I had decided to split up my two bus tours with a day in Dublin in between. This allowed me some more time to tour the museums that Dublin had to offer, while also having plenty of time to just walk the streets and explore. I had two historic tours planned for the day: the Trinity College Library and the Kilmainham Gaol.
I started my day off slowly, this was the only day on my trip I would be able to sleep in, and headed off to brunch near Trinity College. I was looking for a traditional Irish breakfast and I found it at the Kilkenny Restaurant and Café. The café is located above a small shopping center and offers buffet style brunch choices.
You can get a full breakfast at almost any restaurant in Ireland, but I chose this place since I knew it would be quick and near my first stop of the day. The concept of a full breakfast, a hot meal consisting of an array of items, originated in the United Kingdom but has been adapted to meet various requirements all over the world. For example a full breakfast in the United States would include eggs, meat, toast, and some kind of fried potato.
In Ireland, a full breakfast includes fried eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, beans, black pudding, and toast or Irish soda bread. While some places give you all the fixings, others allow you to select certain items for your plate. Oh and if you’re curious, black pudding actually refers to a type of sausage made from meat, fat, blood, oatmeal, and potatoes. If you aren’t quite as adventurous but want to give the pudding a try, go for the white pudding instead which isn’t made with blood.
After enjoying this massive breakfast, I headed across the street to Trinity College where I hopped in line for the Book of Kells and Trinity College Library Tour. I had not purchased tickets in advance so I did have to wait in a long general admission line, but it moved quickly.
The Book of Kells Exhibit at Trinity College is one of Dublin’s most popular tourist attractions. The Book of Kells is decorated manuscript of the four Gospels of the New Testament, which dates all the way back to the 9th century. It has been extremely well preserved and is considered to be one of the oldest books left in the world.
The book is made up of 680 pages that were all intricately designed by scribes. The complexity of both the text and the images surpass that of any other Gospel book created in that time period, and the fact that it is still in mint condition makes the Book of Kells one of the most famous medieval manuscripts in the world.
Throughout the exhibit you will learn the history of how scribes created these ancient texts throughout the years. Each book was created in a different style depending on where the book was created. The calligraphy and artistry in these books are so inspiring, considering all the colors of ink had to be created from scratch. These monks had very little room for error as well, and mistakes had to be covered up with some type of artwork or design.
The manuscript itself is on display in a small room where photographs are prohibited to help preserve the text. The specific pages on display change daily, but you are guaranteed to see a page of text along with a page of art and design.
After you pass through the Book of Kells exhibit you will head up to the Long Room of the Old Library, one of the world’s oldest and most beautiful libraries. As you step through the doors it truly feels like you have stepped back in time, or maybe into the world of Harry Potter! And I'll tell you, if you love the smell of a brand new book, the scent of this library will hit you like a ton of bricks the second you walk through the door!
The Long Room is over 200 feet long and has two levels of shelving, which contain over 200,000 books! The Library at Trinity College serves as a “copyright library” for both Ireland and Great Britain, meaning all Irish and British publishers must deposit a copy of their publication in this library free of charge. Other historic artifacts are permanently on display in the Long Room including the Brian Boru Harp, an original copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, and other medieval texts. The library is also decorated with marble busts of famous writers and philosophers of the western world.
The Book of Kells and Library Tour is self-guided so I would allow about 90 minutes to complete the exhibition. Don’t forget to tour the rest of the campus as well, as the architecture of the courtyard is quite stunning.
Once I had finished touring the grounds at Trinity College I hopped in a cab and headed toward the outskirts of Dublin and toward Kilmainham Gaol. This former prison has been converted into a museum to honor the part the jail played in Irish history: many of the rebels of the 1916 Easter Rising were imprisoned and executed inside the walls of Kilmainham.
The island of Ireland came under British rule around 1801. The Kindgom of Ireland was merged with the Kingdom of Great Britain, thus abolishing the Irish Parliament and instead giving Ireland representation in the British Parliament. From the beginning of this establishment, many Irish people opposed the union.
Throughout the years, the Irish tried, and failed, to pass laws that would allows Ireland to govern itself. However there were still some groups in Ireland, many from the North, that supported the union with Great Britain. Eventually both the unionists and the nationalists created their own volunteer armies. By 1914, Ireland seemed to be on the brink of a civil war.
What followed is known as the Easter Rising of 1916. On Easter Monday, over a thousand armed nationalists gathered throughout Dublin. They began seizing important sites in Dublin, most famously the General Post Office, which became the headquarters for the rebellion. They raised the Republican flag, handed out copies of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, and sent out a radio signal declaring the formation of the Free Republic of Ireland.
Throughout Easter Week, the Irish and British armies battled to regain Dublin. About 500 people were killed and many other rebels were taken prisoner. However by the end of the week, the surviving rebels were forced to surrender. Eventually in 1922, after a three-year War for Independence, the Irish Free State was established.
A civil war later developed between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State, but you remember all that from my last blog, right?
Many of the rebels of the Easter Week Uprising were captured and held in Kilmainham Gaol. Ironically enough, almost all of the leaders of the Rebellion were held in the same hallway of the prison. These leaders, deemed traitors to the UK, were executed by firing squad within the walls of the Kilmainham Gaol before the end of the summer of 1916. The jail was developed into a museum in the 1930’s to honor those who lost their life fighting for the Irish Independence.
The jail provides a spooky and unique perspective of the Easter Rising and I highly recommend it as a spot to tour, especially for you fellow history buffs out there! Our tour guide was extremely knowledgable about the events of the rebellion, and even made the trek through the jail an emotional one for us all. However at the end of our tour, we were lucky enough to hear the words all Irish prisoners had hoped to hear:
“You are free to go.”
To be continued...
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