Their Darkest Hour

No, yesterday was not awful, it was just difficult. Since I have been here for several weeks and Dublin is not a huge city, I have pretty much seen everything that I want to see at this point. After going through my guide book I found a place to go since I did not want to waste a perfectly good Sunday (and very few things are open on Sunday as it is). I made my way to the city centre to go to the Jeanie Johnson Tall Ship. The ship is a replica of the ships that many Irish took during their migration to the United States and abroad. It also was supposed to discuss the famine which was one of the many causes of emigration. As I have stated before the famine (1845-1849 roughly) slashed the Irish population from about 8-9 million to 4 million people through starvation, disease, and immigration. Because of this it is known as Ireland’s Darkest Hour because it was really not a great place to live during and after those years. I mean, can you imagine if half the people you knew were either dead or moved away in a five year period? There was actually plenty of food, but none of it was making its way to the Irish people. 

Dublin's Famine Memorial

Jeanie Johnson Tall Ship

The ship was along the Liffey River and as it was morning it was a beautiful walk and quite enjoyable. When I got to the ship though I saw that all the tours were booked for the next few hours (only one tour was offered an hour), so I made my way back toward the city centre and back to my apartment.  Upon returning back to my apartment I discovered that the internet was not working, which might not seem like a problem, but it is when it is necessary to get in contact with my friends and family, to find out what bus to take, or write an essay. So, I spent quite a bit of time out of the house or at Starbucks till the internet connection righted itself about 3PM. During this time my friends and I realized that we needed to print our tickets to A Midsummer Night’s Dream which we had bought online on Friday. Being that Dublin basically shuts down on Sundays we had a huge problem on our hands. Every library and print shop was closed along with UCD. So, I went from Wi-Fi hotspot to Wi-Fi hotspot trying to find a place to print. Eventually I discovered an internet café on Grafton Street where I could use the internet and print for only 2 Euro. In all honestly my friends and I had forgotten that places like that existed (who doesn’t have connection to internet?). 

After that crisis had ended it began to rain, which is not that unusual, though the Irish have discussed that has been an unnaturally nice summer; we are in the middle of a ‘heat wave.’ I was only worried because the play that we were going to that evening was going to be held in the gardens behind Dublin Castle next to the Chester Beatty Library. Thankfully when 7:30 came along the rain had stopped but the sky was still ominous. I made the unfortunate decision to try and look cute, so I wore a dress. During the hour and a half performance the wind blew ferociously and it was freezing. The rain held off though until we were walking to our bus stops. The play though was amazing! It was in the original Shakespeare, but with 1970s costumes and music; definitely worth seeing despite the bitter cold. 

Demetrius, Helena, and Lysander

The Fairy King Oberon

Puck

Living Lavishly

Oscar Wilde statue in Merrion Square

I tend to think of myself as being a cultured girl; I am decently traveled, I like classical music and literature, I can appreciate some art. This morning I finally got to the National Gallery, which I had planned to go to last week but was not able to due to my foot. At 9:30 I strode through the gallery doors just as the museum opened to beat the crowds as there is nothing worse than a crowded museum. As the museum is being refurbished for its 150^th anniversary (1864-2014) a few of the galleries are closed, but the two that I saw—the European masters and the Irish masters—were very good. Unfortunately we are not allowed to take pictures of the art, but I can say that the artwork was beautiful. They had paintings from the 15^th century to the 20^th, and works from artists such as Picasso, Vermeer, and Monet, along with a host of others. They even had a collection on loan from Russborough, which if you remember, is the estate I saw in County Wicklow. After being broken into four times by art thieves, the most valuable art was put in the National Gallery for safe keeping. I will admit that I prefer more classical painting to the modern masters (I did not really like the Monet and Picasso that they had), but I still enjoyed my museum experience. The weather promised rain later, so I decided to enjoy the dry weather by stopping at the Queen of Tarts for a kettle of tea and a gluten free macaroon. 

The National Gallery of Ireland

The Picasso that I did not particularly like, though I do appreciate the talent that took to create it.

A painting by a Jan Steen called the Village School, created in 1665.

Giovanni Paulo Panini's Landscape with the Colosseum and Arch of Constantine, created in 1740 and a part of the Russborough Revisited Collection.

After taking a break to write an essay—I am here for academic purposes—and waiting for the rain to pass, I went to a museum that my friends and I had been looking for yesterday. Speaking of yesterday, my friends Julie, Camella, and I had a picnic at Trinity College and then walked around Dublin on Friday. We also bought tickets to seen Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream performed at Dublin castle; which should be fabulous. We had been enjoying the heat wave and looking for 29 Georgian House, which is an old house that is decorated to  show what a house would have looked like in the late 18^th century Dublin, and next to Merrion Square which was private gardens until the 1970s. We looked it up and today Julie, Alyssa, and I went to it. It was really cool (no pictures allowed), and reminded me a lot of Downton Abbey on a smaller scale. The servants unfortunate life in the basement and the beautifully decorated rooms of the main house where the wealthy Beatty family lived for twelve years. We took the guided tour and our tour guides told us about all four floors and about what life would have been like back then. It was very interesting and gave an interesting look into the lives of Dublin aristocracy. 

