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Flying into Dublin
Unexpectedly, fields and urban sprawlFor a day with no sleep, I have seen a lot.
Yesterday I left home at 7:20 to catch the bus to the airport and ate a splendid eggs-and-bacon breakfast. At 10:30 I departed for Toronto and was soon surprised that the “free snacks” in Westjet Plus meant a full Chicken Caesar wrap followed by a decadent brownie, accompanied by a beer. In Toronto airport, after running between far-flung gates, I had to ask the gate attendant if there was time to go to the washroom. The clock said it was about dinner time, so on the way to St John’s, I received another Chicken Caesar and brownie, with green tea and Glenlivet. To my surprise the flight from St John’s to Dublin was under four hours. With considerable effort, I shut down my mind and tried to sleep – not particularly successfully.
Bright skies greeted us with our breakfast sandwich and warm cup of tea, which had to be choked down because of landing. Immigration and customs were simple and fast – no forms! Consistent with all customs officials, as soon as I mention a book (Ulysses by James Joyce), interest was lost and clearance was
Dublin Central Inn
Large enough hotel with a non-descript entry immediate. At the luggage carousel, I saw a French Horn and an Ellison Tours tag, and introduced myself to a fellow Westwinds traveller. Michelle was laden with luggage and suggested we share a taxi, rather than the bus ride I had worked out at home on Google. Our driver was chatty, and the traffic was congested. We all agreed that aggressive cyclists are the same around the world.
The
Dublin Central Inn was a doorway on the street, leading to a modest well-kept agglomeration of rooms across several older buildings. Check-in was 2:00, but they were happy to store my luggage. Feeling surprisingly energetic, I decided to pursue one of my main objectives – touring
Trinity College and seeing the
Book of Kells.
A couple of blocks into the walk I realized that it was breakfast time (again!). A charming looking place called
Ann’s Bakery was just right – any two of their small buffet of breakfast items, plus toast and beverage cost €5. A busy clientele of tourists and business people kept the place hopping. I had an excellent sausage and a good scoop of fried mushrooms.
Now fortified, I walked on the major thoroughfare of
O’Connell Street, named for one of heroes
of Ireland. A niggling feeling drove me into a tourist office, confirming that I was walking in the wrong direction. Re-oriented, I paused in front of a most extraordinary stone edifice, t
he General Post Office, a building central to the history and
1916 Rebellion in Ireland. The interior was elegant polished wood with brass fittings, serving the obvious prime purpose of sending and receiving letters and parcels.
I continued across the
Liffey River (almost a tame canal) and in a few blocks found the imposing front gate of Trinity College. My external examiner for my Master’s thesis was from Trinity College, an irrelevancy now except to me. On the far side of an arch about fifty feet through, a couple of students were efficiently selling tickets for the tours that start every 25 minutes.
Our guide, Andrew, was a political science student soon to do his Master’s degree, although not at Trinity. He was witty and had a good trove of disgraceful stories about the derivative
Georgian architecture of the historic buildings. Several of them were virtually stolen from the architects and the designs reused at will. All the names are purely functional, such as Chapel, Examination Hall, and Graduates Memorial Building (a neo-gothic,
Book of Kells
Replicas of the figures in the historic book red-brick building funded in part by Bram Stoker, according to Andrew). The most fascinating building for me was “
The Long Room”, a library that is entitled to a free copy of every book published in the British Isles. As in its name, the entire long building is one room, two storeys high.
At the end of the tour, Andrew recommended we immediately get into the relatively short line for viewing the Book of Kells, a precious 9 century religious text. The large exhibition leading up to the Book of Kells was impressive, but I moved through the crowd to see the Book first. When I afterwards returned to the beginning, I had a better understanding of the descriptions and explanations.
Vellum, being the stretched hide of calves, was an expensive and honorific way to publish a text. Some
psalters were also shown, the size of fat paperbacks, meant to be carried on journeys. The Book of Kells was as large as a coffee-table book. Still intact as a book, only two pages could be seen in the glass case. The writing of the text was crisp and incredibly even, obviously the work of great craftsmen (three according to the description). The
The Long Room
A marvel of understatement illustrative paintings were duller than I expected, not very similar to the illuminated manuscripts I saw in Rome. Nevertheless, as I went back to read the display boards I realized that every component of the paintings had significant symbolic meaning. In addition, displays explained that the inks used were very rare and described the traditional techniques of writing and painting. To assist in appreciating the detail, some pages and paintings were reproduced in ceiling-height light boxes, allowing for easy viewing amongst the pressing crowds of tourists.
The exit of the display led into The Long Room, a breath-taking arrangement of book-filled shelves in alcoves, wherein the books were arranged by height and weight, with the smallest at the top to prevent collapse and accidents. Each alcove had two ladders to enable librarians to retrieve books. At the entrance to each alcove was the large bust of a famous man, celebrating literary and scientific culture.
Outdoors, and overwhelmed by the long-sustained passion of generations of librarians, I sat at a picnic bench to prosaically eat some peanut butter sandwiches brought from home as emergency sustenance, fortified by a bottle of orange juice (upping my scarce fruit and veg intake
on this trip).
Mistaking 1:00 for 2:00, I started towards my hotel in happy anticipation of a nap. Not going to happen for another hour. Outside the gate, I turned left, to see what I could see. Fairly quickly I came to the
Temple Bar area, which is now full of pubs and cafes, mainly painted in bright colours and with tourist-oriented names. A couple of buildings did have plaques noting historical roots. Trekking uphill to find
Dublin Castle, that I wrongly expected to find at the top, I happened on the gigantic
Christ Church Cathedral, where Westwinds will sing in about a week. Sure enough, on their poster board was a paper sign advertising our free concert. That may bring in a good crowd, because otherwise it costs €7 to go in on a tour.
The signs for the Castle pointed further west and downhill. The Castle courtyard was underwhelming, and every corner had a commercial vehicle, so photos of the long, long sides could not truly reflect the history. Through one of the gates was a much older courtyard (even fuller of modern vehicles) in front of a great round tower building, the Castle itself. A tour was available, but
Temple Bar, with dedication
A street of pubs for tourists! I can't do all the tours available in Dublin.
Following the roads downhill, I came again to the Temple Bar area and followed along the cobble-stone pedestrian streets. Hundreds of people were doing the same, excited and chatty, making it a lively stroll along historic and modern times. I found my bridge, found the GPO and found the
steel pillar (my landmark), turned right and found my hotel again.
After a good nap, a shower and some unpacking, I ventured out again to walk along the street. Next door to Ann’s Bakery (now closed) was a pub called
Madigan’s. Hoping it would also be good, I stepped inside to a (seemingly) old-fashioned place with booths. I sat in a booth just by the bar and ordered
Beef and Guinness pie plus a Guinness to drink. Disappointingly, the pie was not a proper pie but employed the common shortcut of spooning stew into a bowl and plunking a puff pastry top on it. The beef was tender, at least. The mash made me suspect it might have been made from dried potato, and the roast potatoes were deep fried. Too many shortcuts on food, but a good atmosphere as the owner or manager
Dublin Central Inn
Efficient and pleasant room went around to every table for a quick chat.
View map showing Dublin.
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Isabel Gibson
non-member comment
Central location
I think I'll choose my next tour based solely on where their hotels are. For Dublin, we stayed on the outskirts: a crime of "lost early-morning photography opportunities." It did facilitate the out-of-town field trips, I guess. Great shots of the Long Room and the downtown in general.