Our hotel, the Clayton Charlemont, is right on the Grand Canal, a beautiful spot, and also incredibly convenient to the north-south running green tram (LUAS). The hotel is quite modern, but has an older inner façade for show.

We took the tram to Trinity College for a tour and The Book of Kells.

The tour was led by Joe, a second year student, who did a wonderful job talking about the history of the site of Trinity College. The site was a monastery in the Middle Ages until Henry VIII dissolved it as part of the reformation. Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter to create Trinity College in 1592, but for the ruling Protestants only. In 1793, Catholics were permitted to enroll but the Catholic Church, afraid of students converting to Protestantism to be successful in prestigious occupations, issued a ban that wasn’t actually removed until 1970, hence keeping down Catholic enrollment. Joe pointed out the chapel, the exam building, the dining hall, the student activity building, and the dorm called Rubrics. We walked into the Museum Building, with all different native marbles, showcasing the green-grey Connemara Marble in the pillars.

After the tour, we entered the Old Library for a self-guided audio tour of the Long Room with its shelves and shelves of books, and the the Book of Kells exhibit. The Long Room books are being removed for book restoration and room upgrades, so it will close in the near future. We are happy we got to see it before it closes. Some of the shelves are empty already. Also of note were the 1916 Proclamation of the Republic and the famous harp 15^th century harp, the national emblem as well as the symbol for Guinness (although they have reversed harps).

The Book of Kells is an 9^th century illuminated manuscript and Celtic Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels, and takes its name from the Abby of Kells, which was its home for centuries. The exhibit has quite a few interesting displays on the book, on techniques for creating the book — vellum pages, binding, dyes for the illumination, etc. Finally we saw the book in an enclosed glass box, only displaying one page (which gets changed). We then went to the Book of Kells “experience”, the only real highlight being a projected image of the book with pages turning so we could see more than than one page on display.

We headed across the Liffey up O’Connell street to the Moore Street outdoor market, which had fruit stands, some food stands, and inexpensive goods, but nothing special. We then headed further up O’Connell street for lunch at Murray’s Bar and Grill, drinking Guinness and sharing a sandwich.

After lunch, we walked back to the Trinity College area to the (free) National Museum of Archeology. They had a special exhibit of artifacts from the Neolithic through the Iron Age, and rooms of Viking, Celtic, and Medieval artifacts — pots, weapons, jewelry, religious items. We were tired and didn’t give the museum its full due, but it was very worthwhile.

After a rest at the hotel, we walked along the canal for about 1 mile to the Schoolhouse Hotel and Gastrobar. Larry had a fancy chicken dish and Eileen had a fancy hake dish. It was an excellent but not fantastic meal. We walked back and sacked out in the hotel.

By the way, the Clayton Charlemont is right by McCaffertys at the Barge, where hordes of kids mass in the evening. Kind of fun to watch the action. They were well behaved as far as we could tell and couldn't hear them from the hotel.

Trinity College and the Book of Kells
Murray's Bar and Grill
National Museum of Archeology
The Schoolhouse Gastro Bar