Twenty-Nine Georgian House. You enter through the basement and make your way from the kitchens to the children's nursery on the fourth floor. 

The dining room where they would have 25 courses when guests were over and would indulge in delicacies such as jello. The first two floors were the most used and therefore the most extravagant, with carpet and wallpaper.

The front and back drawing rooms. Not called such because drawing took place there but because you were withdrawing from dinner. The front room was for walking and talking, the backroom for cards, music, drinking, and socialization.

The governess' bedroom. Her important job was to raise and teach the children. Their ability to get a job depended on the family's standing; if any scandal touched the family while she was there, she name was ruined. She occupied rooms at the top of the house next to the nursery, less opulent then the lower rooms.

Volunteer Day

A hard days work with Volunteer Ireland. 

    Unbelievable as it sounds, tomorrow is my last day of interning. It has been a great three weeks with Volunteer Ireland and I can honestly say that I will miss it.  Yesterday I received an email about a corporate volunteer day, and after talking to my supervisor about it, he said I was invited as the entire office was going. So, this morning I put on my trainers, jeans, and sunscreen and headed on an adventure. The place we were meeting was in Dublin, across the Liffey near Croke Park (where GAA football and hurling games are held; and you might have heard of it as that was where Garth Brooks was supposed to play). Using the directions provided I took the bus to the location and then walked the rest of the way which really was not long.
      We were going to be clearing rubbish and plant life from an alley for an organize called ALONE which helps elderly people. This place was really really overgrown, but with 14 eager volunteers we got to work. We worked from 10 to 1, and filled four huge containers of weeds. Taking off down the road to Kennedy's Cafe where we had booked lunch we took a well deserved break. At lunch we gave Elaine a gift as it was her last day with Volunteer Ireland after a year of interning there. Though I did not really know her, I was still allowed to sign the card. The day was great because the whole time I really got to know the people I was working with better and we had a grand time.
   After lunch we continued to work, and filled two more bins with weeds. There was more we could have done but Dublin City Council (which had provided the bins) had no more bags for us, so we called it a day and headed out. It was a really great day, hard work, but totally worth it. People from the neighborhood were coming over to see what we were doing all day and thanking us for clearing out the mess. I cannot believe tomorrow is my last day, it is so sad, but I still have one more week of classes and then a one week travel break.

We dragged everything we cut and collected out into the street.

  

Then we cut it all up and put it in bins. Here is Allison sweeping up the left over leaves. (This is the same sidewalk as above but a few hours later).

Michael Collins Again...

  The man never goes away, he is literally all over Dublin (in the metaphorical sense). Being that I had so much success with the National Museum of Archaeology on Saturday, today I decided to try its sister museum, the National Museum of Decorative Arts and History. To be honest I had no idea what to expect, but surely any museum with 'history' in the name could not be awful. The reason that I mentioned that Michael Collins never goes away is because the museum is housed in Collins Barracks. The barracks and central square are named after Michael Collins, the first Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Free State Army, who was killed at Béal na Bláth, County Cork four months before the barracks was surrendered to the Free State Army. The barracks remained a part of the military until 1988 when they were closed and turned into the museum that now exists there.
      The Museum is relatively easy to find as it was right off the Luas line at a stop entitled "Museum", and I arrived right at 10am when it opened. The barracks are right across the river from the Guinness Storehouse on the north side of the Liffey. Being that I did not know what to expect I was impressed by the structure itself which was beautiful. The main building was a large square with a large courtyard in the middle where soldiers once drilled. It was built by Colonel Thomas Burgh in the 17th century who also built the Trinity College library. The museum had a wide range of exhibits and like with the National Museum of Archaeology I cannot go into detail about all of them. Some of them I enjoyed more than others: particularly the Four Centuries of Furnishings, The Way we Wore, along with Soldiers and Chiefs. Other exhibitions housed in the four story building were about Irish Silver and coins, Asian art, and other random artefacts. It was complex getting around as some exhibits were two stories, so you had to go upstairs and finish it before coming back down again and finishing the other exhibitions on the floor. I will display some pictures and talk about some of my favourite exhibitions.

This is a picture from the exhibition about the 1916 Rebellion. In the back of the building is Arbor Hill Cemetery where the executed leaders of the Rebellion are buried. It went into the complex relationship between Great Britain and Ireland at the time and the reason why the Easter Rising happened. 

