Ireland '23 - Day 11 & 12 - Dublin misc. days

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On Monday, Mary & Roger went on a pre-arranged HOHO bus tour, while I joined Doris, Sandra, and Lee for a walk across town to Dublin Castle. Once inside, a proliferation of gold-gilded rooms, with 40 ft. ceilings and tall windows, seemed a little overwhelming, a place to host State dinners with international Leaders or diplomats.

But paintings and photos and text displays about the gradual emergence of the Republic of Ireland are also there, for all to see. and many visitors were on a phone or ear-bud tour, going slowly, room by room.    

	gateway to Dublin Castle		Lee		Sandra & Lee
		at the Castle with a new Irish wool cap		Waterford crystal chandeliers were everywhere		garden near Chester Beatty Museum

Afterwards, a few minutes away was the Chester Beatty Collection, said to be one of the best ancient manuscript collections in the world.

Brit Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968) morphed from a mining engineer (who became rich from copper mines in Mexico and Africa) to a leading sophisticate & collector of ancient manuscripts and rare books, mainly from the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.  

After Chester and his second wife Edith, also an antiquities aficionado, had amassed a huge collection, they displayed it in a small museum of their own in Dublin. They refused to sell to a larger museum because the collection would be broken up. Then in their last years, (1960s) the couple donated the entire collection to the city of Dublin. 

You could spend hours here if you have time to read the wealth of descriptive info. The museum is in the old clock tower building & has a rooftop garden with interesting sculptures.  

Next we left the Castle grounds and walked a few blocks to historic (Protestant) Christ Church Cathedral, where Lee and I enjoyed part of the online self-guided tour, via his phone, while Doris and Sandra headed to a nearby Pub. Soon Lee and I joined them and we all had a light lunch. 

note - you can enlarge any part of a picture by left-clicking in and then out again (with some exceptions). 

	Christ Church				looking back from the Choir
			crypt & gift shop		Strongbow

note - Strongbow is a hero to the English because he helped lead the (successful) Norman invasion of Ireland in the 1170s. This was the start of centuries of British influence or dominance, so he's definitely not an Irish hero. His name was Richard fitz Gilbert de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. 

After lunch, Doris & her friends wanted to walk on the north side of River Liffey, to the Grand Quay, so I headed south to the hotel, stopping in a used bookstore where I found an oversized book about Tom Crean (Unsung Hero), which I had read before. Once at the hotel, there was a steady rain outside, so I read the new book for awhile. Later Doris stopped by & we had Barry's tea and compared career anecdotes, as retirees, a good way to spend a rainy afternoon. 

Some of us enjoyed a 6 pm dinner in the lobby mezzanine again. It had been another good day in Dublin & Sandra and Lee were soon headed home. Later Roger & Mary re-appeared and the three of us sat up late. The service people here were from everywhere and were easy to talk or joke with. 

After Tuesday breakfast at Camden Court, Doris, Mary, Roger and I walked to Trinity College, where we had a 10 am small group tour. Our docent said she would be graduating the next day, after spending 4.5 years here. 

It was a very entertaining tour, full of interesting stories, including medical skullduggery !  

	Harcourt to Trinity		students give the tours here		since 1592, note 1
		linden tree w/fall color		Bell Tower, note 2		changes coming soon
	a science bldg.		classes were in session		the tour continues
		fall light				our Docent, about to graduate...
	the famous Trinity Library....		....undergoing a rare  renovation		outside again, I heard a magpie nearby

note 1 - Trinity College was founded in 1590 by Queen Elizabeth I to "civilize" Dublin and to generate Anglican Ministers for Church positions in Ireland. 

note 2 - The docent said that due to an old superstition, students NEVER walk under the bell tower during semesters, because it brings bad luck during the annual exams.

The Book of Kells for us was a non-event. It was crowded & dark, and The Book was open to a dull page, with no elaborate decorations, and the assigned Docent admitted as much, but said they just flip to the next page every two weeks, even if there's nothing much there.  

Then we came to the legendary Trinity College library, and all of the books were gone! The Docent said something about moving to a new home, and better climate control for long-term preservation. 

After the Trinity tour we walked to the north side of River Liffey & found a pleasant food court near the EPIC building, so four of us had a 45-minute food & etc. break there.   

EPIC - At one pm we had a 30 minute guided tour of the Irish Emigrant Experience. There is a lot of high-tech visual art depicting the pride of being Irish, and celebrating the many successful descendants who live around the world today, um, maybe like us ?

EPIC was worth seeing once & I took no photos.   

Based on a recommendation from Lee & Sandra, Doris & I stopped at the Archeology Museum to check out the Viking exhibit, on the 2nd level. The Viking Age in Dublin was from 800 to 1150 A.D.

	model of original Viking settlement at Dublin		reproduction of house structure from Dublin  archeological finds		weapons
		household goods		corn grinding stone		see note

note - this is a replica of a Viking warship found at a burial mound in 1880 at Gokstad, Norway, where an important Norse Lord had a mound type burial, and inside was this boat.

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