Day Two: Dublin

I took full advantage of my non-existent seatmates and promptly fell asleep across my entire aisle. I think the last time I was able to do this was when I was flying back from Egypt to Prague. I’m sure it’s not as nice as first class, but you have a ton of space for basically spreading out all your stuff, which I will take any day. I slept until 1 am/6 am and then it was time to stay awake for the remaining 2.5 hours.

Now, leading up to this trip I’ve spent a lot of time filling in the gaps on my Irish history, paying particular attention to the more recent decades because Ireland in the 20th century was surprisingly violent and included an (ultimately) successful violent uprising against British rule for the Republic of Ireland, a subsequent civil war, and a period of deadly and violent clashes along largely sectarian lines (Catholic/Protestant) in Northern Ireland called The Troubles.

Some of the books and movies I’ve watched/read and would recommend:

Michael Collins - Michael Collins was one of the most significant (and young) leaders during the armed fight against British rule that ultimately led to Irish independence. Liam Neeson plays the title role, and it’s a really passionate (and bloody) retelling of modern guerilla warfare.

A History of Ireland in 250 Episodes - This is a book that was written based on the scripts of a radio show that was tasked with relaying the entire history of Ireland starting with the first human settlement of the island and continuing through to the modern era. Each short story is really interesting and makes it easy to digest thousands of years of history.

Say Nothing - Getting into The Troubles, this book was published in 2018 and is based on the recollections of many IRA members about things that occurred (or allegedly occurred) during the violence in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. It’s shocking, horrifying, and sad.

Say Nothing (Hulu) - In 2024 Hulu made a tv series of the book that largely follows the two female main characters, the Price sisters, who were members of the IRA and the Unknowns, and carried out the car bombings in London. Excellent adaptation of the book.

Belfast - This is another perspective from The Troubles that follows a young boy in a Protestant family living through the violence and tough economics of Northern Ireland during that time. So many amazing actors in the cast: Ciaran Hinds, Judy Dench, Jamie Dornan, and Caitrina Balfa.

We arrived right on time and I was able to get through passport control and retrieve my bag very quickly. I plan to drive around the entire perimeter of Ireland on this trip (including Northern Ireland), so a rental car is required! It took a bit longer to get my car, but after 20 minutes or so I have a shiny new Nissan that I will be adventuring in.

Hello enormous car that I’m sure won’t have any difficulty fitting in the tiny country lanes of Ireland…

I got the car arranged and was on my way! Now, if you have ridden in a car with me when I was driving on the left side of the vehicle (mom and dad) you will know that it takes me about 5 minutes to remember how to operate a right-drive vehicle, and in that time I generally will make one minor road mistake which will be fully narrated, with colorful language as appropriate. I did fine, just thought I had run a red light when in fact I hadn’t. The traffic lights here are remarkably difficult to locate since they’re basically sitting on the stop lines and they change SO FAST. I am staying at Kelly’s Hotel in the heart of the city so I had already planned out the car park I was going to stick this behemoth before I even landed.

It took about 45 minutes to get to the car park and mercifully the car has a backup camera, because that was going to be an unpleasant adventure. Since the hotel wasn’t ready until 3 pm and it was 11 am, I left the bags in the car and took my sweatshirt and an umbrella in case of inclement weather, and started my first full day in Dublin!

First stop was Trinity College, just a short walk from the hotel, and on the way I walked through the shops in the George Street Arcade and a little vintage jewelry shop called Rhinestones. Less than 24 hours after leaving one college campus, I managed to find my way onto another one! As you do. And I immediately took advantage of eduroam to get some WiFi, because my signal here is trash..

Trinity is a beautiful old campus and I’m looking forward to exploring more later!

The Book of Kells, an enormously important and famous work of artistic and religious significance in Irish history, is housed at Trinity and I got tickets for 5 pm to go and see it. Next stop, the National Museum of Ireland on Kildare Street, a short ways from Trinity.

Packing for this trip was extremely tricky because Ireland famously rains ALL THE TIME, but the weather was predicting it to be surprisingly…lovely? 40-60s and only a passing chance of rain most days. I don’t trust the weather so I am wearing waterproof shoes, brought jeans and layers, and a trench coat. So that is how I came to be walking around in a sweatshirt hauling around an umbrella in 70 degree sunshine weather in Dublin at the end of April. For real, the weather is gorgeous.

So I’m walking everywhere today in case this is the only nice day of this trip.

Along the way to the museum I spotted the lampposts in Dublin and was dumbfounded by how beautiful they are.

Why doesn’t DC have lampposts this gorgeous? Our lampposts are lame compared to these Victorian flourishes of shamrocks and arabesques.

Never enough flourishes.

There are several National Museum of Ireland locations but the one I was visiting is the one on Kildare Street that houses a massive trove of prehistoric gold jewelry.

It has distinct British Museum vibes except the important distinction that a vast majority of the museum is composed of objects that are Irish, were excavated in Ireland, and stayed in Ireland.

The museum is a bit of a maze, but I loved getting to see how many of the artifacts were discovered in peat bogs because, since there is so little oxygen below the surface, nothing can completely decompose including, in one case, paper.

So much gold. HUGE gold pieces.

The entire place felt like everything an old museum should feel like with all these decorative elements and mosaic floors…

The entire museum had floors like this. Extraordinary.

