Day 99 26 August 2019 Day 15 Ireland Dublin

A lazy no travel anywhere day, no car day. Just us sort of day. Exploring things we missed when we arrived here in Dublin.  

We left the hotel around 10:30am, I did say it was a lazy day!, and walked to St Patrick’s Cathedral, founded in 1191. It is currently the National Cathedral of the Church of Ireland. I say currently on purpose, because over its existence the Cathedral has seen its denomination change a few times, particularly between the 16th and 17th centuries reformation period. It has remained Anglican since William of Orange’s victory at the Battle of Boyne. The Cathedral has a high ceiling supported by huge pillars either side of the naïve, and it has exceptionally intricate stained glass windows. There is lots of history within its walls.   There is a display about Johnathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, he was Dean of the Cathedral in 1714-1745. The south transept is used for a learning space and other areas have various displays. I like the display that outlined the origins of the saying “ to chance your arm”, a brave offer of trust at the time.

Next we walked to the National Gallery of Ireland. A lot of it is currently not accessible to the public for “technical ” reasons. They had juggled a few of their more important works around so they were still on display. Our favourites were Vermeer’s “Woman writing a letter, with her maid”, Monet’s “ Argenteuil Basin with a Single Sailboat”, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio’s “The Taking of Christ” and Jacob Epstein’s sculpture “Fourth Portrait of Delores” (we have seen his works at Carrick Hill in Adelaide).    I found Perugino’s “The Lamentation over the Dead Christ” very different from any other similar painting I have seen due to the fact that Christ is pictured without a beard. We were disappointed that some of the works we had hoped to see weren’t available, but it was a very interesting Gallery all the same.

After lunch we went to the Natural History Museum of Ireland (aka The Dead Zoo!). This is an experience, right from the time you pass through the doors into the display room you are confronted with glass case after case filled to the brim with stuffed dead animals, birds, reptiles, etc, skeletons next to their stuffed animal, cases of extinct animals,  they even have an a thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger), but it is labelled a “Tasmanian Wolf” (Thylacinus Cynocephalus), I have never heard it called that before. The whole Museum is strange, maybe overwhelming is a better term.

We took leave of the Dead Zoo and went to the National Museum of Archaeology to see the “Bog Bodies”. Yes I know what your thinking, Dead Zoo / Bog Bodies, what are these people doing!   It turned out we had been in this museum before, but we were unaware of the Bog Bodies display here. It is fascinating, the bodies were discovered lying buried in peat bogs in Ireland in 2003. There are 3 bodies, or more precisely, partial bodies, on display. The peat bog has preserved the bodies amazingly well. They appear like they were preserved by smoking or drying, but it was just the bog at work.  They are very brown and leather looking. From reading the display materials, all three appear to be members of a privileged class of their society and were most probably sacrificed to appease the “gods” of the day. Many bodies have been found in peat bogs all over Europe in the last couple of centuries, and most have indications of sacrificial offerings. Fascinating!

We then went and sat in St Stephen’s Square for a while, taking in all the atmosphere, such a well used open space.

We finished our last full day away with an “Afternoon Tea” ( High Tea at home) at The Shellbourne, it was a delicious, indulgent, generous and memorable way to sign off on our holiday. Me and the best travel buddy anyone could ask for are heading home tomorrow.

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