Dublin - June 3, 2022

During my wanderings yesterday, I kept seeing many restaurants advertising a full Irish Breakfast.  So, this morning I got up and was determined to find a local spot to partake of whatever this is.  Down the street, not far from the Hostel, is a restaurant called Murphy’s.  It looked pretty popular, so I stopped there and indeed ordered the full Irish Breakfast.  Evidently, a full Irish breakfast includes a little bit of everything.  Starting at 6 o’clock going clockwise; a small container of beans, mushrooms, half of a cooked tomato, hash browns, two eggs over easy, bacon, sausage (the two long links) and black pudding/white pudding (not sure how these two are different) - but the really dark round disk is black pudding and the lighter colored one is white pudding.  It is similar to Spanish Morcilla, if you are familiar with that - basically, sausage made with the blood of the animal.  The two long links of sausage are made from pork, but they tasted mostly of the fat of the animal and very little meat.

Following breakfast, I took a 45 minute canal boat tour.  It was interesting and told me a lot about Dublin; how it was established, grew, declined and became what it is today.  A lot of architecture is mixed in Dublin with very old buildings standing next to very modern ones.  This is the tallest building in Dublin - 23 stories.  

But across the river, a plot of land stands empty waiting for the ok for a 48 story building to be erected.  The builder and the government are at a standstill, so nothing has been developed there for a number of years.  

Yesterday, Brian had mentioned that I really needed to see the National Museum of Ireland - Archeology building.  I’m so glad he mentioned it and that I went.  It is a fascinating museum - small, but the building itself is beautiful.  It was fascinating to see the Bogmen - mummified bodies recovered from the peat bogs in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe - how preserved they are.  The preservation of the details of the body suggests that he had a mustache and beard, was 5’9” tall, and had been on a plant-based diet months before his death.  He also sported a unique hairstyle which was held in place by an ancient type of hair gel that came from France or , suggesting that he was a man of considerable financial means. The second photo is a reproduction of his head.

I was also excited to see the Fadden More Psalter, a book from Medieval times.  Finding a book in the preserved environment of a peat bog is nearly unprecedented and this manuscript is amazing, written in the old Latin text, about 800 C.E.  The special conditions of a peat bog make preservation of organic matter possible.  Low oxygen levels and the presence of sphapnum moss, produces an antibiotic substance sphagnan that binds with proteins on the surface of microorganisms, immobilizing them, and causing an altered chemical changes that make anything hidden or lost within the bog nearly impervious to rot.

Reliquaries were important to the early church.  The first is a cross that allegedly contains within it a piece of the original cross from Golgotha.  The second one is a book shrine, containing a hand written book.  Since very few books were written during this time period, they were revered with great respect and often kept “safe” within such a reliquary.  The last one is St. Patrick’s Bell and it’s own case.

I then visited Christ Cathedral.  I’m obsessed with those floors!

I had arranged a tour to see Trinity College, one of the first Protestant Colleges established in 1598, and the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the Four Gospels.  It was written by Irish monks living in Iona, Scotland but brought back to Ireland for safe keeping when the Vikings were raiding the area.  Every 6 weeks, a page is turned to preserve the integrity and wear of the book itself.  You are unable to take pictures of the book itself, but I’ve included a photo of a replica page.  After the tour, we were able to visit the Long Library within the college.  Like our Library of Congress, a copy of every book written was sent to this library.  The entire experience took my breath away.  In our tour group, I met some wonderful people.  We all exchanged stories.  Within the group I met a retired couple from Vancouver, British Columbia, who were ticking off their bucket list of things to see and do before they are no longer able to travel.  Their next adventure is to New Zealand!  And a family of three generations from Chicago.  The grandfather was an eye surgeon.  His son and daughter-in-law are both Ophthalmologists.  The oldest grandson is studying to become an Optometrist and the youngest who is 16 years old, Cooper, wants to be an artist.  They laughed about that when they were ticking off what each of them did for a living or aspired to do.  I told them that Cooper was just taking a different perspective on what we see and how we see it - we need both science and art!  When the tour was over as we were parting, the mother came over and gave me a hug, telling me how much she loved meeting me - she looked like she was ready to cry.  It was a surreal moment.  I think that perhaps she had been disappointed in her youngest son and his choice of “following a different drummer”.

Dublin Castle was a bit of a disappointment as it is now much more modern, having suffered destruction several hundred years ago.  The only thing left of the original structure is the one tower which is attached to the Gothic looking church - the private chapel of the Lord of Ireland.  I’ve included a picture of the original structure.

After the tour, I stopped for dinner at a restaurant advertising Irish Burgers.  However, I chose to have a salad - Rock and Parmesan.  Rock is the name of a type of lettuce similar to Arugula with Sun-dried tomatoes.  I paired it with a Red Ale produced 20 minutes away.  Both were decent!

Finally, I stopped at Temple Bar, the famous Bar in Dublin that carries the name of the neighborhood called Temple Bar.  It was packed and I only stayed long enough to take a 45 second video of the entire bar singing and drinking.  For some reason, it won’t let me upload it.

Tomorrow, I’m going to try and get up early enough to visit St Patrick’s Cathedral before I head to Killarney.