Day 50 - Dublin, Last Day

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Early tomorrow morning we head for the airport and our flight home.  Today was our last day to tour Europe, so we tried to cram a full day of Dublin into it.

Our first stop was Christ Church Cathedral, built over 800 years ago on the site of a Viking church and carefully restored in the mid 1800's.  It housed the heart of a Saint Lawrence O'Toole in a heart-shaped holder in an iron cage on display for about 800 years until the heart was stolen in 2012.  The church still displays the cage and hopes for the return of the heart.  The most popular display in the crypt is that of a mummified cat chasing a mummified rat.  Both got stuck in an organ pipe.

Mummified Cat and Rat

Christ Church Cathedral Crypt

Christ Church Cathedral

Next we toured a museum called Dublinia with interactive exhibits teaching about the history of Dublin from its early days as a Viking camp through Medieval times.  The Vikings settled here bringing technology, government, and civilization to Ireland.  Their descendants, in a strange twist, fought off later Viking raids.  Later, in one of many bids for independence, the Irish crowned a 10-year-old boy king and fought the British for him.  They lost and Henry VIII made the boy a kitchen servant.

Jeff Wearing Medieval Doctor's Hood

Jeff Wearing Medieval Soldier Helmet

Crowning of 10-Year-Old Lambert Simnel

Viking Slave Market in Dublin

Black Death Display

Next was St. Patrick's Cathedral.  Yesterday it was closed, so today we paid the admission and toured it.  It holds a large slab which is thought to have covered the well in which St. Patrick baptised people.  The most famous person buried there is probably the author of Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift.  He was a very colorful character, who once said, "... opium is not so stultifying to many persons as an afternoon sermon."

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Death Mask of Jonathan Swift

Another famous person with a monument in St. Patrick's is the Baron Charles Boyle, author of Boyle's Laws and considered by some as the father of chemistry.

Ruth took a quick look in Marsh Library with its cool display of science books from the 1500's.

Then we took a guided walking tour of Dublin and learned some interesting facts, such as:
Ireland's population peaked in the mid 1800's at over 8 million.  Then the potato famine hit, cutting the population in half and it has never recovered.  It stands now at 6 million.  The Irish are profoundly affected by that event even today.
Dublin has more Nobel prizes for literature than any other city in the world.
Ireland has a long history of poverty.
Irish independence has been a struggle for centuries, only coming in the 20th century.  The way the British treated the Irish was the main problem.

Lastly, Ruth went book shopping while Jeff strolled around to see a few more interesting spots.  Among them were the foundation of Isolde's Tower, a statue of Molly Malone, and about 20 minutes of a cricket game.  (If you think baseball is boring, try watching cricket.)

We are so looking forward to home!