Celts in the City - Part 6

Our last two days were spent in relatively sunny Dublin, the capital city of the Republic of Ireland. The metro area has something close to two million people, so it is a busy place. There’s also been human activity of some sort in that location since before recorded history, consequently, there’s a lot of old stuff.

Super short modern history- St. Patrick began his mission work around 400. The Vikings started running rampant around the mid 800s, raiding coastal villages and trading slaves until the Anglo-Normans kicked them out in the mid-1100s. Then the Anglo-Normans fortified the place, and exploited the local resources and people for the benefit of the English kings. They built a castle around 1200 that remained the seat of British rule until 1922, when the Irish Free State finally showed them the door. For better or worse, Dublin and Ireland have been doing their own thing ever since.

Because Dublin is a big place, it is impossible to see everything in a couple days. We did manage a few significant places and managed to have a little fun along the way, it was, afterall, supposed to be “vacation.”

No tour of Ireland is complete without crossing paths with St. Patrick, the Enlightener of Ireland. The St. Patrick  Anglican Church of Ireland Cathedral is built in the vicinity of a water well where Patrick is said to have baptized the locals sometime in the early 5th century.

Because it is Ireland, the churches have some...issues. Christ Church, or the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, dates to 1100 or so, and has undergone several major reconstructions and probably doesn't resemble the original building. The last rebuild was in 1871 when they added fake flying buttresses to make it look more authentic. The building currently serves as the cathedral of the southern diocese of the Anglican Church of Ireland. It is also claimed by the Roman Catholic Arch Bishop of Dublin as the Roman Catholic Cathedral for Dublin. Since ownership is still vigorously disputed, the Roman Catholics are using nearby St. Mary's Church as the "pro-cathedral." 

Just a short walk from the center of the old city, Dublin has one of the largest urban green spaces in Europe. Originally a royal hunting ground, Phoenix Park is home to the local zoo, a fortified 18th century weapons magazine, St. Mary's Hospital, a 5,500 year old burial chamber, the U.S. Ambassador's home, and a whole lot of other smaller activities and monuments. This one is the Wellington Testimonial. Dating to 1861, it is the tallest obelisk in Europe at 62 meters. It honors Irish-boy-done-good Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.

Capital cities usually host museums full of national treasures. Dublin has the National Museum of Ireland - Archeology that features artifacts from early Christian, Viking, and Gaelic periods. Among the really unique displays are well preserved human remains recovered from bogs.

This exhibition, EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, was perhaps the most confusing of the entire journey. Using a renovated 1820 customs warehouse, it is essentially a privately owned display of all the ways people fled Ireland, (boat, ship or airplane) and how their descendants went on to do great things in other places. It was like Ireland was taking credit for any and everything. For example Henry Ford's father was from Cork. Okay, that's interesting. The parents of Robert Fulton, the inventor credited with the first practical steamship, were from Kilkenny. That's nice. How about Samuel O'Reilly, you know him, right? The guy who invented the first electric tattoo needle machine? His family left Ireland during the Great Hunger (1845-1852) to find a better place to live. Gosh, that's remarkable, but what does that have to do with converting a dental implement to inject ink into the skin?

Following the theme of the Irish Emigration Museum, on the ride from the hotel to the old city, we passed the US Embassy. It was a reminder that there are still people in Ireland trying to get to the US, like these folks cueing at the gate. We passed a number of other embassies along the way, but none of them had a line to get in. 

Our last hours in Ireland ended with an early morning checkout. Time to go home. We made our way to the airport and had one more chance to appreciate other parts of Dublin. From the windows of the bus, we saw a city that looked more like what you might expect from a European city. Old and new side by side, and people doing what people do.

The trip was an amazing dive into the old world, but like every trip, it was really good to watch the shapes and colors of home come into view.