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.

 

 

Dublin Day 1 (11/6)

Well, it's been 2 months here, and we finally went to Dublin proper.  You  may recall from a previous post that we have to return our car to the Dublin airport every 3 weeks.  But the airport isn't in Dublin - it is 45 minutes north of the city, and we have always used those days to do things "near Dublin."

So we got up early and drove into Dublin.  Since it is a 2.5 hour drive each way, we decided to make a 2 day trip of it to get the most time in the city. Sam found an amazing hotel to stay in at the edge of the city, and used an app to rent parking from people (individuals rent out their own parking spaces for about $12/day, compared to the citywide parking rate of $40-60/day.  So on the two days we rented parking in different parts of town, and then focused our exploration in those areas.

Our first stop was Kilmainham Gaol, where gaol is the old word for jail (and is pronounced that way - but I'm not sure if gaol is actually pronounced jail, or if everyone just says Kilmainham Jail.  And Kilmainham is unrelated to Kilmanahan, which is where we are living).  You may ask, why visit an old jail, but this jail has a lot of historical significance.  Recall that Irish independence was only 100 years ago (and statehood was only 75 years ago).  So a lot of these stories are still pretty fresh, historically speaking.  And in the hands of the right tour guide, these stories are very powerful.  

The four sentence version is that there was a run-of-the-mill small Easter uprising in 1916, which was put down in a couple days.  Irish commonfolk were ambivalent about the rebels, who were probably causing more trouble than progress.  But, in one of the all-time blunders in history, the British decided to send a message and executed the rebels, one of whom was so injured he had to be pulled unconscious from a nearby hospital, tied to a chair, and shot.  Well, that enraged the nation, and a couple years later Ireland went full military revolution and became independent.  All of this happened at the jail.  Since we had heard this story several times over the past months, it was powerful to see it in person.  This is captured in the first 15 minutes of the excellent Liam Neeson film Michael Collins (1996) about the leader of said events.  And the jail is used extensively for the filming of the also excellent but unrelated Daniel Day Lewis historical film In the Name of the Father (1993), even though that film takes place in London in the 70's.  The jail, closed in 1930, is very picturesque as you can see in photos below.

Our next top was Royal Hospital Kilmainham.  Now you may be thinking, a jail and hospital?  What kind of tourists are you? And that's fair.  But we like tours, especially historical ones.  Our first weekend in Ireland we bought the historical society family pass, which has saved us a lot of money!

Our tour guide was pretty funny and informal on this one (the kind who introduces himself as the best looking tour guide in Ireland).  He knew his stuff, but he may have had a couple Guinnesses before the tour.  He was quite entertaining and would always need help coming back to his original point after multiple tangents.  We learned the "hospital" is not really a hospital in its current embodiment c. 1680, but rather a veteran's home, although it was a hospital long ago in its past.  It was commissioned by Lord Butler on behalf of Charles II, inspired by a similar facility in Paris, and then inspired a similar facility in London.  It is notable as being the first large secular building in Ireland as well as being the first large classical building in Ireland.  And not to give the entire history of Ireland again, but the site was first built as a monastery by Strongbow back in 1174 (just remember him as the guy who first brought the Brits to Ireland, where they stayed for 750 years).  Everything seems to come back to Strongbow and/or the Butlers!

It also has a lovely garden, and currently also hosts the Museum of Modern Art, which we quickly toured on our own.

From there we went to our hotel, and then the airport to exchange our car, and then drove back downtown to experience the nightlife in Temple Bar and grab something to eat.  I wanted the girls to try calamari, which they really liked "once you stop thinking about what it is."  The hotel which was somehow only 5 miles but 40 minutes across town, was very classy, had ample parking and a great view, and an amazing breakfast that will be part of Day 2.

One thing we didn't realize at the time was how spoiled for weather we were on Day 1!  Stay tuned for Trinity College, the Book of Kells, and Dublin Castle.

KILMAINHAM GAOL 

Another amazing tour guide, this guy was all business (although when I was chatting with him on the side, he mentioned he was a crowd extra in Michael Collins).  This is the chapel where one of the prisoners was married on the eve of his execution (but they were only allowed 10 minutes together supervised).  His wife was imprisoned here a couple years later for other reasons.

The courtroom (it's hard to tell, but the chair is on a table/platform).  You can see the national harp emblem on the wall.

The old wing of the jail.  Very bleak, dark, damp (and this was the nice view).

Not a lot of space, usually one person to a cell.  You never left your cell.

The "new" wing of the jail.  Very beautiful.  I think this was one of the first jails to test out the theory that everybody wins when prisoners have some common space and can interact with other prisoners and see the sun and breathe fresh air, which is how all jails are built now.

Another stairway between floors.

An astute student of Irish history would recognize de Valera as another leader of the Easter Rising, as well as the creator of Ireland's constitution, Ireland's first prime minister (3x, most of 1931-1959) and then president (2x, 1959-1973).  He was spared execution likely because he was American.  Also, he is played by Snape in the movie.

Stonebreakers' Yard, the site of the 14 executions.  200 were on the list, but by the 14th Britain knew it had messed up.  The movie used this exact spot.

The onsite museum has letters from the executed to their mothers the night before.  Powerful.

On a lighter note the prisoners were apparently able to sneak a camera in, and even film-developing equipment, and there was a museum exhibit of the secret photos, including one prisoner who took everyone's photo and had them sign his "yearbook."

 ROYAL HOSPITAL KILMAINHAM

Beautiful entrance.

Family 0.5 selfie!

The stunning gardens.  The conical bushes are actually manicured yews, which is amazing because there are also tall yew trees on the estate, which look totally different.  And the wall of trees in the back are called lime trees (not the citrus kind).  The are trained onto large cubes so that they form a perfectly boxy canopy.  I just learned that these trees are the national tree of several eastern European countries.

What do you do with statues of the monarchy when it is overthrown?  You remove the cherubs and display those in gardens.  Then you hide the statues in a basement somewhere.  Then when Australia is looking for a statue of Queen Victoria 100 years later you ship it over, which is a delicious irony since she shipped all the Irish prisoners over to Australia.  It's on "indefinite" loan though Ireland made it clear they never wanted to see her again. 

This (small) military horse was so legendary in its battles for Britain around the world that the Queen gave it a royal medal.  It is buried in the gardens.

EVENING

The view of Dublin from the hotel was beautiful

The famous Guinness Storehouse (we did not do the tour, although Alex and Melissa and Andrew did on their visit)

A spooky building downtown

Mmmm... calimari

Mmmm...burgers

 

Temple Bar, which is confusingly both a bar and a neighborhood, is the most touristy part of Dublin nightlife.  So of course we walked around for a while!

 23,000 steps later, we slept well.