“What strange phenomena we find in a great city, all we need do is stroll about with our eyes open.” — Charles Baudelaire
Banners of flags hung across cobblestone streets. Talented street musicians. The smell of ground espresso in corner side cafes. The sound of clapping and Irish folk songs as you pass by a bar, where people gather in clusters to talk and laugh amongst themselves. Roaming through charity shoppes until you find the perfect cable knit sweater. Pigeons fluttering and stirring up the autumn leaves in St. Stephen’s Green. In short, this weekend I visited the city of Dublin.
SAINT PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL
We arrived, after a sleepy bus ride from where we’ve been staying in Northern Ireland, at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. The elegant gothic arches rose above the city park, and it was in the shade of its spires that Emily and Katie gave a presentation on the life and works of Jonathan Swift, who was once a Dean of said cathedral. Because of a schedule error, we only had about ten minutes to see the inside of the cathedral before we were due to hurry back to the bus for our next stop. Because of this, I only had time to glimpse Swift’s memorial and a few remnants of his life that were on display in a glass case.
KILMAINHAM GAOL
Our tour guard/guide took us immediately into the heart of the prison, through narrow stone passageways and cold cement cells. We’ve been studying the Irish Famine crisis of 1847, which gave me some context for understanding how the gaol was overcrowded with nine thousand criminals, imprisoned for theft and other crimes. The leaders of the 1916 Easter Uprising were arrested, imprisoned, and executed by firing squad in those very walls. After seeing the panopticon, we walked out to the memorial and our guide explained the meaning behind the colors of the Irish flag — green for Nationalists, orange for Unionists, and white symbolizing peace between the two parties.
ST. STEPHEN’S GREEN
St. Stephen’s Green is in the heart of Dublin, surrounded by bustling streets full of musicians, colorful markets, cafes, pubs, and shoppes. First things first — we picked up coffee and donuts at Rolling Donuts before heading over to our next stop, St. Stephen’s Park, to listen to a presentation on the life of James Joyce from other students of our number.
TRINITY COLLEGE LIBRARY
The one destination I was most excited for in Dublin was, hands-down, Trinity College Library. They have an incredible exhibit about history of the Book of Kells, an ancient ninth-century illuminated manuscript of the Gospels that was crafted with pages of vellum (calfskin) parchment. Miraculously, this beautiful book survived years and years of Viking raids. The display of the Book of Kells itself was brimming with crowds of people, all jostling to take a loot at the two pages of incredibly detailed illustrations, to study the gold and azure and crimson inks, to marvel at the tiny and immaculate hand.
At the end of it all, I emerged in the vast Long Hallway of Trinity College, also known by its alter-ego, the Jedi Library. Talk about an English major’s dream! A single hallway unifies two stories of library shelves, where volumes are organized with the largest books on the bottom shelves and the smallest on top. The bookshelves are so tall they are lined with library ladders!
HODGES FIGGIS
After Trinity College Library, we were as good as on our own for the weekend. Myself and four of my friends retrieved our overnight bags from the bus and then were free to wander about the city as we pleased. Naturally, being English majors, we gravitated into a bookstore. Hodges Figgis is apparently the third oldest bookstore in all of Europe, and it just happened to be celebrating its 250th anniversary by releasing an anthology of work by Irish writers called “Reading the Future.” We knew this, because the upstairs floor was crowded with people gathering for a poetry reading from the anthology.
I stood up there for a good long while, just listening to the pieces being read aloud one at a time. It was fascinating to me that we had just stumbled onto a local reading by local writings, and on this perfectly ordinary Friday evening in Dublin, these lovely Dubliners were milling around and sipping glasses of wine and listening to poetry for the sheer fun of it.
DAVY BYRNES PUB
This pub was apparently mentioned in James Joyce’s Ulysses. For that reason and no other, we decided to stop there for dinner on our way to the hotel. My only advice is this: do not, by any means, take Joyce’s word for it and order the gorgonzola sandwich. I repeat — don’t inflict this upon yourself. Stick to a salad or soup and bread, and you’ll be fine. Just avoid the gorgonzola sandwich.
BEANHIVE CAFE
Suffice to say, we had an adventurous time crossing the city to get to our hotel. The following morning, we took our time returning to the heart of the city and stumbled upon this cafe, which is tucked away just across from St. Stephen’s Green.
It was a quaint little cafe tucked off a side street. As soon as we turned the corner, I caught a glimpse of flower baskets hanging beside a covered patio awning. We squeezed inside, cautious not to smack into anyone with our backpacks, and then settled into the corner table.
My coffee came first, and on top of the cappuccino foam was a delicate design of a flower. Caylie’s “London Fog” had a skycap of Big Ben and flying birds. Phoebe’s was topped with a smiling panda bear. And Alexa’s — oh, Alexa’s was the best of all. Her foam was designed with a field of rolling green hills and a flock of sheep, spelled beneath with the word “Ireland.”
We panicked. That was the long and short of it. We snapped a ridiculous amount of pictures. but you know what? That was the best cappuccino I have ever had in my life. It deserved photographing. Everything was perfect — the warm vibe of the cafe, the drizzly morning outside, the coffees. Not for the first time on this trip, I had to do a reality check.
ULYSSES RARE BOOKS
A short jaunt down from the Beanhive, we discovered this little treasure trove of antiquated books, some of which were extremely rare editions. Downstairs, I found a wall of books that were 50% off. We ended up spending several hours just perusing all the paperbacks, and among them I found a beautiful book of poetry by an Irish poet called R.H. Graves.
CHESTER BEATTY LIBRARY
This was our last destination for the day. Since I had no expectations whatsoever, I was astonished by what we found. The library is a curated collection of Chester Beatty’s personal collection of ancient manuscripts, illuminated texts, and rare books (including the Coptic manuscripts, which changed the historical perception of bookbinding). My favorite display was seeing the oldest existing fragments of the letters of Saint Paul. Apparently the library displays only 1% of the collection at any time — and judging from the expansive rarities we saw, there is no shortage of incredible things.
We returned to daylight a few hours later, still a little distant from reality (but such is the effect of museums and libraries). We had to book it across the city to the bus station — arriving to board the bus towards Newry with only two minutes to spare!
Thanks for joining me on this quick weekend tour of the Dublin. I’ve been here three weeks now and I can’t believe how fast the semester is flying by. Stay tuned for next week’s update on GALWAY!
<3 Olivia Grace
