The Museums of Dublin

Walking through the streets of Maynooth in the early morning air with Kathleen, Lauren, Hannah and Jackie to the bus stop required effort from my tired body, since it was still recovering from yesterday’s walking tour. We were on our way to Trim Castle, where they filmed parts of Braveheart, little did we know that the bus would never come. After waiting by the cold bus stop for the bus, some of the girls lost hope and decided to head back through town. With no shops open yet for tea or coffee, we chose to go to Dublin instead of wasting the day or waiting for breakfast. Hopping on the Dublin bus, we made our way into the city with no real plan, so when we arrived we walked into the first free museum we stumbled upon. It happened to be the National Gallery, which was in the midst of being remodeled. Since nearly every gallery was closed to the public, we only got to walk through two exhibits. However, those two exhibits were beautiful, one was dedicated to Irish writers who selected art pieces to go with their works and the other was filled with Renaissance paintings. I quickly developed a new favorite artist, Jack B. Yeats; his art is so powerful and moving, one piece even made me cry.

Outside of the library

After our stroll through the National Gallery, we stopped to eat our packed lunches, before heading to another museum. Fortunately, the library intercepted our walk towards the National Museum of Archeology. The National Library was holding an exhibit on the other Yeats, W.B. Yeats, and Lauren wanted to visit, so we made our way inside. The exhibit captured his life very majestically, but I preferred sitting where I could hear audio recordings of his poems being spoken. Once finished, we walked next door to the museum, which held artifacts from Ireland’s vast archeological history. There was precious metals, stones, Viking swords, chalices, and of course preserved bog bodies. Bog bodies are  people from hundreds of years ago whose bodies were thrown into a bog, which because of the bog’s lack of oxygen allowed for the skin, hair, and organs to be well preserved. It was definitely a spectacular scientific discovery, but looking at the bodies was eerie, and I think I have enough nightmare material for a while.

They had a place where you could leave a note of your favorite book and why. So of course I had to write my favorite book!

Having fun isn't hard when you got a library card!

Post bog bodies rest

Finding ourselves museum-ed out for the day, we wandered the streets of Dublin for a while, and since we made such an early start to the day, we concluded our spontaneous trip to Dublin by getting back on the bus and going home.