Still posting about out recent holiday in Ireland.

Allegedly it was to take an hour to get to Dublin for our 11am tour of Trinity College and the Book of Kells. We were supposed to be there ten minutes in advance. We left at 9am. There seemed to be a lot more traffic on the roads than the previous day and driving through the centre of Dublin, negotiation bus lanes, trams and a million sets of traffic lights was not the best idea we’ve, ok I’ve, ever had. We had been lulled into a false sense of security by yesterday’s foray into Dublin, albeit the southern outskirts. I won’t say it was stressful, for me at least but I have vowed never ever to suggest we drive into a city again. If I have my way we won’t ever venture into a major city on any terms ever again. I will make an exception for the cities on whose outskirts my children live but that may well be it. Then there was the issue of where to park. The sat-nav obliged us with a ‘car park near your destination’ and we manage to only accidentally get stuck in one bus lane on the way (we think). We are now waiting to see how many fines we get. The tiny out-of-the-way car park had very tight turns to access it but we made it at 10.35pm and there was space. Of course we then had no idea how to get from there to Trinity College. We managed to pick people to ask who knew the answer and arrived at exactly 10.50am, fortunately with time to dash to a toilet before beginning our tour with Paul.

Paul was great; if you have a tour of Trinity College, Paul is your man. The university was set up in the C16th by Elizabeth I, who wanted a university for the sons of the Protestant aristocracy. As such, the university was aloof from the surrounding area. It was two hundred years before Catholics were allowed to study there and 1904 before women were able to graduate, even then it was ahead of its time and women came from England in order to be awarded degrees. Initially, the schools of study were Divinity, Law, Medicine and Science. Notable former students are Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker and Samuel Beckett. The university boasts many active societies. The History Society has been meeting since 1770 but the Philosophical Society have met every week without a break since 1683. No idea how this worked in times of war, rebellion or COVID.

Currently there are 20,000 students from 110 countries. Ireland’s current population is seven million about ten percent of whom are fluent Gaelic speakers but this is on the increase. There are some small settlements in the west where Gaelic is the first language.

The oldest surviving building dates from 1701. The 100 foot bell tower was built in 1852 and the students are wary of passing under it, as the legend is that if you walk underneath when the bells rings, which it does unpredictably, you will fail your exams. The chapel at Trinity College is the only multi-faith place of worship in Ireland. The iconic Old Library, which houses 200,000 texts, some of which date back over four hundred years, is being renovated. The process will take three years. A year to move the books safely, this is already underway, a year to renovate the building and a year to replace the books. It is an amazing building, even with only some of its contents. On display was the Brian Boru harp, which actually is not anything to do with C11th high king of Ireland Brian Boru. The harp, in fact from the late middle ages, is the oldest surviving Irish harp and one on which the Irish national emblem has been based.

We joined the million people each year who view the Book of Kells, which dates from 800CE. Fortunately, not all one million were there on the day of our visit, even though it felt like it on the streets of Dublin. There wasn’t even a queue. The Book of Kells, an incredibly illustrated version of the Bible, was created in a monastery on Iona. Viking raids led monks to relocated to Kells in County Meeth. Kells was plundered several times and in 1007 the Book was stolen, being recovered, with some damage, a few weeks later. It is incredible that the Book survived as there were repeated fires at Kells in the C11th and C12th. It was 1653 before the Book was sent to Dublin, to keep it safe during the Cromwellian raids. It was presented to Trinity College, Dublin in 1661. It is estimated that 185 calf skins were used to make the vellum for the Book; the original binding has not survived. Every three or four months a specialist page turner sees that a new double-page spread is displayed to visitors. Although the current pages were not particularly decorative, it did seem appropriate that it was Luke 3 vv32-8, the genealogy of Jesus.

I am sure we should have walked the streets of Dublin, exploring the archetypal bars, listening to music and quaffing Guiness but to be honest, we just wanted to get to somewhere more remote. Fortunately, getting out of Dublin was a little more straightforward than crossing it and we headed home down the coastal road. Although we did get a couple of glimpses of the sea, this wasn’t particularly inspiring but it did mean we saw a different Irish road.