Monday April 23, 2012
On Monday we went to first class. Then we headed out to Trinity College, which is home to the Book of Kells. The campus itself is very nice and certainly has the feel of an older style of architecture while still appearing to be modernizing. We went into the library building which is celebrating its 300th anniversary this year. The book contains the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The books are very exquisitely decorated with various colors of ink; some of which are only found in exotic places that are rather far from Ireland, like Afghanistan. We also learned from the tour guide that kids our age or even younger were the writers behind these masterpieces, and it was an interesting thought to imagine any of us sitting for hours writing these books with such amazing dexterity and skill.
From there we went over to the
Temple Bar area and went to lunch at the Boxty House. We ordered our food, and
once we were done we were told the history of the food we had just eaten. There
was a brief demonstration of how to make a boxty out of potatoes, and how in
Ireland, especially during the famine, it was a way to change up the ways that
people cooked. Even our dessert was made out of a boxty base.
After that we went to St. Patrick’s
Cathedral, which is an incredible work of architecture that still stands to
this day even after hundreds of years. We were given a basic tour and learned
things about the history of the church. The oratorio, The Messiah, composed by
Handel, was first performed in nearby Fishamble Street using the church's famous choir and they still have the organ it was
played on. Jonathan Swift is also buried near the entrance to the church just
inside the doors. Even though the church is named after St. Patrick they do not know for
sure where he ended up being buried.
Right next to the church was our
final stop, the Marsh Library, which was built by Archbishop Marsh as a
the first public library in Ireland, to be open forever. It is home to many bibles, medical texts, maps,
etc. that would be of extreme use to many of the scholarly men who would come
to read them. In some cases, they would have to do so in one of the three metal cages
that they would have to go into to make sure no books were stolen. To end the tour we even got to go into the
archbishop’s gardens and take a group picture which was great. It was a great
day to start our last week.
Paul Howard, Conor Lane
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