Dublin Day 2 (11/7)

This is the continuation/finale of the previous post.

On Day 2 in Dublin we woke to an amazing continental breakfast. I had cautioned the girls, and myself, to not get too excited about a free breakfast, having been disappointed before.  But this was impressive.  Eggs, variety of meats, variety of cheeses, warm crepes, potatoes, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans (?!), fancy coffee ... you could basically assemble a full Irish breakfast.  And they had the basics too (cereal, yogurt, fruit, ...) 

Then we headed to Trinity College.  After some confusion with our parking host (which led to me sprinting down the rainy streets of Dublin to get to the tour on time, tipping my hat to Oscar "punctuality is the thief of time" Wilde as I passed his home), we got a tour of the school, with its amazing architecture and history.  Then we got to see the Book of Kells which is the star of the show.  If you are not familiar, it's one of the most famous illustrated manuscripts in the world; it tells the four Gospels.  It survived the Viking raids by being hidden in the monastery at Kells (see the Secret of the Kells for a great artistically animated family movie).  Maybe a later blog will focus on the role of Ireland in saving Western Civilization after the fall of Rome.  Ireland (the land of saints and scholars) was basically the remote cloud server where copies of ancient documents and languages were kept, which proved important when the Dark Ages hit the continent.

The Books of Kells is housed in an immersive display in the Old Library that illustrates the book's history and techniques.  We learned that the display is closing in 2027 for several years, so we were fortunate to see it!  The book will still be available, but the building and display are being redone/restored.  In the meantime, they have set up a "virtual display" in the building next door for when the library closes, so we actually got to see both (but are glad to have seen the original setup, which is much better). 

When we finished, we then made our rainy way to Dublin Castle, which has been the seat of government for 800 years, but remember that for the first 750 years it was the British government. 

Sidebar - one thing we haven't really talked about is that we got to experience a presidential campaign and election here (not as voters of course).  On October 24 Catherine Connolly was elected to be Ireland's 10th president.  It was kind of neat to observe the process as outsiders.  It was so calm (although it's important to point out, as everyone does, that the president is largely a figurehead/ambassador role).  The girls were intrigued by Ireland having 3/10 female presidents, while the US has 0/47.  Anyway, the reason I bring the election up is that we were lucky to drop by and get into the last unannounced tour before the Castle was closed for a week for the inauguration.  We got to see them preparing for the ceremony, and then when we watched it live, it was neat to realize that we had been in that room.

The tour of the castle was great.  We only got to see two parts on the tour, the Chapel Royal and the State Apartments (which seemed to be mainly art galleries).  There was a LOT of art.  By the end of the tour the rain was coming down pretty hard, so we grabbed some late lunch, hightailed it past Molly Malone, and drove back to Clonmel to crash in our beds. 

 

Half of the breakfast lineup

TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

.. Or more accurately "The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin" which is harder to fit on a T-shirt.  And even though it is currently in the heart of Dublin, it was "near" Dublin because Dublin was a lot smaller in 1592.

Beautiful gothic campus.  The provost in the statue behind us infamously, allegedly, declared, "Women should never be allowed into Trinity," so female graduates all get their photos taken with him upon graduation.  (caution: his position was nuanced and complex, as is often true in history when we try to reduce it to soundbites).

Ornate stonework.  There is amazing detail in every leaf, bird, mouse, ...

This large building was ringed on all four sides by 600 hand-carved Irish plants, none of which are repeats.

After seeing the antlers in a few castles, this was our first time seeing a full skeleton of a Giant Irish Deer

Would be pretty cool to have Chem Lab here.  Classes were in session during our visit.  I chatted with the guard on the stairs, who is there to keep tourists out of the classrooms 

Sphere Within Sphere - showing the disruptive transition to a world of technology.  Apparently it is an installation across many major world cities (seagull not included)

'Apples and Atoms' - a tribute to Trinity Professor Ernest Walton who split the lithium atom and won the 1951 Nobel Prize (the experiment itself was done at Cambridge).  Einstein called it the first proof that E=mcc

Kate was enamored of this entrance

THE BOOK OF KELLS

There were A LOT of displays about the book that took about an hour to read, but I am going to spare you by only including one such example.  I think I took pictures of all, so if you want to experience the tour yourself, let me know :-).  Here is the audio guide and transcript.

Pictures of the book are not allowed, so here is a stock photo from the website.  It is kept under glass, and the pages are flipped periodically.

This is the page that was open on our visit, John 6, where Jesus is "the bread of life."  The two in-line figures are stylized lions, which emphasize the key passage.  Don't ask me how I got this image.

 

This is a 12' (4m) diameter digital globe hanging above the library.

This library is as cool as it gets.  There are 40 marble busts lining the aisle (here Shakespeare).  4 women were added more recently (Lovelace, Franklin, Gregory, Wollstonecraft).  The books are two storeys high.

The library, by proclamation, receives a copy of every book written in Ireland or the UK.  An astute eye might notice the back bookshelves are empty.  The books are being "decanted" - removed for cleaning and preservation.  There are 6 miles of books being treated.

Going back to yesterday's Irish history lesson, the library houses one of the few remaining copies of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic which was read outside the Post Office by Patrick Pearse at the start of the 1916 Easter Rising.  He was the first executed.

This is part of the new virtual tour in a separate building that will be used in 2027 when the current building closes for repairs.  It was really creative.  Note, the screens are in the same structure as the library (tall two-storey book shelves along an aisle, long arched roof, etc.). There is a projector on every screen, so it can simulate the library with books, and then transition to lots of other artistic themes (here the biodiversity of Brazil).

DUBLIN CASTLE

The entrance to the Chapel Royal.

The king and queen (if visiting) and their lords held Anglican mass here.  Recall Henry VIII wanted a male heir, so he wanted a divorce, so he started Anglicanism in 1534, which by royal fiat was mandated in Ireland, where the majority Catholics were stripped of jobs, property, voting, housing etc. for many centuries, leading to a lot of strife within the country even after it gained independence and minority Protestants withdrew to Northern Ireland so they could be the majority there (cf. the Troubles).  That sentence is a lot.

Each lord's name and crest is carved.  Here Ormond (Butler) and Cromwell.  Recall this was a British castle, and Cromwell was not as quite as reviled by the British as he was by the Irish.

The entrance to the castle courtyard.  I was curious what was inside the fencing.  When I watched the inauguration I saw it was the red carpet.  Note I am standing in the courtyard and the castle proper is behind me at this point (and it looks a lot more boring than the Bedford Tower, pictured).

(Inauguration livestream of the same a couple days later)

The main entrance

Déjà vu?  I believe this is the most intact copy.

Lots of art.  In this room, the monarchs and other dignitaries. Got a little history lesson on General Cornwallis, the British revolution-crusher.  He was more successful in Ireland in 1798 than he was in the US in 1781 (where he surrendered the Revolutionary War at Yorktown).

Art

Art

St. Patrick's Hall, the site of the Inauguration.  We can say "we saw them building the podium!"  Fun fact: Eamon de Valera (first president from yesterday's lesson) wanted to have a large public outdoor inauguration like the US.  People were worried about the weather, but he argued that if the US can do it in January snow, Ireland could do it in November sprinkles.  He was outvoted, and I'm sure the dignitaries are thankful.  Fun fact 2: that's real gold leaf on everything.

(Inauguration live stream of the same a couple days later)

OTHER

Ms. Malone, the fictional fishmonger of an Irish folk song

Mr. Wilde, one of my favorite authors.