UK and Dublin: Day 13: National Museum of Ireland and National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland August 2, 2024

 My husband K got up at 6:15 and he was out early to get to the ClarinetFest. Our daughter J and I slept in until 8:15. We went to breakfast at 8:45. 

Since breakfast was included with the room, we could get whatever we wanted. I chose the Irish breakfast, which is very similar to the English breakfast. I added a bowl with yogurt, fruit compote, and muesli. I also got a banana and a sweet roll. J kindly made me a hot chocolate and got me a parfait, since I'd gotten her a sweet roll. This would keep me going for quite a while.

 

We went back to the room at 9:45. That reminds me- I haven't shared a wonderful travel hack that I learned about earlier this year. It's difficult to find a way to deal with a wet toothbrush in a hotel. We've gone the entire trip with paper cups from a Hampton Inn that we stabbed a hole in the bottom of with the toothbrushes. Perfect toothbrush holder.

Out our window this morning, we had a pretty good view of the hills/mountains outside of town.

We left at 10:20 and crossed the Liffey at the bridge by the hotel. We were heading pretty much due south, which would take us through a neighborhood. But first, just outside a little park in said neighborhood, we saw this large memorial to those seaman lost during WWII, who had been serving on merchant ships.
Those guys never get a lot of notice, but they were vital for keeping troops supplied.

 We then walked along Lombard Street East. The front yards were so well kept and I just loved the windows on the rooms jutting into them.

 

The doors here were not Georgian, but some were really gorgeous.

The street name changed to Westland Row and now we saw the Georgian doors. Oscar Wilde had lived in part of this long row at one time. It is now part of Trinity College. Not sure if was Georgian, but the door of the Irish Academy of music had a nice doorknocker.

   

We went down Merrion Street Lower to the intersection with Merrion Square North. There, on the northeast corner was the Oscar Wilde house where he'd lived from the age of 1 (1855-1878). It had a nice blue door and a nice view of Merrion Square Park, which was our first destination.

 

When we got in the gated park, we found lounging on a bolder a colorful statue of Oscar looking over at the house. Excellent placement!

There were two pillars, one with a male torso on top, the other with a nude seated female. Below, were shiny panels with handwritten quotes from Oscar. Some were familiar. One I honestly thought had originated in the Gene Wilder version of Willy Wonka.

Being a nice, old park, it had lush foliage and some pretty flowers. It would be a pretty, pleasant place to sit and read.

      

At the southwest corner of the park, we found a far more grim and sad sculpture. It is called "The Victims" and it was made by Andrew O'Connor. I found information about it at aonking.com:

This symbolic sculpture of The Victims originated as part of an unimplemented war memorial project in Washington, DC. It was created by artist Andrew O ‘Connor, who conceived the idea of building a large war memorial around 1918 and worked on it until at least 1931. However, he has never commissioned such a monument. The service consists of three parts. The Victims sculpture is part of that. It is made up of three people, a dead soldier tied to the coffin, and his wife and mother mourning for him.

The dead soldier was The Victim, inscribed with the words ‘Naked you came into the world. His wife knelt beside him, and clasped her hands in silent prayer, she must be a very sad heart. The image of the wife kneeling in prayer is also known as the Virgin or Mother of Sorrow. She is inscribed‘As as cranes chanting their dolorous notes traverse the sky’ which is taken from a translation of Dante’s Inferno. And that was his mother standing beside him, leaning sadly on her left elbow. Her grief was beyond words, and seeing her son’s body lying in front of her heart must have devastated her.

We left the park walking down Merrion Square W, which turned into Merrion Street Upper. We saw the Government Buildings ( honest, that's what they are called) and Leinster House, the seat of parliament.

 

There were more Georgian doors, but also a house that Bram Stoker lived in.

Not all architecture is old. The Department of Enterprise, Trade, and Employment is in a rather art deco building.

 On Kildare Street, we found our next destination at 11:16- the National Museum of Ireland-Archaeology. When we were planning this at home, we looked at the various branches of this museum. I would have liked to go to the Decorative Arts and History. But, it was a 40 minute walk down the River Liffey from the hotel and we were trying to avoid using public transportation to save money and to walk. So, we stuck to things that were pretty close to us on the other side of the river. So, we chose archaeology to learn some history. The price was also right- free.

 

Inside, we were pretty immediately under the dome with its oculus. The floor below was a giant mosaic of the zodiac.

 

There were no paper maps to the museum sitting at the front. Later, we found out you could download one or buy a book in the shop, which wasn't helpful in the moment. As it was, I don't think a map would have helped, because there was no natural flow to the exhibits. They did not naturally lead from one era to the next, probably because of the floor plan. Once you got past the dome, you were basically in a huge exhibition hall with wide display aisles running around it and raised up from the main floor. The second floor had a giant hole in the center that let one look down to the first floor. It did have exhibit rooms.

