Dublin
It was a chilly, drizzly morning as we set out on a long, self-guided walking tour of Dublin. Early on we came upon a sidewalk plaque marking the spot depicted in Joyce's Ulysses where Bloom stands at a corner of Nassau street.
The damp got to us so we ducked in to Bewley's, a popular and elegant cafe, for coffee. The place is famous for its stained glass windows.
Next was Trinity College. Here's the view coming in to the central quad, where, as with colleges and universities everywhere, undergraduates are available to give you a tour of the campus. We strolled around a while in the rain waiting for the time on our tickets to view the Book of Kells and accompanying exhibit (no photos there).
The Long Room--the old library--was undergoing "decant." Every book was being taken off the shelf, cleaned, measured, and tagged digitally, an enormous, painstaking job.
The Long Room at Trinity is home to the Brian Boru harp, which was not Boru's. It most likely dates from the 16th century. The harp is a ubiquitous symbol in Ireland, including on Guinness labels.
For unknown reasons, the sculptor of Molly Malone has her breasts tumbling out of her dress. Some think rubbing them will bring good luck or a return to Dublin. You can see the shiny result of all that touching, which some would like to stop.
Post office columns in Dublin at one time were red; they were placed there by the hated British. When Ireland achieved independence, in 1922, rather than go through the trouble and expense of replacing all those detested symbols, the Irish merely painted them green. (For the red version, see the post for York.)
Dublin Castle:
This sculpture outside the church is titled "Homeless Jesus."
Oddly, we stumbled on a hotel and statue dedicated to George Frideric Handel. Turns out his Messiah was first performed in Dublin.
Finally, we visited EPIC: The Irish Emigration Museum.
Too bad we had such a grey day to visit Dublin. The weather made an already dingy city look dingier.
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