Dublin - Day 2

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Geo: 53.3454, -6.27573

So today I saw the true side of Dublin - rain, rain and more rain. Well it is October

I started the day Dublinia, a museum dedicated to the Viking era and middle ages. It was actually the Vikings from Norway that built the first settlement in Dublin. Initially it was a winter camp, then it became a base for staging raids. Eventually they figured out that trade was more profitable than raiding so they set up a trading port. They traded everything from wool and cotton to silver and slaves. Interesting fact, a majority of the slaves traded in Europe were the slavic people, which is where the word slave comes from. The Vikings had written words in the form of runes, but because they had no paper their words were carved on wood. Hence why most of the runes a vertical, it was easier to carve.

One clan of the Viking warriors were called the bear skins, in Norse that's Berserkers. So next time you go berserk, you're actually getting your Viking on. They had some great names for their swords like Leg biter or Viper. The old swords were believed to be best as they had been "blood hardened" by battle and possessed magical powers.

Brian Boru was the Irish king credited with pushing the "heathens" out of Ireland at the Battle of Clontarf. I'm not sure how he claims that credit because at the end of the battle he was dead and his enemy, Sitric Silkbeard, still held his fort in Dublin. Add in the fact that the two were related by marriage (in that ancient tradition of wedding royal houses together) and both armies had Irish and viking warriors.

The second floor of the Dublinia was dedicated to the Medieval era, after the Vikings left and the Normans took over. One section was an imitation of a fair. These were really trading events rather than entertainment. I had a chuckle at the apothecary stand. The medieval cure for an ear ache was to insert a clove of garlic. Got a headache, have a brew of barley. So my old theory was right, drink till it doesn't hurt anymore.

Overall it was a really good museum. Much better than the Jorvic in York. There were also exhibits on the development of Dublin, the typical merchants house and life on the wharves. The third level had exhibits on archaeological digs. It becomes something of a political hotbed. Finding evidence of a significant site means an archaeological dig, so no valuable historical information gets lost. However archaeology takes time, which costs developers money. In a place like Dublin (indeed any of these old cities) where a thousand years of history is buried in the soil, this means a constant struggle for the developers and constantly asking the question, which is more important, money for the future, or preserving the past?

Next stop was Trinity College and a squiz at the Book of Kells. The book is the four gospels of the new testament. Why is it special? Because it was written somewhere around 800AD so its about 1200 years old. For those that don't know about how books were made in the old days, scribes would write copy books over and over. The monks were known for this. Because of the labour cost, books were very expensive. It is believed three scribes wrote the book of Kells. One did the writing while another did the artwork. The third scribe was multi talented, he could do both. It is believed the book was written on the Island of Iona, just off Scotland. After the island was raided by Vikings, it was moved to the monastery of in Kells. Which was conveniently pre-pillaged.

There is only two pages on display, and its in latin so I can't tell you which passages I was looking at. The artistic work was never completed anyway so it is a very special, unfinished bible. What was more interesting to me was after seeing the book, we could go into the long room. Trinity college acts like a national archive for Ireland, a copy of every book published gets sent to the university. The long room is where they store all the old books. It was HUGE! Two floors with bookshelves on either side and old wooden ladders that go up to the top of the shelves. And the books! All those old books! The bookshelves were roped off so we could see them but couldn't actually get close to the books. I so wanted to get up close and see what they have there. I wonder how often and under what circumstances someone is allowed to do that. Meh, they're probably all in latin anyway.

To finish off the day I went to the Jameson distillery. Whiskey is much more my style. The only problem, I got there just before four, and on a rainy day all the tourists were heading indoors. The queue was huge and I couldn't get into a tour until 5.30. Once I had my ticket I had hour to kill. There was nothing else to do but sit in the bar and drink whiskey until the tour started, such a shame. The tour was very good, but the distillery in Bow street is now just a museum. It is no longer a working distillery. So no big storehouse lined with barrels for me chain myself to. :-(

I now know the difference between American bourbon, scotch and Irish whiskey. Its all about the number of times it has been distilled. The yanks do it once, the scots do it twice and the Irish do it three times. To be sure, to be sure to be sure. Jameson does owe something to the yanks. They only put their distilled whiskey in pre-used barrels. Some of these come from Kentucky. Other barrels have been used to store brandy. It is the barrels that add the flavour. After the whiskey has been aged, the two flavours are mixed together to form Jameson. At the end of the tour they chose eight volunteers to taste test the difference. I volunteered but there were too many people in front of me, rats! But we all got a free whiskey at the end, so it ended well.

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