Dublin

July 10, 2007

We went to Trinity College to see the famous Book of Kells. These books are copies of the gospels written in 521-597 AD. moved to Dublin (particularly Trinity College) in 1663. There were also other valuable manuscripts – The Book of Armaugh, the Book of Darrow, the Book of Mulling and the Book of Dimma. These books were highly decorated with Celtic art, made on animal skins and calligraphy quills. They were amazing. Then we visited the Long Room – or the main chamber to the Old Library which contained 200,000 of the Library’s oldest books in oak bookcases reaching to the ceiling of the highly arched 65 meter long room. If you love antique books you would have loved this place.

I really enjoyed the day as we were set free to explore the city of Dublin Ireland. The Ha’Penny Bridge was fun to see - and of course we had to walk across the Ha'Penny Bridge to "prove" that we were not "poor" and we could afford to pay to cross the river! The city of Dublin is a mixture of old and new. One place of particular interest to Jayna was where Handel's "Messiah" was first performed on April 14, 1742.