The Great Dublin Tour

July 22, 2023

Our last day in Ireland was spent exploring Dublin.  We started with our traditional, laid-back, breakfast at the hotel...at least Tyler and I did.  Morgan and Kati decided to forego breakfast in favor of sleep.

The first stop on our great Dublin tour was Trinity College.  Established in 1592, it is Ireland's oldest and most prestigious college and has produced notable graduates including Jonathan Swift, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, and Samuel Beckett.  We met our tour guide under the iconic Campanile.  She was a rising second year had the brightest eyes I think I've ever seen, and was overly enthusiastic about everything.  She began with a discussion of George Salmon's statue, which is not without controversy.  He was the provost 1888 and 1904 and, most notably, was adamantly opposed to admitting women to Trinity.  Our guide directly confronted this fact and why she (and many others) believe that retaining the statue in the middle of campus is important despite Salmon's discriminatory and antiquated views.  They view it as a monument and reminder of how far the college has come and what it has overcome in the name of progress.  The female students embrace the statue, frequently jumping in its arms and kissing it on the cheek for pictures after graduation.  It's a refreshing view of history that I think we could benefit from in the United States.

We saw some cool stuff across campus, including the Samuel Beckett Theater, but the most impressive was definitely the Museum Building.  Built between 1853 and 1857 in the Ruskinian Gothic style, it showcases 13 different types of Irish stones, including Connemara marble.  Found exclusively along Ireland's wild Atlantic coast, the green marble is one of 32 designated Heritage Stones in the world.  I've never seen anything quite like it.  The Museum Building is also home to two Irish elk skeletons, which was quite something to behold.

The campus tour was interesting, but the reason we did it was to gain admission to see Ireland's greatest cultural treasure: The Book of Kells.  Created in the 9th century, the Book of Kells is one of the finest and most famous of an illuminated manuscript in the Insular style.  It is thought to have been begun by Columba at the Abbey of Iona, until he had to flee from viking invaders, and brought the book to the Abbey of Kells where it was finished by others.  There are a lot of theories, legends, and debates regarding its creation and history, but its magnificence is beyond debate.  I've never seen anything quite like it and it blows my mind to think about how they could have created those intricate and vibrant images.  The exhibit was packed to the point of being frustrating and difficult to maneuver around, but it was worth it, even if we only got to see two pages of the book itself.

After passing by the Book of Kells, they send you up into the Long Room, which may be the most fantastic library I have ever seen. It's over 200 feet long and filled with more than 200,000 of the college's oldest books. It was built between 1712 and 1732, and since 1801, the library has been given the right to claim a free copy of every book published in Britain or Ireland! It also includes some extraneous treasures on display, like one of the few remaining copies of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic that was read outside the General Post Office on April 24, 1916 by Patrick Pearse at the start of the Easter Rising, and a harp from the 1400s (the oldest of its kind) that became the model for the emblem of Ireland. I was also very impressed by their forethought. Large swaths of the Long Room's shelves were barren of books because, following the fire at Notre Dame, the college determined that it also has a similar vulnerability so they are systematically removing books, cleaning them, and restoring them to prevent a similar disaster.

From Trinity College, we set out for lunch. I had heard that the Temple Bar Food Market is one of Dublin's oldest and longest running outdoor foot markets, so we were hoping to check it out. It purportedly runs every Saturday from 9:30-4:00, but we went straight to Meeting House Square and there was no market to be found. Frustrated and a little disappointed, we continued our walk and swung by the hotchpotch complex that is Dublin Castle. Originally built by King John in 1204, the castle was the stronghold of British power in Ireland for more than 700 years. Today, only the Record Tower survives from the original construction, with the rest having been built at various times from the 18th century on. We didn't go inside, but it was a bit surreal to see this bastion of brutality that served as the source of Britain's anti-IRA campaigns and to think that just over 100 years earlier, Michael Collins stood right where we were as the complex was ceremonially handed over to him and the newly formed Provisional Government of Ireland.

Ultimately, we found ourselves right by Darkey Kelly's and decided to stop in for a pint and some lunch because few other places were open at 11:30 am. The food hit the spot and then we were up and walking across town to the Jameson Distillery. On the way, we stopped in another pub for another pint. This one - the Brazen Head - is the oldest pub in Dublin, having been established as a hostelry in 1198. The Irish name for Dublin is Baile Átha Cliath, which means "the town of. the ford and the reed hurdles." It was so named because people used to cross the River Liffey at low tide using reed matting positioned on the river bed. The Brazen Head is located at the spot of that original river crossing! It was a really cool spot and humbling to think about all of the greats who used to frequent it. In fact, James Joyce liked it so much that it makes an appearance in his novel Ulysses.

