Historic Dublin

A day of sunshine and exploration

Today was a free day which we used to good advantage, first admiring the statue Anna Livia across from our hotel, a personification of the River Liffey which runs through the city. According to Wiki, Anna Livia Plurabelle is a character in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, who also embodies the river. The monument was originally in the heart of the city on O’Connell Street but was removed to make room for the (infamous since it cost so much) Spire of Dublin in 2001. Residents refer to her as “the floozie in the jacuzzi” or the “Hoor in the Sewer,” names which the sculptor encouraged. I guess this tells you a lot about Irish humor. 🤪 We then walked to gardens nearby, and later hopped on the Hop On Hop Off bus to tour city centre.

Fortunately the sun was out most of the day — blue skies were a pleasant relief from all the grey and drizzle! We visited the Dublin Castle (English) and some “secret” gardens behind it, the Whiskey Museum where we downed excellent Irish coffees, and then at Trinity College, the Book of Kells, a 9th century manuscript that is a symbol of Irish cultural identity and is described by The Guardian as “a wild illumination of the New Testament full of gilded curls and coils.” The mind blower, though, was the Long Room in the Old Library which houses nearly 200k of the Library’s oldest books—except they are all being removed to be catalogued and carefully cleaned right now. There are a few bookcases remaining with books “for show.” Spectacular nonetheless.

That night we walked to the Cobblestone Pub where we were entertained upstairs by one of the lead musicians from the group Dervish, and his family, in a sweet concert that felt intimate, moving and joyful. The younger daughter, Keelan, plays the concertina and piano, and is learning the harp. When I asked her how the kids got along she replied with a twinkle that whenever her mom asked them to do chores they would just say, let’s play some music now! and chores would be easily put aside. Ha!