Dublin Blogpost

Dear Dirty Dublin

Jacob R. Orr

As with most of the travel on this trip, the goings on were surprisingly painless. The transition from post-Brexit U.K. to E.U. Ireland was quite simple and went by easily. The only real issue was the early wakeup in London, which proved difficult for me personally.

Dublin itself is a splendid little town, emphasis on little. Between Edinburgh and London I was a bit shocked at how quick it was to get to the major sites in Dublin. From the Savoy theater to Trinity college was a 20 minute walk! Kinda crazy given the spread out nature of London and the necessity of its tubes.

My early expeditions in Dublin were fairly sparse and I didn’t do a whole lot the first day. Again, this phenomenon is most easily attributed to the sleep deprivation I was suffering from. All the same, I got my picture with Mr. Joyce and had a lovely Irish coffee at a local coffee shop.

The next day was far more eventful as I had established a solid plan the day prior. The morning bus tour with our lovely guide Grainne was an absolute scream. As with Edinburgh and London, having a local’s perspective was well worth the time. Grainne was particularly funny and insightful. If I were ever to have an Irish grandmother, I would hope it was her.

The subsequent trip to the Cathedral of St. Patrick was fabulous. As with almost every place in the UK and Ireland I toured, the stained glass was of supreme intrigue for me personally. The final resting place of Jonothan Swift was interesting, don’t get me wrong, but the stained glass again took the fore for me.

After our morning tour I was determined to see the Dublin Archaeological Museum and see the museum I did! The prehistoric metalworking was absolutely breathtaking; breathtaking being a term I feel is often cheapened by overuse. The Irish gold however was undeniably incredible and well worth the walk to the museum.

The bog bodies were also quite fascinating but I was nowhere near as enthusiastic about them as Mrs. Reed was. It was a bit grim to confront mortality so viscerally and it left me feeling a tad uneasy. 

The rest of the museum was fantastic. I adored the exhibit on the mounds and tombs at Tara. The care and detail with which the museum created and planned the exhibit was really quite gripping. I was particularly taken by the physical map they had on display. The thing was huge and highly detailed, giving an excellent bird’s eye view of the site at Tara.

The Christian metal works were also phenomenal and beautiful. I am always struck by the intricacy of the Irish metal workers. They truly fill every square centimeter of material with some motif or detail and I love it.

The final exhibit I visited was the upstairs which featured all the things I had hoped to see. There was an excellent, in-depth, explanation of the Battle of Clontarf in 1074. It was one of the most important battles in Irish history as it marked the end of Viking domination of Ireland’s eastern coast and Dublin. It was also the battle that made Brian Boru famous, whose harp is one of the chief emblems of Ireland.

Beyond that was the trove of medieval and Viking finds from the Dublin area. The collection of swords was absolutely priceless. Having written more than one essay on the evolution of European double-edged swords from Antiquity to the Middle-Ages, I was overjoyed to see some of the pieces I had studied in person. The Irish detailing and Norse style on many of the hilts and blades gave me a newfound appreciation for the term ‘Hiberno-Norse’; a term that gets thrown around a lot in discussions of Dublin’s history and the Viking association with Ireland.

After the museum, I got dinner with some friends and had a blast at the Craic Den comedy club. While my peers had very opinionated takes on some of the performances, I had fun. Although that may have been the large quantity of Guiness I had consumed producing that effect.

Dublin was an excellent stop on our journey but I wish we could have had more time to explore.