We did see interesting things like these Mesolithic (5300-4730 BC)  fish traps that were found in a bog. They had no qualms about reconstructing this passage tomb(3400-2800 BC) from decorative stones from destroyed passage tombs. I'm not sure that would happen in a museum here. The Lurgan Longboat was discovered in 1902 and at 50 feet, it is one of the longest in Europe. Quite impressive.

 

These balls date to the Middle Neolithic Period, specifically 3300-2800 BC. What gets me is how round some of them are. How did they do that with stone at that time period?

The jadeitite axeheads below date to the Neolithic period, too. They show no signs of use. So, they must have been ceremonial. But, here's the puzzling thing- analysis shows that four of them are of stone that originated in quarries high in the northern Italian Alps. How did the stone get to Ireland?

It was really interesting to see what they had learned of living in those ancient times. Burials are kind of obvious, because you find the tombs.

These horns date to the Later Bronze Age (1200-500 BC). Too bad K wasn't along to see them.

There was a whole section on gold, which, yes, has been found in Ireland, even in ancient times. The Tullydonnell Lower Hoard was found in 2018 and the four gold rings seem to date to the Late Bronze Age. They are among the heaviest prehistoric items found in Ireland. Evidently folks deposited quite a number of large hoards in the Middle and Later Bronze Age.

The gold balls are from the Late Bronze Age and were found at Tumna, Co. Roscommon in 1834. Each bead is made of two sections fussed together. They are perforated, which seems to indicate they were meant to be strung together. They are graduated in size, which would make a huge necklace. They were split up among collectors but 9 are now here and one in the British Museum. The eleventh has not turned up.

This gold foil-covered lead bulla was found in a bog, which seems pretty common. It dates to 800-700 BC.

These lunulae are of hammered gold and are dated to about 2000 BC. Amazing!

I mentioned bogs a couple of entries ago.

Ireland is rather Catholic. So, of course, you are going to run into things like the beautiful Cross of Cong from the early 12th century AD. It is oak covered in sheets of bronze. It was meant to hold a now-missing relic of the True Cross behind the rock crystal in the center.

Hey, remember Tara in Gone with the Wind? Well, Scarlet O'Hara's father was Irish. So, it wouldn't be surprising if he named his plantation after someplace back home. They had an exhibit here about the Hill of Tara, but more interesting is this Tara Brooch.

I'm sure you think St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. He is, but if I told you he wasn't the only one, you might come up with St. Bridget. But, there is a third- St. Columba.

 

 

By happy coincidence, K and I heard a lot about St. Columba on our trip to Scotland, because he is credited with spreading Christianity there. Even better, we went to Iona and saw the outside of this monastery, the two Celtic crosses and the inside of the church.

 I never knew that a shrine could be something relatively small. This Shrine of Cathach is quite something.

 

I kept noticing the decorative details of the building. It was, in fact, built to be a museum. It opened in 1890 and was originally called the Dublin Museum of Science and Art. It was built in the Victorian Palladian style and has neoclassical influences. 

As only seemed fitting, there was one display cases devoted just to bogs and finding stuff in them. I give you the highly informative sign.

This museum is not meant just for tourists. It is for the Irish to learn about themselves. (Did I mention that every single thing written in English was also written in Gaelic?) There was a whole section devoted to debunking a myth that every Irish kid evidently learns. It is about the Battle of Clontarf and the victory of Brian Boru over the Vikings. It is a defining moment in Irish history, but there is no archaeological evidence, just writings and most of those were well-after the fact. The battle took place in 1014 and Brian's main objective was to get Dublin back under his ultimate rule as the chief king. The king of Dublin was his son-in-law, who probably had been born in Ireland, had an Irish mother, and an Irish wife. Not very Viking. And, Brian had Vikings in his army. Brian was too old to fight and, while he won, he and his oldest son were killed. His son-in-law survived, stayed king, but was diminished. And Brian went down in history as the brave Christian king who drove out the Vikings.

Which brings us to the Vikings and Ireland. We heard about them on our previous trip, too. Their time in Ireland was 800 to about 1150 AD. And, they founded that quintessential Irish city, Dublin. They had about six different building types and this is one of them.

   

Contrary to what you might have heard, Vikings did make positive contributions to the places they went.

The museum finally went in a fairly reasonable direction by putting medieval Ireland (1150-1550AD) next. One problem with the Vikings, and there were many, such as looting monasteries, they brought Ireland to the attention of the English. They showed up around 1170 and quickly gained control. The descendants of some of the English governors assimilated to Irish ways.

There was a really nice re-creation of the dress of Margaret Butler from her effigy on her tomb. They noted that the attire was dated, but showed her high status.

This ceremonial drinking horn is quite impressive- and it is made from an elephant's tusk!

