became gravely ill, but before he could die of natural causes, the British dragged him in front of a firing squad in a chair, so he couldn’t die before his sentence was passed. This was the brutality of the British regime that eventually united the Irish to force independence. The last prisoners were released from the goal in 1924.
In 1966 the museum was opened, after being rebuilt with the help of old prisoners. Some of the fundraising for the restoration was done by renting it out for films such as Italian Job and more recently Paddington Bear. Artists such as U2 and Sinéad O’Connor have recorded music there.
We had a great time out with Julian, and we still have a lot to see when we return here at (sad to say it) the end of our holiday.
Tomorrow we head to Belfast, and another very interesting day.
