Into Dublin (10/8)

Jill and I went into Dublin proper by ourselves as the others had headed off to their respective homes. We were concerned about Ralph and Wendy as the remains of hurricane Bertha were still being felt (but they were OK). We took the train in, and a friendly local (with an aunt that lives in Ballarat) helped us purchase our tickets using their new ticketing system.

Queue for the Book of Kells

Sunday is probably not the best day to view Dublin as a lot of the shops were shut. We went to visit the Book of Kells, but there was a queue around three sides of the quadrangle and the weather was looking threatening, so we headed for the Archaeology Museum instead. That was closed until 2pm so we kept walking and found the National Gallery of Ireland which Jeff had recommended and waited the 10 minutes for it to open at noon. It was well worth it. Although very small by NGV standards, it had some fine works on display. We had a look at their collection of masterpieces and their Irish collection as well.

We then headed back to the archaeology Museum. This was great in that it was Irish archaeology rather than the Greek, Roman or Egyptian that we often see. Particularly interesting were the remains of four bog men (bodies that had been preserved in the peat bogs since neolithic times). The condition varied a little depending on the bog they were found in. One was only the tanned skin, since all the bones had been dissolved by the acidity of the bog. Another was mostly skeleton with little soft tissue remaining, and there was evidence of the way they had died which in each case was violent.

Trinity College Library - the Long Room

Another gallery was devoted to Brian Boru, who was the first king to rule all of Ireland and is a legendary figure in Irish history. It was interesting that there was a whole gallery relating to him, but there was actually very little hard evidence to corroborate the facts. The Irish being such great story tellers, it would be great to be able to separate fact and fiction.

We walked back through Trinity College on our way back to the train trying again to dodge the showers. This time there was no queue, so we walked straight in to the ticket booth. We still had to queue to see it and the Book of Darrow, but there were posters on the way in describing vellum preparation and ink and pigment production to improve our appreciation of the effort behind these works at that time. When we did get in the wardens kept us moving. Of course you only see the two pages of each at the place they are open, but that is enough to appreciate the craftmanship of the scribes who created it. You can see copies of it on line, but it is still great to see the real thing.

The exit from the Book of Kells takes you through the breathtaking Long Room of the library. It was built in 1732, is 64 metres long, and had its roof raised to accommodate the more than 200,000 antiquarian texts on its shelves. They receive a copy of each book published in the UK, but the later work is housed elsewhere.

Irish Crosses at
Monasterboice

I'll disappoint all the drinking fans by saying that we didn't go to the Guinness brewery – I did that the first time I was in Ireland, but I did partake of that brew a number of times in our travels.

We were too late to visit either Newgrange (a huge neolithic tomb 100m in diameter built around 3200BC with an internal chamber that is lit by the sun on the winter solstice making it the oldest known solar observatory) or the site of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 between James II and his catholic supporters and William of Orange and his protestant army (a battle which is still a source of irritation especially in the north of Ireland as was seen just a few years ago, but more of that tomorrow).

A stop at Monasterboice taught us that the Irish cross has a ring in it because the pagan Irish were sun worshippers (understandably!) and to get them on side, Saint Patrick incorporated the sun into the symbol for the Christian cross, and there were two large examples in the little cemetery here. Jeff has a favourite pub with great meals here, but not knowing that we dined in Dundalk on the way back to Bangor.