Castles and Cathedrals

Since coming to Dublin, I've been so anxious to go sightseeing in the city, but my friends and I kept telling ourselves that we wanted to wait until the weather got nicer before we did this. But after 12 consecutive days of rain, we decided that at this rate we would never get the chance to see all of the great things Dublin has to offer. So, in typical American fashion, we donned our Sperrys and North Face rain jackets and went exploring! 

Yesterday we went to Dublin Castle, which is where the State Apartment, Chapel Royal, The Garda (Police) Museum, The Chester Beatty Library, and the Revenue Museum are located. According to the Dublin Castle's website, the castle is open seven days a week for guided tours. We were all ready to get a tour of a castle, but when we arrived, we were informed that the castle is currently closed. It was disappointing to not be able to go inside, but the outside of the castle is absolutely beautiful, and it was only slightly drizzling, which was a plus!  

The Chester Beatty Library (this was open, so we got to go inside and see  books, book bindings, manuscripts, and paintings from Europe, Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East).

This statue was put in Dublin Castle's courtyard in 2003 when Dublin hosted the World Games for the Special Olympics.

This morning, one of the other girls from BC and I decided to go to mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral. We were in for a surprise when we arrived and found out that St. Patrick's is actually an Anglican church... why one of the most famous cathedrals in a country where 94% of the population identifies itself as Catholic is actually Protestant I will never know. It was still incredible to go to mass there, and St. Patrick's is probably one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. The floors are made out of tile and look like one gigantic mosaic, the pews are wooden and have red velvet seats, old suits of armor line one of the walls, and every wall is adorned with intricate stained-glass windows. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but here's what St. Patrick's looks like from the outside:

A rare moment of sun and blue skies!

St. Patrick's reminds me so much of Gasson Hall (one of the classroom buildings at BC).

This statue in St. Stephen's Green commemorates the potato famine. 

After mass, we met up with a group of UCD students to go on a 2-hour walking tour of Dublin. Even though it started pouring at the beginning of the tour, this was by far my favourite (I need to practice spelling the European way since I'll have to do this when I write essays!) activity I've done since I arrived here. I learned so much about the history of Ireland as well as contemporary Irish culture, and since the tour guide was another UCD student who is a professional Dublin tour guide, the tour was catered to our age group and was enjoyable despite the rain. The tour started at St. Stephen's Green where the tour guide gave a brief history of Ireland. He told us that Ireland's history can be summed up in two words: rebellion and famine.



The next stop on the tour was the National Library of Ireland, the Museum of Ireland, and the Parliament house, which are all right next to each other.

The back of the Irish Parliament building

The front of the Irish Parliament building - what the White House is based off of! (I took this picture last night after the castle, so that's why it's darker than the others)

The National Library of Ireland is considered a library of record, which means it contains a copy of every book ever published in the UK and Ireland during the past 4,000 years.

After this we went to Trinity College, where we learned about the history of the school and a few strange rules that are in place. My favourite: anyone who wears his family colors and rides a white horse into an exam is allowed to demand a meal and a pint of Guinness from the proctor. Someone actually tried this in 1997, and he was given a steak and a pint to eat and drink during his test. We also got to see the outside of the Trinity College Library, which is the largest one-room library in the world, and, like the National Library of Ireland, it's a library of record. The Trinity College Library is also home to the Book of Kells, which is basically an old and fancy copy of the Gospels.

The exam room where a gentleman can take a test while eating steak and drinking beer

The dorm that Oscar Wilde lived in when he went to Trinity

Next, we headed into Temple Bar, which is the current center of culture and night life in Dublin. Not just one bar but an entire district, Temple Bar's narrow, cobbled streets are lined with pubs, theatres, art galleries, and street musicians. 

The Wall of Fame in Temple Bar pays tribute to some of the greatest musicians in Ireland, including U2 and Van Morrison. 

The tour concluded with a short walk past Christ Church Cathedral, the alley where Jonathan Swift (author of Gulliver's Travels) was born, and City Hall, where we learned about how the Irish gained their independence from Britain. After about 700 years of rebellion and war, things finally started coming together in 1919 with the adoption of the Irish flag. Each of the flag's three colors has a special significance: green represents Ireland, orange represents England, and the white in the middle represents peace between the two. Three years later in 1922, Ireland officially gained its independence from England when the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed.

Learning about all different aspects of Dublin today, from the strange rules at Trinity College to the long fight for independence from England, made me appreciate so much more the opportunity I have to come here to UCD. I could have studied English literature almost anywhere, but I couldn't have gotten to see Oscar Wilde's dorm, Jonathan Swift's birthplace, or the largest one-room library in the world if I had gone somewhere else.