This is a part of the Soldiers and Chiefs exhibition about Ireland's military throughout the centuries, showing artefacts brought back by Irish fighting in Africa. Being that there was such a strange layout to the building I accidentally went through exhibit backward, but it was all fine. In the beginning Ireland was a part of the British Empire (as we all know) so starting with 1550 it traces how the Irish fought in various wars side by side with Britain until they split in the 20th century. From the French and Indian War to the Crimean War, Irish went where the British did. Initially numbers were high, but they dropped off as Celtic Renaissance (the revival of everything Gaelic and Irish) happened in the 19th century and reared its head with rebellion in the 20th.

A section of the same exhibition talked about "Wild Geese" or Irish who fought against the British while Ireland was still a part of the Empire. They fought in the American War for Independence, the American Civil War, the French Revolution, and more. These men were hoping to either hurt England or for a cause such as freedom. They also hoped that once the country they were fighting for won (ideally) the would help 'liberate' Ireland from British control.

This is from the Curator's Choice gallery which is 25 items chosen by the museum's curator for display. It is a crucifixion stone found in a walled up room in the 1950s but from 1740 and they believe is connected to the restrictive Penal Laws put on Catholics int he 17th and 18th Centuries.

This photo and the one right below it are from the Four Centuries of Furniture exhibition which was more interesting than I thought it would be. There were five or six rooms, each decorated for a certain time period. These are the 17th century (top) and 18th century (bottom) rooms, and they went right up until the 1950s, allowing you to see how furniture and style changed over the centuries.

This is from the Way We Wore galley which showed fashion from the past 250 years. Like the furniture exhibit, it was interesting being able to compare how things changed over the years. They had examples of corsets which gave women the 'ideal figure' and both men and women's clothing. This is a dress that would have been worn in the late 18th century. Near the end they had stuff about the early 20th century and it was funny because it reminded me of the clothes worn on Downton Abbey, which really shows how England and Ireland were culturally connected around this time. In fact between the Act of Union in 1800 and 1900 (before the Irish Renaissance) Ireland's culture was more or less completely assimilated into English society.

This is obviously not from an exhibit inside the museum but after I was done I had wondered the grounds and found it and thought it was interesting. Known as the Rutland Fountain, it was erected in 1791. This stone structure, commemorates Charles Manners, 4th Duke of Rutland. He was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1784 but died three years later while still in office. The monument was more than just an elegant testimonial. It also performed an extremely useful service to the neighbouring streets; it was a fountain that provided fresh drinking water to houses where, despite their grandeur, running water would not be installed for around another fifty years or so.

Indiana Jones and the Bog Bodies

    

       No, you did not miss the box office release of this thriller. I went to the National Museum of Archaeology today, and it was grand. It is on Kildare Street and one of Ireland's four national museums. It was officially opened in 1890 and the interior was richly decorated with motifs reminiscent of ancient Greece and Rome; so it was really stunning inside. The Museum has two floors with various exhibits: Prehistoric Ireland, Ireland's Gold, The Treasury, Kingship & Sacrifice, Viking Ireland, Medieval Ireland, Ancient Egypt, and Clontarf 1014. It is hard to describe every exhibit, but I will talk a bit about them as I show you some pictures of what I saw. The museum is not huge, so I went around the various area more than once, so I apologize if I hop around the exhibits too much.

Though I know it is a bit blurry and hard to see, this is a picture of a 4,500 year old longboat that they pulled out of a bog. Bogs are basically pits of decomposing plant matter and are amazing at preserving things in. Before the introduction of refrigerators the ancient Irish used to bury food and other things in bogs since they are so cold; to this day things are still being found. An ancient manuscript was found in the 1950s and is housed in the museum that they pulled out of a bog.

Extraordinarily well preserved bodies have also been  found, with their hair and clothing still intact despite being thousands of years old.

The Bronze Age (roughly 2400-500 BC) was a time of great change in Ireland due to the introduction of metalworking. They created fabulous weapons and other objects from mixing metals.

During this time, passage tombs were used to bury important dead.

The building of passage tombs was normally carried out with megaliths and smaller stones; they usually date from the Neolithic Age. Megalithic art has been identified carved into the stones at some sites. The passage itself, in a number of notable instances, is aligned in such a way that the sun shines into the passage at a significant point in the year, for example at sunrise on the winter solstice or at sunset on the equinox.

This is from the Battle of Clontarf exhibit about Brian Boru and the Battle for Dubln. The Battle of Clontarf was fought a thousand years ago in 1014 and is when the Christian king of Ireland, Brian Boru, defeated the pagan Vikings and attempted to drive them out of Ireland.

