Dublin


I stayed at the Arlington Hotel, at Bacherlors Walk and the O'Connell Bridge over River Liffey. It was noisy at night from an in-house music/dance show and predawn screeching gulls. Good, inexpensive breakfasts.	For me, the best way to gauge a city and culture is to walk its streets, alleys, and boulevards. I soon encountered a statue of Ireland's great novelist James Joyce portrayed with flair. The nearby restaurant with "SoMa" on its sign is actually named for San Francisco's SoMa, South of Market Street!	Another statue is of James Connolly, a labor organizer and a leader of the Easter Uprising of 1916. The background structure is the Starry Plough, the northern constellation [Ursa Major] that figured in the original flag of the Irish Citizen Army.	The General Post Office was the site of the 1916 Easter Rising, a failed attempt for independence from Great Britain. In 1919 the Irish created a government and guerrilla army. and in 1922 became independent as Irish Free State. Renamed Ireland [Éire] in 1937, it in 1947 finally became a republic no longer part of the British Commonwealth.	This edifice is The Custom House, completed in 1791. It now houses national and governmental offices.	Dublin has modern office buildings as well.

Much construction is occurring close to the wharf and in southern areas of the city.	Many cities have symbolic structures and Dublin has the Spire. completed in 2003. It is 390 feet high, 9.8 foot diameter at base and 5.9 inches at top, and constructed of stainless steel. The top 33 feet is punched with 11,884 holes through which light-emitting diodes shine.	The two elements of the Spire.	Besides the many bus lines, the city has a tram.	Dublin is divided by River Liffey and has many bridges spanning it. This is Ha-penny Bridge.	The most recent and modern span is the Samuel Beckett Bridge with apt harp design.

The Grattan Bridge has hippocampus [horselike seahorse] lamp post decoration. The Dublin City Council Building is in the distance.	The Temple Bar area is located immediately south of the river and west of the Ha'penny Bridge and named for John Temple's 1656 barr, or sea wall. It is a tourist mecca filled with bars and live music and restaurants. This is the Temple Bar of Temple Bar, established 1840.	Detail of wall flowers.	Cobblestone streets.	One of the many streets of the area.	The streets are always busy.

A very old bar, established 1696.	Oliver St. John Gogarty was poet, otolaryngologist, athlete, politician, and inspiration for Buck Mulligan in Joyce's Ulysses.	Quay's is another bar of note.	Quay's has an upstairs restaurant that features traditional Irish dishes. I had Irish stew.	For a starter I ate these button mushrooms with garlic dip. Good stuff! I was disappointed with the ale, which was flavorless and watery. I did not drink Guinness as I am not a fan of roasted barley stout.	Some characteristic Irish architecture...and an Irish seagull.

Musicians can be 'employed' at the many bars but you will always encounter street musicians busking.	A welcome find was this record shop.	The shelves were filled with albums of local labels and artists, which typically are not distributed in America.	A neo-Classical fantasy.	Detail of relief frieze.	I have long heard about Ireland's National Theatre, the Abbey Theatre, founded in 1904 but having different locations after fire and modernization. It premiered works of Edward Albee and Samuel Beckett and trained actors, as Stephen Rae and Colm Meaney.

Along an alley I spotted this colorful canopy .	Another view showing its height.	The squares led up the wall of a building.	Cultural/educational broadsides along nearby buildings. This about Irish humor.....	....this about playwrights.....	... and another about poets and novelists.

I had a double-take when walking by these two buildings. What seemed at first to be a peculiarly wrong reflection proved to be building within a building. The smaller church hall at the right is situated inside the Vhi health insurance office building.	An entrance to the campus of Trinity College.	Within the campus is this modern building and its Science Gallery, which is NOT artistic depictions of science or scientific/technological aspects of art.	Rather, scientific aspects of society, questions of social policy, personal stylistic identification, and futuristic directions with graphic models and interactive devices are debated. Provocative changing exhibits make this center unique. Had great conversations with student docents.	Map of the campus.	Trinity College includes a medical school; some of the old buildings and hospital.

Honoring the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1951.	Atoms and Apples	Another spherical sculpture.	The Berkeley Library in Dublin as in California is named for Irish philosopher George Berkeley, who advocated immaterialism or subjective idealism [form is empty; it is shaped in your mind].	Credit stone.	The inner court of Trinity College.

On the other side.	The Old Library houses The Book of Kells. Written circa 800 BCE with extraordinary illustrations and designs, it relates the four Gospels. No photography allowed but posters provide examples. Facsimile printed editions are available and it may also be found digitally online.	More decorative examples.	Inside the Long Room of the Old Library.	High ceilings.	Busts right and left.

The original harp and national symbol of Ireland, 14th or 15th century.	A visit to the National Gallery of Ireland, with art from all periods but mainly medieval and Renaissance with some 20th-century masters.	A nearby park, one of the few.	Along the walkway a surprise.	Credit plaque.	A peaceful zone.

Bernado O'Higgens, liberator of Chile and figure in the Aubrey/Maturin novels of Patrick O'Brian.	A comical throne.	Plaque honoring actor-comic-satirist Dermot Morgan.	International financial and security offices.	The Jeannie Johnson tall ship, a replica of an 1850 émigré vessel.	My last dinner in Dublin was at this Japanese restaurant in the Temple Bar district. My sushi and tempura dishes were fresh, well-prepared, and delicious. Interesting that I had great sushi also in Rio de Janeiro.
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