Dublin

On September 18 we went to Dublin. It was an easy trip from Dun Laoghaire on the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit). Our first stop was at the Gresham Hotel to meet with Sean Quinn, genealogist and owner of My Ireland Heritage. He does family research and also tours with people to their ancestral homelands in Ireland. Larry has been trying to pinpoint the places where his great-grandfather Dominick (who came to the US) and Dominick’s father Thomas (who stayed in Ireland) are from. It’s been an interesting journey, and Sean Quinn really put it together for us. He is an interesting person who had another career in tourism before starting this family business. (His daughter and son-in-law help out.) We were impressed with his expertise and his love for his country. One of the problems with doing genealogical research in Ireland is that there are no records from 1821-1911. They were all burned in the Civil War. He also shared with us that many of the Catholic parishes have just thrown out their registers as they remodeled or rebuilt buildings, and that many of the priests just don’t have time to be bothered with the history. So it’s pretty difficult to locate specifics.Tax records are the real clue, and Sean gave us a lovely package of locations, directions, and information. It was well worth the time and money.

Old Library, Trinity College

After our meeting with Sean we headed to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells and the Old Library. We learned there was a student-led tour that would include those places, and those are always fun, so we signed up and went to have sandwich before the tour began. School is just getting underway in these parts, so we watched new undergraduate and graduate students lining up as you always do at school for the many aspects of their orientation.

The tour was terrific, with an entertaining English Literature major. See the book of Kells was amazing - what a thing that is! The Old Library is beautiful. Books are organized in a very particular fashion - big books on the bottom shelved, small books on the top! Their current exhibit was about books that draw their inspiration from myths of all kinds, so we saw first editions of Lewis, Tolkien, and J. K. Rowling. We also saw a children’s book of Irish myths by one Malachy Doyle, who we will be visiting on September 27. You’ll read more about that then!

After Trinity College we headed off to see the Jennie Johnston boat and famine museum, stopping along the way for a beer at Sweetman’s. Many people who fled the Irish potato famine died en route to the US. The Jennie Johnston took thousands of passengers and there was not one death. Sadly, we got there after the tours for the day had stopped. I had pretty much stopped, too, and the beer hadn’t helped! But we refreshed ourselves and headed off for the Chester Beatty Library, a fabulous collection of books and manuscripts. It was really worth the walk, and we saw the oldest extant fragments of letters from St. Paul. Way cool.

In September every year Ireland has what they call a culture night all over the country. September 18 was the day, and it was festive everywhere. There are lots of free things of every variety. We stopped at Christ Church Cathedral (Dublin’s Anglican - Church of Ireland - Cathedral) where they had a huge food fair in the close and music in the nave. The place was packed. We heard the end of an organ recital and then the Cathedral Choir had a brief concert which included two pieces from  Handel's Messiah at the end. When Messiah was first performed in Dublin, the choir was that of Christ Church Cathedral. (It was in a concert hall, not the church.) Lots of fun.

The choir at Christ Church, Dublin

 We ended the evening with dinner at The Brazen Head, Dublin’s oldest pub. Dinner was accompanied by Rugby on television, the item everywhere. We seem to be good at landing in these countries during major sporting events! In 1998 we followed the World Cup (soccer) from place to place, even being in Paris for the final when France won! Now we’re following the Rugby World Cup everywhere. It is a passion in this country for sure.

The DART brought us back to Windsor Lodge late and we slept very well.