As I have spoken of before, Dublin and much of Ireland was settled by the Vikings who were there from around 800 to 1200AD. The exhibit had lots of artifacts from excavations around Dublin, which was really awesome. There were viking weapons and things used in their day to day activities.

A 19th century replica of the 12th century St Manchan's Shrine. The original shrine was made to house the bones of St Manchan was probably made by the same individual who made the Cross of Cong. Its ornament is known as the Hiberno-Urnes style - a blending of a late Viking art style with native Celtic Irish art. (No, I did not remember this off the top of my head, I took a picture of the plaque describing it).

As you can probably imagine the introduction of Christianity had a huge impact on the Irish people. The Medieval exhibit follows Irish life from the Anglo Norman invasion in the 12th century to the Reformation in the 16th century.

Egypt might seem about as far away as Ireland as one can get, but the museum has a small exhibition on Ancient Egypt. There are four mummies which are elaborately painted in mummy cases and other artefacts. 

I do not know about you, but when I think about the Ancient Celts I do not tend to imagine them decked out in gold, but apparently they were as there is a whole section on Ireland's gold. Many of the objects on display were found in hoards and were discovered by farmers or in turf cutting (bog cutting).

Academia

     

     There are few places as well known in Dublin as Trinity College. It might seem strange to you that I have not take a tour of the illustrious college before now, but I had walked around the campus a few times and I was going to wait for my parents to come and take the tour with them. But, last Sunday (and yes, this was last week; sorry, I have been busy) I went down to the city centre to take a tour because I thought it might be something fun to do. The tour itself is relatively cheap and short, the most expensive and time consuming part is the Old Library and the Book of Kells, which are not a part of the tour.
       My tour was given by British alumnus, Mark, who studied at Trinity during his undergrad, it getting his master's at Columbia and wants to go back to Trinity for his PhD...so let us just say he is pretty smart. The tour takes you to the four main squares on the Trinity campus and tells you a bit about the architecture and the history. I am not good with architecture, but I will do my best to inform you about Trinity's history through the pictures that I took there. Disclaimer: I did not go to the Old Library or see the Book of Kells. The ticket for them has no time limit and I thought I would keep it till my parents came. The line to get in usually takes about 30 minutes and it was rainy and cold that day. I will inform you about how fabulous these to things are once I see them.

This is the bell tower on Trinity's main square. It only rings on two occasions: for funerals, and to call students to exams; which is quite funny.

      The college was founded in 1592 modeled after the collegiate universities of Oxford and of Cambridge, both of which are the university’s rivals. It is one of the seven ancient universities of Britain and Ireland as well as Ireland's oldest university.  Originally established outside the city walls of Dublin in the buildings of the dissolved Augustinian Priory of All Hallows, Trinity College was set up in part to consolidate the rule of the Tudor monarchy in Ireland, and it was seen as the university of the Protestant Ascendancy for much of its history. Although Catholics and Dissenters had been permitted to enter as early as 1793, certain restrictions on their membership of the college remained until 1873 (professorships, fellowships and scholarships were reserved for Protestants, and the Catholic Church in Ireland forbade its adherents, without permission from their bishop, who would inform them that they could attend, but would be excommunicated from the church. This rule was not changed until 1970, causing attendance to go from 3,000 to 18,000 students. Women were first admitted to the college as full members in 1904.

Speaking of women, this is a statue of University Provost George Salmon.

His deep conservatism led him to strongly oppose women receiving degrees from the University. He eventually agreed to dropping his veto in 1901 when the Board voted in favour of allowing women to enter the university. This was one of his last acts as Provost. Symbolically in January 1904, just after he died, the first women undergraduates were admitted.

Out of Trinity's 18,000 students, only about 800 are allowed to live on campus. At the end of the students second year, they can sit special exams. These cover everything they learned during their first two years. If they pass they are allowed to eat in the special dining hall, waited on by butlers, seated with professors and scholars, and allowed access to the university's wine room.  They are also paid to attend Trinity and do not pay tuition, they are given residence on campus for up to five years after they graduate. About 2,000 students take these exams every year and only around 70 pass. Mark was one of them; I told you he was smart.

This is one of the buildings next to Berkley Library (pronounced Barkley, but named for the same man who founded Berkley in California). The students do not use the Old Library which is famous because there is not real catalog system. Books are arranged by size, so in order to find one, so have to know the length, width, and height of the book you are looking for. This particular building (pictured) is across from some buildings that the university thought to dull and depressing, so they had an international competition to see who could build a better one. When this won and was built, they then considered it far to opulent.

Trinity College was truly beautiful, it made you feel smart just walking around, and even the guide Mark admitted that on a snowy winter's morning it felt a bit like Hogwarts with students and professors rushing around in the snow.  To bad for me that it is basically Ireland's equivalent of Harvard or Oxford. Oh well...we cannot have everything in life...