Lucky for us, the Father Matthew Bridge spans the River Liffey now, so we didn't have to wait for low tide or use reed mats to cross it. The Jameson Distillery was cool, but didn't hold a candle to the Guinness Storehouse. The entire experience was just a little too on-the-nose of an ongoing advertisement, but it was still fun. The most interesting fact I learned on the tour was that in 2006, Jameson redesigned its crest following pressure from sailing enthusiasts. Apparently, they were bothered by the fact that Jameson's ship only had one large mainsail when it should have two. This discrepancy was unacceptable because, were they to create a life-size version of the ship from Jameson's crest, a two-sail design would be much superior to a one-sail design. Honestly, before I read that, I couldn't have told you that Jameson had a sailboat on its crest! I also learned that Jameson has started aging whiskey in old beer barrels and has an IPA cask version. That's the first time I think I've seen liquor aged in beer barrels and not the other way around. We also got to visit the maturation warehouse and drink whiskey pulled directly from the barrel, which was neat.

After Jameson, we walked back over the River Liffey and stopped in at Christ Church Cathedral, which was founded in 1030 under the Viking king Sitric Silkenbeard, and substantially rebuilt in 1172 under the the Norman potentate Strongbow. Interestingly, the church is officially claimed as the seat of both the Church of Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland even though in law, and in fact, only the Church of Ireland has used it since the Irish Reformation. The church was beautiful, and the massive crypt underneath was interesting as well. I was most fascinated by these two broken swords displayed in the crypt. One sword is said to have been used by a young soldier accidentally locked in the crypt after the funeral of his commanding officer in 1822. After the funeral service had finished, the soldier lost his way in the warren of piled up coffins in the crypt and was devoured by rats. He was found some time afterwards, still grasping his sword. The weird part comes in the 1950s, when one of the cathedral vergers caught a boy running out of the grounds with a broken sword. He brought it back to the cathedral to hang it up in the Chapter House, where it was displayed, only to discover that the original sword was still in place. The mysterious appearance of the second, identical weapon has never been explained!

As cool as Christ Church was, we were all pretty spent and wanted to get back to the hotel for a quick respite. The walk was about 1.5 miles, but it felt like three times that far. We cut through parts of the city that we hadn't seen before and Kati questioned whether I knew where I was going several times, but we finally got there and took a load off for a few before heading back out.

In the time it took us to get ready for dinner, the sky opened up. It had rained literally every day of our trip, but this was the first time we had seen a torrential downpour. Though we were going to walk to our next destination, we opted for a taxi instead. Farrier & Draper, on South William Street, is probably the most unique and eclectic establishment we had stopped at on our trip. It takes up three floors of the Powerscourt Townhouse and each room is an experience in and of itself. We lucked out and got a table in the Gallery Room, which the hostess assured us was "the best room." It's hard to disagree with her as the extra-high ceilings, paintings from ceiling to floor, and colorful furniture were pretty stunning. On top of that, the cocktails were exquisite. Yet after two rounds, it was time for dinner.

We had saved a particularly special place for our last dinner. Mr. Fox is set in the basement of a gorgeous Georgian townhouse on Parnell Square, where they celebrate Irish ingredients with a cheeky twist. Though it doesn't have a Michelin star yet, many expect it to get one soon. We grabbed a taxi again because it was still raining hard. Along the way, I saw some unexpected graffiti on a transformer box: "I·R·A 20203 Derry." We had seen plenty of remnants of the IRA years in Northern Ireland, but this was the first time I saw something in the Republic of Ireland, and something that was current. I actually haven't been able to stop thinking about it and would love to understand the story behind it.

The food at Mr. Fox was unbelievable! Kati will adamantly disagree with me, but I preferred our meal at Mr. Fox to the one we had at Chapter One. We started with a trio of canapés - Osietra caviar and a chive flower on a deviled egg, a king crap, Yuzu Kosho, and fennel croustade, and a bluefin tuna and sriracha tartlet. All three were amazing. After whetting our appetites, they brought out a langoustine carpaccio, some halibut, and lamb with smoked ricotta, black garlic, and a stuffed zucchini flower. Then, they finished us off with four desserts. The star of the show was definitely their modern take on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I truly cannot begin to describe how incredible that little thing was! We couldn't have asked for a better last dinner on our trip and we savored every second of it. Somehow, the week had flown by but simultaneously felt like we had been there for a lifetime. Reluctantly, but filled to the brim with joy, we piled into the taxi and made our way back to Number 31 Leeson Close to pack our bags for the long journey home.