Ireland Day 9: Crosscountry Drive to Dublin

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Today we drove to Dublin, our last stop in the Emerald Isle. As happenstance would have it, Laurie’s younger sister Patty lives in the city where she is studying at Trinity College. We made good time crossing the width of the island on motorways. We made our way straightaway to our hotel, a hip boutique called Dylan located just a few blocks from St. Stephen’s Green. Patty came to find us and took us on a short tour of downtown and Trinity College. Trinity is a world-class university and Ireland’s oldest and most storied, having been founded way back in the 16th century. Ironically, (in a country predominantly Catholic) it was initially an exclusively protestant institution. We visited the College’s splendid museum collection of medieval religious texts which includes the famous Book of Kells, a gorgeous illuminated volume containing several gospels. The enormous main chamber of the library with its wooden barrel-vaulted cieling is filled with hundreds of treasures on every topic imaginable.
The streets of central Dublin are extremely lively with all manner of people and entertainers milling about. Dublin is also a young and vibrant city which has prospered tremendously from the tech boom of the past 15 years. Of course a tour of Dublin would not be complete without the obligatory tour of some of Dublin’s more famous public houses: Davy Byrnes, McDaids, O’Donoghues… What was very pleasing to our American sensibilities was the fact that all the pubs were loud, served Guiness draught (draft to Americans) and were jampacked full of Irishmen. We were tickled to see Patty and she was a fantastic tour guide.

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Photos

Campanile in Library Square
The focal point of Trinity College's campus in the center of Dublin.

Long Room
Trinity College Library.

Grafton Street
The center of it all. Pedestrian of course.

At McDaid's--I think
Where's the Guiness??