 

We went to the shop and then we were out of the museum by 2. On our way to our next destination, we passed several more doors. The buildings are nothing to write home about, but the doors are nice.

 

That destination was the National Gallery of Ireland, which was also free. We realized that the first order of business was to eat. So, we went into their Market Kitchen, which was right off the lobby. We went through the warm line and decided to get the  Chicken Caesar Wrap (€9.15), Panini (€9.15), Crisps aka chips (€2.20), Coke and Coke Zero Vanilla (each €3.10 +.15 deposit), and two tray bakes (€4.55). We took our trays out to the main room and found a place to sit. We split all the food and it really hit the spot.

 

We did not pay for the special exhibit, figuring there was enough to keep us busy. We were right. There were paintings by people we'd heard of and many by people we'd never heard of. One of the latter was Andrea Mantegna, who painted this wonderful Judith with the Head of Holofernes using tones of gray, yellow and purple to create the illusion of carved marble (grisaille is the technique). It was done between 1495 and 1500. Great frame, too.

Another I'd never heard of was Osborne who painted this portrait Mary Guinness and Her Daughter. I only mention it here, because they had the actual Irish silk gown (1890's) Mary was wearing in the portrait in 1898. Cool!

  

When we were in Amsterdam in May of 2023, I was rather unhappy that we were unable to get to see the Vermeer exhibit at the Rijksmuseum. Happily, this museum owns one and another was on loan. They had several information boards comparing the paintings and talking about aspects like the pin prick in one eye that had been used to anchor a string covered in chalk to set up lines of perspective. That is so cool!

The painting owned by the National Gallery was Woman Writing a Letter, with Her Maid (c.1670). The other, Mistress and Maid (1666-1667), is owned by the Frick Collection in New York. Both are wonderful paintings by a painter I really enjoy.

 

People were excited by the next painting, because they thought it was a Rembrandt. It turns out he only did the face of Lady Holding a Glove(1632-1633).

The bright and colorful Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (c.1628)was done by a pair of famous painters- Jan Breughel the Younger and Peter Paul Rubens.

The thing that interested me in the Marriage at Cana(1665-1670) by Jan Steen was that you really have to search to find Christ in it. There are so many people doing various things, especially in the foreground, that you don't notice him right off. Evidently, the composition is inspired by The School of Athens by Raphael at the Vatican. From a distance, I can see that.

The Grand Gallery is devoted to the Enlightenment of the 18th century and every piece is related in some way to Ireland, from artist to owner.

In 1756, Canaletto painted Piazza San Marco, Venice. It's nice that they have one of his.

Two portraits of ladies- Goya's Doña Antonia Zárata (1805) and Gainsborough's Mrs. Christopher Horton,later Duchess of Cumberland (1766). Goya chose to seat his lady on a prop in his studio. Gainsborough just concentrated on her. Look how well they both depicted the clothing, especially the lacy mantilla and the shear scarf.

Here's another lovely gallery.

I don't have information on these stained glass windows, but I know they depict Ireland's patron saints, Bridget, Patrick, and Columba.

Yes, the museum has modern art, such as Rothko's Black and Red on Red (1962), Calder's Sumac II (1952), and Giacometti's Bust of Diego (1955/56).

 

Continuing with the modern era, there is Picasso's Still Life with a Mandolin (1964), Feininger's Umpferstedt III (1919), and Nolde's Women in a Garden (1915).

 

They had works by Rodin, Renoir, Pissarro, Monet, and this new one they recently got by Cézanne. It is La Vie des Champs (Life in the Fields), 1876-77.

We finished up with the shop and left the museum at 5:16.We decided that we should eat before we crossed the river, because we have not seen much around the hotel. Just a few minutes away from the museum, we found Lincoln's Inn, which was on Lincoln Place. It had be frequented by the writer James Joyce. He met his future wife in 1904 in this building, which held the Finn Hotel at the time.

The menu looked acceptible and so we were sent to a table and ordered Orchard Thieves Apple Cider for me and 7-Up for J. Both came in nice glasses.

 

We wanted to stick some to Irish fare.We didn't want too much, since lunch wasn't that long ago. So, we got the Traditional Irish Stew for €16.70. And, feeling a lack of vegetation in our lives, we ordered the Superfood Salad for €13.55. The stew came with delicious bread and, in fact, both entrees were very good.

 

While waiting for the food, we had some time to look around and appreciate the details of the pub. I particularly liked the wallpaper and the hooks for coats and umbrellas.

 

We didn't need dessert and were on our way at 6:42. On the way out, we took note of the door.

On the way back to the hotel, we passed these lovely hydrangeas and noticed that it was too cloudy to get even a hint of the beginning of sunset.

We were surprised to run into K, when we arrived at 7:05. He didn't stay long, but headed off for the evening concert. When it was over, he got this great shot of the Convention Centre Dublin.

My phone recorded 9,211 steps for 2.9 miles.