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Dublin

We had a mini-adventure ashore today…. we caught the DART metro train into Dublin!

Rather wonderfully some ex-Wellow friends now living in Galway, Siobhan and Ian Lacey, were able to meet up with us thanks to our lucky timing arriving here at the weekend. We’ve just had the most beautiful day together ~ nothing like having our own tour guides to show us around.

Dublin was heaving with sporting fans in coloured t-shirts which we soon established were connected with the Hurling All-Ireland Championship final in Dublin today; Galway (magenta) versus Limerick (green). A chap got off our train with his Hurling stick, having never seen such a thing until today, it was a great reminder how much you learn when you travel. 

21,000 steps later, we’ve managed take in many buildings, streets, bridges, statues, open spaces, street art, churches, stained glass windows and trams. We were treated to the sounds of Allie Sherlock who has successfully transitioned from a viral Dublin street busker to an international recording artist, awesome to see and hear her in person. St Stephen's Green Park is 22 acres of historical park and garden right in the centre of the city, a calm oasis in a bustling city, and a precious moment to take a breath.

A treat at the end of the day was a tour of Trinity College from recently graduated student Sadhbh (pronounced "Sive"). She was so engaging, interesting and informative, showing us around the campus for nearly an hour. She rattled off the history of Trinity College since its foundation in 1592, absolutely fascinating to hear all she had to say, and our minds are now just awash with many facts.

We ended in the hushed, darkened Old Library building that houses the 1,200 year old Book of Kells. Behind a glass case in a temperature sensitive room, it was a privilege to have a moment to marvel at such a beautiful ancient creation so close up, created in 800AD. Fascinating to read how it has been preserved all this time, and there it was, in front of us, one page being turned each day.

Upstairs in this stunning building were floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, these normally house millions of books but since the fire in the Notre Dame in 2019 they have been removing all books to make the place fire resistant, transpires we were lucky to find the place still open. At the end of the library, suspended, seemingly floating in mid-air, slowly gently spinning, was GAIA, a 6m diameter, really beautiful piece of artwork featuring detailed NASA imagery of the Earth’s surface. Its creator’s intention was to highlight the beauty and fragility of Earth, it certainly did this, and really stopped us in our tracks.

In anticipation of being here, I’ve had the Irish song ‘Molly Malone’ in my head for over a week, so it was a real treat to find there is a bronze statute to this fictional character, along with her trolley of cockles and mussels. We then had to play Dublin’s unofficial anthem in TC’s cockpit once we were back on board, sitting collapsed in a heap, drinking tea, chuffed and exhausted after such a great day.