Jun 4 - The Book of Kells and Davy Byrnes Pub

Today we hopped the local Dublin bus to head into downtown and Trinity College to see the world famous Book of Kells.  Here we are entering the grounds of Trinity College (officially The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth Near Dublin).

Trinity College was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth on the model of Oxford and Cambridge in England so that proper Irish Protestant students wouldn't be corrupted by the Papish teachings of the universities on the Continent.  It is the oldest university in Ireland and is one of the seven ancient universities of England and Ireland.  Across the green you can see the Library where we will be seeing the Book of Kells.  In the center of the green there is a work of art.  Don't ask me what it is as it is just a work of art.  Here is another photo of it.

We then queued up for our chance to see the book.  We were lucky as it only took us about 20 - 30 minutes in line.  During the peak tourist seasons it can take hours.

The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin containing the four books of the New Testament together with various prefactory texts and tables.  The text is based on the Vulgate version of the Bible for the most part but some portions follow the older Vetus Latina version.  It is written on vellum (prepared calfskin) in the Latin script known as "Insular Majuscule" which was developed in Ireland during the 6th century and then spread across Great Britain and the Continent. The Book of Kells is believed to have been written in about 800. The most popular theory is that it was begun in the monastery of St. Collum Cille on the island of Iona off the west coast of Scotland but after a Viking raid in 806 that resulted in the death of 68 residents it was moved to the monastery at Kells, County Meath.  What is not known is whether is was finished before the move or was completed at Kells.

The Book of Kells is one of a number of Bible books that were written beginning in the 7th century. There are other books such as the Book of Durrow, written in about 650, and the Lindisfarne Gospels, written in about 700, that are older but the Book of Kells is the most famous and exceeds the other books both and complexity and extravagance.  It is considered to be Ireland's greatest national treasure.  It is one of the last of these types of books and may have been written to celebrate the 200th anniversary of St. Columba's death in 597.  St. Columba was an Irish monk credited with bringing Christianity to Scotland and founded the monastery on Iona where the book is thought to have originated.

When you enter the Library you go through a series of rooms that give you the background and story of the book and well as what details are know about the writers and illustrators and the techniques they used to create the book.  The text for the most part is written using goose quill pens and iron gall ink. The colored text and illustration colors were derived from a wide range of substances from all over the known world.

We were not allowed to take any photos in this area but I was able to download copies of pages so you can get an idea of what the book looks like.  This folio shows Christ Enthroned.

 This folio is a page of the Eusebian Canons.

This folio contains the Virgin and Child.  It is the oldest know image of the Virgin Mary in a Western manuscript.

This folio contains the symbols of the Four Evangelists.  A man (Matthew), a lion (Mark), an eagle (John) and an ox (Luke).

 This folio shows the lavishly decorated text that starts the Gospel of John

Here is an actual page of text from the Gospel of John.

The book is currently bound in four volumes and we got to see one page in each of two of the volumes.

After we finished looking at the Book of Kells we entered the Long Room of the Library.  Here is a photo of that room.

This room is 213 feet long and was built between 1712 and 1732 and houses 200,000 of the Library's oldest books.  Here is a closer look at the stacks lining the room.

And here are some of the books in these stacks

One of the items in the Library is what is called Brian Boru's harp.  Brian was High King of Ireland in the 11th century and this harp is not that old.  It is the oldest harp of this type in existence and dates from the 15th century.The harp is made out of Oak and willow and has 29 brass strings.

After leaving the Library we walked towards the main entrance of the campus passing this tower in the main quad.

And here is the main entrance.

Right across the street from the university is this bank building.  It has no windows as at the time it was built, England had a heavy tax on glass and so it was built without any windows.

One of the items that all of the tourists have to see is the statue of Molly Malone.  Molly is a fictional character in a song who walks thru the street selling cockles and mussels.  Supposedly Molly sold fish by day and favors by night.  The locals have several nicknames for this statue: the tart with the cart; the dish with the fish, the trollop with the scallop, etc.  As you can tell from the shine, people appreciate Molly's assets.

We next walked down Grafton Street.  This is a pedestrian only shopping area right in the medieval part of Dublin.  Here is a photo down that street.

We then stopped for lunch at Davy Byrnes Pub on Duke Street just off Grafton.  A pub has been on this site since 1722 but its current incarnation was in 1889 when the premises was bought by Davy Byrne.  Here is a photo of the entrance.

What makes Davy Byrnes popular is that it was a favorite hangout of James Joyce and in his novel Ulysses, the lead character Leopold Bloom stops at this pub for lunch and has a Gorgonzola sandwich and a glass of burgundy.  Here are a couple of shots of the Art Deco interior which dates back to the 1940s.

We had a very nice lunch here.  Here is a quote from Ulysses about the pub.  “He entered Davy Byrnes. Moral pub. He doesn’t chat. Stands a drink now and then. But in a leap year once in four. Cashed a cheque for me once.

Davy Byrne came forward from the hindbar in tuckstitched shirt-sleeves, cleaning his lips with two wipes of his napkin. Herrings blush. Whose smile upon each feature plays with such and such replete. Too much fat on the parsnips.

And here’s himself and pepper on him, Nosey Flynn said. Can you give us a good one for the Gold Cup?

I’m off that, Mr. Flynn, Davy Byrne answered. I never put anything on a horse.

You’re right there, Nosey Flynn said.

Mr Bloom ate his stripes of sandwich, fresh clean bread, with relish of disgust, pungent mustard, the feety savour of green cheese. Sips of his wine soothed his palate.Not logwood that. Tastes fuller this weather with the chill off.

Nice quiet bar. Nice piece of wood in that counter. Nicely planed. Like the way it curves.”

After lunch we proceeded down Grafton Street.  Took this photo of St. Anne's Church which is on the next street over.

St. Anne's was built in the early 18th century and is only one of six churches surviving in Dublin from that time.

We arrived in front of St. Stephen's Green to find this juggler entertaining the locals.

We then entered the green to see what changes had occurred while we were on the tour.  As you can see they were busy planting in this bed.  When we were here before the tour there was only dirt.

I've worn Pat out so we caught one of the city buses back to our hotel and called it a night. Tomorrow the plan is to visit the National Archaeology Museum.

One thing we have noticed is that as we are much farther north than anywhere in the US so the days are very long.  At night it is light till after 10:00pm and no matter what time you get up in the morning the sun is shining (unless it's raining).