The Events of Tuesday, May 10, 2011

                Tired from our late night at the theatre, we all slept in late. Abby and Lindsey, the sleepiest, woke last at 8:45. We had a slow breakfast, showered, had family devotions, folded some clean laundry, and packed a picnic lunch. Ben and Dad worked to extract things from the computer, onto a portable USB chip, to take with us, in hopes of connecting to internet later today, to update our website. Soon, we were ready to leave for our second day of exploring Dublin, the great capital city (and the only real city) in Ireland.

                Winding roads led us through the beautiful Irish countryside, as we listened to some of Rick Steves’ podcasts about Ireland. It helped me to appreciate more the beauty of nature whizzing past us. Listening to the lovely lilting voices of two Irish men with the gift of gab, on a sunny morning, while driving through a lush, green countryside in a lovely country that speaks English – what more could you want?

                We arrived shortly after noon in the area of Dublin near Dublin Castle and the Chester Beatty Library, the latter of which was one of our destinations for the day. After frantically driving around in crazy circles trying to find the closest parking garage, we finally parked and walked to the library. Entrance to this treasure trove is free, so we waltzed right in and sat down to watch the audiovisual presentation showing in a casual lecture room with very comfortable seats. The video told us about the life of the founder of the Chester Beatty Library, who, by golly, was named Sir Alfred Chester Beatty. We learned that Chester Beatty was a rich American mining engineer who retired to Ireland in 1950, later becoming its first honorary citizen. He left his priceless and eclectic collection to his adopted homeland as a public charitable trust.

                It is now an art museum and library, containing his vast compilation of manuscripts, miniature paintings, prints, drawings, and rare books. The Library’s exhibitions opened a window on the artistic treasures of the great cultures and religions of the world. Its rich collection from countries across Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe offered us a visual feast. This library was named Irish Museum of the Year in 2000 and was awarded the title European Museum of the Year in 2002.

                We explored the top floor’s exposition, which focused on the world’s great religions, especially on Islam and Christianity. Browsing displays on dervish whirls, calligraphy in Islam, and early Asian Christian manuscripts, we even saw the oldest surviving copy of Paul’s letter to the Romans, from A.D. 180! Other highlights included an elegant Burmese book inscribed on palm leaves, fastened together to open out like an accordion.

                After fully exploring the exhibit, we hiked up to the library’s roof top garden, which was rather unremarkable, other than the fact that it tried not to seem like a garden on a roof top. Next, we took the elevator down to the ground floor and crossed the park outside to eat a picnic lunch on some benches. Then, we walked back to the car park and drove to the Kilmainham Gaol. We had to drive around the block to find it, but, then, we parked with general ease and entered beneath a foreboding insignia of twisting serpents in chains. Our entry to the Kilmainham Gaol and museum was our first chance to utilize our Irish Heritage Card, which enabled us to be admitted for free. Yay for saving money!

                Here is a quick summary of what we learned during both our guided tour of the jail itself and our exploration of the jail’s museum. In 1796, Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced ‘jail’) was born, as both the Dublin County Jail and a debtors’ prison. Truthfully, however, this prison was often used by the British as a political penitentiary. Countless citizens who struggled for Irish independence were held or executed here, including leaders of the uprisings of 1798, 1803, 1848, 1867, and 1916. Here, the British magistrates incarcerated Irish heroes like Robert Emmett and Charles Stewart Parnell. Irish schoolchildren know these names as well as we kids know the names Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington, and James Madison. The very last prisoner here was Eamon de Valera, who went on to become president of Ireland. With the release of de Valera, on July 16, 1924, Kilmainham shut down permanently. The edifices, nearly in ruins, were rebuilt in the 1960s. Former prisoners and former prison guards came back and volunteered together to restore the jail. Nowadays, it’s a memorial to the revolutionaries of Ireland.

                So we entered and were informed that the next guided tour would begin in about fifteen minutes. Therefore, we walked down the hall and browsed the museum, until we heard, over the intercom, to meet our tour guide by the glass doors for our guided tour. Joining us were at least thirty others, and leading us was a large Irishman with long white hair and a grizzly beard. He wore a black button-up collared dress shirt, black dress pants, and black sandals over blue and gray socks. Eek! I could not focus on what he said when his feet were in my view. It was the absolute worst fashion transgression one could ever commit!

                Our tour guide introduced himself: Michéal, pronounced, “Meek-eye-ell.” Our guided tour involved a fifteen-minute prison history slide show in the prison chapel, followed by a forty-five minute walk around the grounds, pausing in various areas of the jail to discuss them. It was moving to visit the cells and locations of execution – learning legends of dreadful colonialism and brave nationalism. Michéal told us of famous and not-so-famous prisoners in a passionate history lesson that went on longer than it was supposed to. Bursting with Irish nationalism, our tour guide definitely had the gift of gab. He talked, and talked beautifully.

                After Michéal’s tear jerking grand finale in the courtyard where the seven most famous Irish martyrs met the firing squad, we explored the rest of the museum, an exceptional exhibit about Victorian prison life and Ireland’s struggle for freedom. A highlight of the experience, the museum’s dimly lit “Last Words 1916” hall upstairs thoughtfully exhibited the inspiring final letters that patriots sent to loved ones hours before facing the firing squad. It was definitely a moving museum of the suffering of the Irish people.

                Upon completing that poignant experience, we drove to Blessington, the nearest town to our accommodations in the wilderness of Ireland. Upon arrival, we parked in a shopping center parking lot, ascended a flight of stairs into the county library, and spent a wonderful, but terribly short, hour on the library’s computers, updating our website and accomplishing other internet tasks. When Abby and Daddy had finished their tasks, they descended to do some grocery shopping in the supermarket beneath the library, while the rest of us spent a few last rushed minutes online. Next, we drove home for dinner and spent the rest of the evening packing up to move on to new (and hopefully better) accommodations tomorrow.