Two Museums for the Price of None
Bet you thought I’d never get back to Dublin blogging, eh?
Thursday, 3/8
Ireland’s National Museums don’t charge admission. That’s right; absolutely free to get in…so we took advantage and went to both the National Museum of History and Archaeology, and then the National Gallery of Ireland, as it was on the way back to the hotel.
The Museum of History and Archaeology is in a fabulous Georgian pile on Kildare Street, right next door to Leinster House (where Parliament makes tea) and two doors down from the National Library. As you walk through the domed-and-lavishly-mosaicked entryway, into the main exhibition space, the first thing you’ll see is an exhibition of prehistoric gold hoards. There are masses of bracelets, torcs, dress-fasteners, sleeve fasteners, lunulae, and various other bright and shiny things. Surrounding this collection is the Prehistoric Ireland display, which includes a complete incomplete boat, weapons and shields, horns, cauldrons, tools, pottery, personal objects, and, ahem, fertility ritual objects.
Other exhibits include The Treasury, which contains a variety of objects (mostly metalworking, from a nifty little gold boat model to a very ambitious chalice) from the Iron Age, through Viking times, and up through the Middle Ages; Viking Ireland (a thousand years on, Dublin is still “that Viking city on the coast” to the rest of Ireland); and Kingship and Sacrifice, which features genuine bog bodies—many of which are nowhere close to intact…making the amazing state of preservation all the more disturbing. After the first two, I couldn’t stand to look, despite my amateur-scientific curiousity. It’s just too eerie, I tell you. The second floor features a reconstruction of a genuine Viking boat, albeit a small one, and a mural with part of the Bayeux tapestry. The Medieval Ireland exibit is also on the second floor, and features three sections, entitled Power, Work, and Prayer. The work section was my personal favorite, as it featured enough everyday objects such as tools, locks, and kitchenware, to really convey an idea of what life was like. The prayer section is much flashier, featuring all kinds of decorative objects like book shrines, croziers, chalices, and reliquaries, all embellished with metalwork and cabochons.
There are also exhibits on glass and ceramics from Cyprus, and an Egyptian collection, but I admit to having breezed through those areas in favor of things Irish…and, of course, lunch, which we had at the museum cafe. I had the vegetable quiche, which was excellent, and housemate tried the chicken korma, which is different than the American Midwestern version (surprise) and quite good. The only drawback is that this is the place that gave me the worst case of museum legs I’ve ever had in my life.
From there, we wandered over to the National Gallery, which is between Clare and Merrion streets. We went in the Clare Street entrance, which is the most modern of the four buildings melded together into one space. You tend to see that a lot in Dublin; buildings from different periods kludged together. Sometimes it works, and the National Gallery is one of them. Naturally, there’s a large collection of Irish works, but there are also lots of vastly oversized, delightfully Baroque and allegorical 17th-century works from Italy, France, Holland, and England. Marble statuary is scattered about through the entire gallery, and while i’m told there are several fine bronzes as well, I don’t recall seeing many of them. Of course, we got there relatively close to closing time, so we didn’t get as thorough a look at the collection. In the event that I’m able to return to Dublin, this is one fo the places I’ll want to revisit.
From the museum, we went on to dinner at Mona Lisa, which is just west of Trinity College. Both of us had spaghetti carbonara, which was delicious, with the pasta cooked to an exacting al dente, with just the right amount of sauce. I recommend the Trebbiano with it. For dessert, I had profiteroles with chocolate sauce, and Housemate had tiramisu; both were delicious. Finally, in order to prepare ourselves for undergraduate theater, I had an Irish coffee and Housemate had Bailey’s coffee (also both delicious).
So, form there, went on to the Samuel Beckett Theater on Trinity’s campus. for the senior class production of Phaedra (adaptedand translated from Racine’s play). If you’re not familiar with the myth, it’s very Greek and very tragic. And in my entirely biased opinion, nobody brings intensity to tragedy like undergrads. It was staged with a minimal set and modern costumes, which worked out fairly well, I think. The entire cast kept the tension high throughout the show, cranking it up a notch with each plot twist. By the time everyone was dead (oh, come on now—it’s a Greek tragedy; that’s hardly a spoiler) I could feel the tension in my jaw.
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