JodockWorldTravel

Dublin, Ireland is known as the land of 1,000 pubs.  The establishments are the center of life in Dublin; they are where relationships are forged, deals are made, life events are celebrated.  It’s also the home of four Nobel-prize-winning novelists:  Yeats, Beckett, Shaw and Heaney.  And its Trinity College is host to the Book of Kells Exhibition. 

The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript Gospel book created in an Irish monastery around 1800 AD.  Latin text is supplemented with decorations like borders, initials and miniature illustrations.  It is considered the world’s most famous medieval manuscript and is an Irish national treasure.

As we made our away around town on a kind of self-guided walking tour we past Christ Church Cathedral.  One of the oldest houses of worship in the city, Christ Church has been serving its community since 1030, and not always just as a church.  In the 16^th and 17^th centuries the crypt of the church also served as a market, a meeting place for businesses and even as a pub!  A 1633 letter speaks of the vaults from one end of the church to the other being made into “tipping houses,” or pubs, for the distribution of beer, wine and tobacco.  In the 1870s a Dublin whiskey distiller donated nearly $40 million in today’s dollars to restore and save the church, which continues to offer multiple services to its community today, including on-line services.

Not far away is the Dublin Castle, serving as the seat of English, and later British rule in Ireland from 1204 to 1922.  After the Easter Rising of 1916 and the Irish War of Independence the castle was handed over to the newly independent Irish state and has been used for important national events, such as state dinners and commemorations ever since.  Individuals entertained at the castle include Benjamin Franklin, the Duke of Wellington, Queen Victoria, Charles Dickens, Princess Grace, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Nelson Mandela and Queen Elizabeth.  Every Ireland president since 1938 has been inaugurated at the castle.  Today it not only houses a museum of its history; it continues to house active government offices.

Finally, no visit to Dublin would be complete without a stop by Temple Bar (coming full circle to the land of pubs…).  Temple Bar is a district within Dublin that gets its name from an 18^th Century resident, Sir William Temple, a renowned teacher and philosopher who was provost of Trinity College and had his home in this area.  A barr was the term for a raised sandbank that essentially served as a walkway, a series of which were located in the area when Temple lived here, thus creating the initial reference to Temple Barr (spelling later changed to a single “r”).  Over time the Temple Bar area became a slum.  In the 1980s a bus company was going to develop the area into a large bus depot.  While plans were being developed the company offered buildings in the area for low rent, making it a great location for shop owners, small stores, pubs, etc.  The Temple Bar area was born.  When the bus company completed its planning and was ready to move forward with the depot, protestors prevented them from doing so.  Today Temple Bar is the happening place of Dublin, and the Temple Bar itself boasts the city’s largest selection of whiskeys.

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