Culture Night 2015

After Liam and I were able to get our shifts changed in work, we decided to try visit some of the buildings that were open for Culture Night Friday 19th September. I met Liam after he finished work in Town, after some shopping and a quick bite to eat, we thought we would get ahead of the crowd and queue early for the Books of Kells at +Trinity College Dublin. We got there just after 4pm, which was about an hour before the start of Culture Night, the queue was already down to the Arts Block and was getting gradually worse by the minute. Then by the time they opened for the event, which they had to do earlier than planned was down past the Postgrad Library building.

Once they opened the door, we were inside within about 10/15 mins, we entered the 'Turning Darkness into Light Exhibition which showcases Books of Kells and other manuscripts which are over 1000 years old. Despite queueing for the Books of Kells itself, Liam and myself both felt that it wasn't that impressive and were a tad disappointed. Although the visit was worth it in the end, after entering the main chamber of the Old Library, the Long Room which is nearly 65 m in length and houses over 200,000 of the Library's oldest books. Half way down the room is a harp which is the oldest to survive and dates from the 15th century. We spent 3 times the amount of time in the Long Room, then we had in the Treasury Room for the Book of Kells.

 After our self tour around the old Library, we left Trinity, and strolled through Temple Bar, towards +Smock Alley Theatre, which faces onto Wood Quay. We arrived with just a few mins before the next tour at 6pm, which was given by the Event Manager of the theatre itself, Conor. Conor started the tour outside the theatre, where he gave us the history of the area, of the building and the people who shaped it's fortunes. Throughout the tour, he showed us pictures and artefacts of the theatre at different stages over the years, from being a Theatre Royal, and church. The tour concluded in the Banquet Hall with a musical interlude provided by +Tonnta, the resident choral group of the theatre and a last minute acting sketch, which was a particular highlight, as it was full of comedic timing. The tour of the theatre for both of us, was the highlight of Culture night. As we left and on our way to our next event, we saw the crowd for the next tour at 7 pm was nearly 3 or 4 times the size of group we had.

 As we had time before we visited Christchurch, Liam decided we should walk out to Blackhall Place, the home of the +Law Society of Ireland. We were lucky to be allowed to join up with the tour that had departed 5 mins beforehand instead of having to wait 30 mins more for the next one. The tour itself was a quick history and guided one around the building. Although it was on the whole a quick tour, it was nice to see the inside of the renowned building of the old King's Hospital. Again it seems luck was on our side, as the crowd waiting for the next tour was double the one we were on. We walked back into town towards +Christ Church Cathedral.

 With the small queue outside and as we didn't realise that the recital was only 10 mins long, which we missed. We took it in turns, to sit and rest after all the walking between all the venues, while one looked around the Cathedral, the other looked after the shopping. In the background, the resident organist played some music during our visit, before we both went around the crypt before exiting. The crowds queueing to enter as we were leaving was very long. It seemed on the whole, we were quite lucky with tours and queues. At this stage of the night, we  both had sore feet from all that walking, so went to Oscars for a drink and to watch some of the rugby.

 Despite all the walking, it was quite an enjoyable fun way to spend an evening, taking in some culture and history at the same time. Definitely a good way learn about one's own country without realising you are.

Heritage Week 2015

From the 22nd of August, there was a week of heritage events to celebrate Heritage Week. So I decided to try to visit as many buildings or tours that I was able to. Starting with St Patricks Cathedral tour of the Belfry which had to be booked in advanced. Luckily we got the last 2 spots for the 10 am tour as this was the only one +Liam could do before work. The tour gave us a brief history of bell ringing, the cathedral and a demonstration of bell ringing. It was a quite an interesting experience and mostly important was free. As Liam had to rush off to work, I decided to check out the exhibit at City Hall and join a tour at St Audeon's Church.

As Liam was working Sunday morning, I had great plans of doing the Arbor Hill tour however the horrendous rain  put me off doing it which was a tad disappointing, although I had a great duvet movie day which helped me to deal with the weather. I later heard on another tour that despite the rain 65 people had turned up for that tour. Poor Liam was struggling to do and see many of the events he wanted, due to the hours he was  working that week. As I had time before the +RCSI  tour at 2pm, I left early and headed to +St Patricks Cathedral for their free midday tour of the cathedral. My tour guide Andrew was funny, interesting and put his own spin on the tour and at the end of the tour tried to get us to come back for that evening's Evensong. I would have stayed for the lunch time recital, if I hadn't to make my way to the RCSI for my tour.  I made my way towards RCSI by cutting through Dublin Castle, who had a Sand Sculpture Exhibition on display. Seems I was lucky to see the exhibit as Liam txt me on Tuesday that due to the weather the sculptures had to be removed. 

