To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. -Oscar Wilde
We spent our last day in Ireland in Dublin, visiting some of the most popular places like Trinity College Library, famous for its best known manuscript, the Book of Kells.
Visiting Trinity College Library in July or August is a challenge because of the crowds of tourists from all over the world. The place seems to be on everyone’s list. Not only you have to line up for at least 30 minutes to enter the building but once you are inside, it is very difficult to move around.
This bronze sculpture by Italian artist Arnaldo Pomodoro is called: Sphere Within Sphere. Versions of this sculpture can be seen in many places in the world including Rome, New York and San Francisco.
The Book of Kells is the best known of all Ireland’s illuminated monastic manuscripts. It contains all four Gospels. It can be seen as an inspiring symbol of Irish creativity and national pride. The text in Latin is beautifully decorated with images that are highly refined and skilled. When you look at the manuscript in the Treasury, you only see two pages. The best way to examine this book is …….to buy the official guide in the bookstore:
The Old Library is also very interesting. The main chamber of the Old Library, the Long Room, is nearly 65 meters in length, and houses around 200,000 of the Library’s oldest books.
It also houses the famous Brian Boru’s harp that we can see today in many places including the Guinness logo and Irish coins. It probably dates from the fifteenth century. Its attribution to Brian Boru, high king of Ireland who died in 1014, is legendary.
Here is the harp in one of the pubs in Dingle:
Famine Memorial is one of the most touching landmarks in Dublin. The statues are located in Custom House Quay. The memorial, designed by Rowan Gillespie, was presented to the city of Dublin in 1997. It commemorates the Great Famine in 1845-1851 when approximately one million people died and a million more left the country.
It’s time to end our trip to Ireland. Here are our last pictures.
Amnesty Candle on Memorial Road:
The Doors of Dublin:
Kennedy’s Pub:
120m tall Spire of Dublin:
Thank you for visiting Ireland with us! Cheers!
And thank you Oscar for your quotes!
So interested to see the installation of the Irish Famine. And of course it was the enclosure of the land into fields to raise sheep for wool to supply the mills in northern England that caused the famine. The people had potato as their main nutrition source and the enclosure of the fields stopped them from growing potatoes and caused a huge number of deaths and ultimately huge migration of people to the US and Canada as there was no food. Another example of capitalism gone wild.
Thank you Pam for your comment. The memorial is very powerful and has a good location.