Dublin and the Book of Kells

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Our final port of call was Dublin. Whilst my sister E and her husband did a tour of the Guinness factory, A and I went into the city and visited Trinity College Library and the Book of Kells exhibition and then did a tour of Dublin Castle (no P&O tour did both).

I only had my compact camera on me, so excuse the quality of the photo, but I wanted to show how amazing the 18th century library is. The Book of Kells is an illustrated manuscript Gospel book in Latin dating to c800 AD. It is very beautiful but understandably no photos were allowed.

I found Dublin Castle very interesting for the history - not much is actually left of the original castle, It was erected on the site of an earlier Viking settlement in 1204, was largely destroyed by fire in 1684, and rebuilding took place in 17th and 18th century and this Georgian building now houses the State Appartments. It was the seat of English and later British rule in Ireland from 1204 to 1922 - I had no idea it was that long!. Some of the rooms commemorate the Easter Rising of 1916 and the Irish War of Independence - something I knew little of. Ireland’s presidents are inaugurated in St Patrick’s Hall, the grandest of the State Apartments and the Queen visited here a few years ago (see photos in my postcard Extra). I do hope the UK and Ireland can become better friends and neighbours as history recedes into the past. 

Dublin was very slow to get around due to the amount of traffic (45 mins to travel in 2 miles) and there were less historical buildings than I expected. Not sure I would visit it again, although I would like to visit other more scenic parts of Ireland.