 The tour I had pre-booked originally for the Wednesday however I couldn't do it as it clashed with my tour of the Freemasons' building, but was luckily enough was able to change it so Liam could do it and was able to join the Monday afternoon one instead. The Head Porter of the College, Frank was the tour guide who gave us the history of the college and events which involved the building over the years. After the hour long tour, a 30 min presentation called 'Dublin in the Rare Auld Times given by Meadhbh Murphy, the Archivist of the college, who spoke about the medical instruments, artefacts and documents from the RCSI Heritage Collections that are on display and what the living conditions were like for Dubliners a century ago and instruments used for surgical procedures. This presentation concluded the tour of RCSI.

On my advice, Liam went and did the tour of St Patricks on his next day off, which happened to be the following day. As he had the time and possibly because of the downpour outside, decided to stay for the lunch time recital which that day were The Eldson Duo, which comprised of Sarah Busfield, Soprano and Victoria Green, the Guitarist. The programme Liam told me was well thought out and the soprano had some voice on her. Seemed it was well timed as soon as the recital was over, the rain had ceased and made his way towards to Dublin Castle hoping to check out the Sand Sculpture Exhibit however he told me that it had been removed due to the rain and was disappointed to have missed it. After his day in town, he went back to St Patrick's for that evening's Choral Evensong at 17.30 with the service mostly sung provided by the Close Chorale choir. Liam told me the service is used for reflection and of course prayer.

After I dropped Liam off at RCSI for his tour of the College, I made my way to the Freemason's Hall for my 2.30pm tour of the building. Our tour Daniel, the poor guy didn't know what he let himself in for, when he said don't be afraid to ask any questions. As what was meant to be a brief hour tour of the building, ended up being over 2 hours after all our grilling. Daniel said at the end that he never had such an intense tour in all his time, the poor guy. By the time I was finished Liam was waiting for me in the Freemason Bar for ages. Despite the length of the tour, it was worth doing and the building itself is a must see. As I was later leaving than we had originally thought and had planned for, we ended up unable to make it to Blackhall Place, home of the Law Society. As we got ready for the Medieval Walking tour we had booked, the weather decided to put a damper on things and start pouring. We took shelter in +Krüst Bakery, our first time there and we both were very impressed by the service, the pastries, price and the general atmosphere. Although we missed out on the walking tour, Krust provided us with shelter and some time to finalise things for our trip to Orlando. As both Liam and myself were working the next two days, I wasn't able to do anything next until the weekend.

 Saturday morning after a well earned sleep in, made my way towards Merrion Square for the Open Day celebrating the heritage of Merrion Square and its surroundings although most of talks, and walks were booked out which was a pity. After a short stroll around the park, made the short walk to the +National Museum of Ireland - Archaeology who were celebrating the 125th Anniversary of the museum being open to the public. The museum had several hands-on activities, talks and demonstrations to celebrate the collections of the Museum. The activity sheets provided made tracking down some of the most iconic objects in the museums, with 2 different ones to chose from, The Treasury Trail and The Viking Challenge, more fun. As I had the time I did both activity sheets. Some of the Curators' Gallery Chats were very interesting and unusually especially Nessa O'Connor chat on Prehistoric Ireland and Gold exhibition and Andy Halpin's one on Medieval Ireland. I was very impressed more than I thought I would be, with all the various events that museum had on to celebrate the occasion.

 Before the 2 pm tour of the National War Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge, I wanted to check out two Georgian restored buildings operated by the Irish Landmark Trust as self catering holiday accommodation. I went to Merion Mews - 63 Fitzwilliam Lane first, which originally was a coach house or mews which has altered little since being built in 1792. The ground floor accommodated the horses and coaches with the living quarters above. The intact condition of the whole complex was quite a pleasant surprise especially with rarity of 18th century Dublin Townhouses that have survived. I left here to visit the other property that the Trust were showcasing, The Georgian Townhouse in town. No.25 Eustace Street is one of the few remaining houses within Temple Bar. Unlike the Georgian houses in Merrion Square, it had a feel of modesty and simplicity. When the Trust acquired the building it was in dire bad state of repair but there was enough original features and information to reconstruct the original features.

 As I had plenty of time before my tour at 2, I decided I'd enjoy the sun and walk out to Islandbridge. The talk focused on the context of Ireland's involvement in WW1 and dedication of the gardens to Ireland's war dead. The Memorial is beautifully laid out and peaceful. By the time I got back into town, Liam had just finished visiting both the Landmark Trust buildings.
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 It was quite an interesting week filled with such history and heritage. Every week should be heritage week for the local irish people, as its so important to know ur culture and heritage.