I didn’t much feel like stopping my explorations to find food, so I ate some trail mix as I kept walking to the next museum, the EPIC Museum of Irish Emigration. (Note for Christopher: Immigration vs. Emigration. I = Incoming & E = Exiting). Because there are a LOT of Irish emigrés in our family including the Fleming, Nixon, and Driskill/Driscoll (O’Driscoll) families.

Along the walk I crossed the River Liffey which runs right through Dublin, and is crossed by these beautiful bridges.

In the distance you can see the custom house. More on that later.

The EPIC museum is an immersive, storytelling museum that’s more about explaining the history of Irish emigration than about necessarily displaying artifacts. My favorite part was the Arts and Music section where they showed the influence of Irish arts on other art forms around the world by showing someone doing Irish traditional dancing next to a jazz tap dancer, and having an Irish fiddler playing a traditional tune next to a bluegrass banjo player who plays the same song that came with Irish emigres to the US. Very well done and I know kids would be able to appreciate it as well.

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After leaving the museum I still had plenty of time before I could check into my hotel, so I went for a walk by the Liffey towards the Custom House, which is a really significant location in Irish history for a couple of reasons.

The Custom House was the hub of economics in the late 1800s through the mid 1900s, serving as the de facto face of British government rule, which ultimate led to it being the focal point of a raid by the Volunteers/IRA in the 1950s. When they tried to burn the entire thing down. Lots of damage, six people killed, and 120 arrested, but the building was intact.

The building itself is beautiful and sits right on the river, and as I passed by I discovered they had self-guided tours, so I guided myself inside and toured around. They had exhibits that went into the history and the architecture of the building which were really fascinating.

An Life and her epic hair are here to bring you prosperity, Dublin. The rest of the gods are male (?) so they have equally magnificent beards.

Fun fact, there is a representation of each of the gods/goddesses of the rivers of Ireland on the building including An Life (pronounced: Ahn Liffi) the goddess of the River Liffey. Each has representations of the harvest or animals the river supports, and I thought it was a really interesting way to remember that the natural resources of the land were the foundation for the economic stability of the nation at that time.

So happy. Sooo jet lagged..

I kept walking after the Custom House, looking for one of the bookstores that’s meant to be “must see” — Books Upstairs. And you do need to visit it, because it’s the oldest independent bookstore in Dublin and it’s absolutely adorable. There’s a cafe with a window upstairs and carefully curated books in every room, upstairs and downstairs. I got a couple of books about Ireland and snagged one of their really nice bags, because I collect bags and tea towels, neither of which I actually have room for in my tiny house….

It was finally getting close to 3 pm, so I headed back to Kelly’s and got checked in, then went and retrieved my bags from the car. I don’t know what my the parking bill will be, but it’s going to be worth it, because I didn’t have to walk all over creation with my bags.

Kelly’s is a traditional public house, so there is a fully functional bar downstairs and rooms upstairs. I was warned many times about the noise, and I’ve already experienced it a bit. Just glad I brought earplugs!

The walkway from reception to the rooms. So cool!

Cute and centrally locate :)

I dug out my capri pants, ditched my jacket because I was melting, and then just relaxed for a bit until it was time to leave to go see the Book of Kells.

It was just a short walk, but I cannot overstate the sheer volume of human beings in the area of Dublin where I am staying. I like to stay centrally so I can walk everywhere, but all day the entire area has been like a chill version of Boubon Street during Mardi Gras, with people drinking everywhere. It’s totally fine, just makes it physically hard to just move.

I made it to my entry time on schedule and got to walk through the exhibit that talks a lot about how the Book of Kells was made as much as its history, which is really interesting. You are not able to photograph the book, but I was surprised at how big the pages were. I was expecting it to be something like a psalm book, but it was the size of a ledger, which makes sense given the unbelievable level of detail and artistry.

This is a stone carved in Ogham (pronounced: Oh-m) that they think is a derivative of Latin for the Irish language.

Just a few of the display images from the Book of Kells exhibit. It’s full of Incredibly detailed and ornate illustrations of biblical imagery and symbolism.

There is an Oscar nominated animated film about the Book of Kells called The Secret of Kells and it is wonderful. Highly recommend if you have kids/grandkids. Absolutely beautiful animation and storytelling.

After we got to see the book itself, we walked by this amazing display of needlework from the Irish Linen House displaying the imagery from one of the Book of Kells pages. Extraordinary gold work embroidery.

Next, we got to walk through the Old Library, which is like walking through a work of art.

In addition to being a work of art, it also has an enormous animate globe artwork installation right now.

I also got to see Brian Boru’s harp, the actual harp that has been used as the design for the harp that appears on all of Irish currency and the Guinness logo. It belonged to one of Ireland’s famous kings and was gifted to the library in the mid 1700s.

THE harp.

After the exhibit I walked around Trinity a bit more, looking at the stonework on the buildings.

After a bit of hunting I found my birth flower, Lily of the Valley!

It was a bit past six and I was getting hungry so I started looking at restaurants and pubs on the way back to the hotel. However, the aforementioned horde of humanity made it clear that was going to be a no go. So I got back to the hotel, found a local restaurant around the block on OpenTable and got a table for dinner at Bartley’s.

I have a lot planned tomorrow so let’s hope I can sleep through the pub music rattling the windows!