Ireland day 0541. Thursday 23 March 2023- Hibernian *

Ireland day 0541. Thursday 23 March 2023- Hibernian

Today’s summary	We made my first post-operative trip into Dublin today to visit the Royal Hibernian Academy. Quite good though some of the exhibits were a bit obscure. Bumped into people we knew while we were out and about in Dublin and back in Malahide, so it felt like quite a positive and friendly day
Today’s weather	Sunny intervals with blustery wind. Some rain in the evening. Moderate southerly wind. Appx 12C

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Royal Hibernian walk from Connolly

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

After a morning spent on podcasts, breakfast and admin, we decided to take advantage of another fair day to go into Dublin – partly to try out my first post-operative train journey, and partly to visit a new art gallery – the Royal Hibernian Academy – that we had just learned about. (By the way, “Hibernia” was the classical Latin name for Ireland, and it is said to mean “land of winter” – presumably in reference to the weather when the Romans visited, and possibly also one of the reasons why they never bothered to invade it).

The train journey was fine, and I enjoyed the walk across Dublin from Connolly station to the gallery, in the occasionally warm-ish sunshine. Once at the gallery, we immediately had to visit the café, which was quite good though sadly they had run out of lunch dishes by the time we arrived. The gallery itself was OK – though a bit beyond me in terms of being incomprehensible modern art. Also, although the viewing rooms were big, they were quite empty. But a worthwhile visit, and Ely St., where the gallery is situated, is lovely.

We bumped into a friend from Drogheda at Pearse station on the way back, then another friend from Spanish class in Malahide in the evening, so all in all it felt like we’d enjoyed a very friendly and worthwhile day pushing the boundaries a little and exploring somewhere new.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


On the Matt Talbot memorial bridge over the Liffey, enjoying the sunshine	Actually, we were both enjoying the sunshine! (Note, once again, the very high tide in the background)

Grand and airy entrance lobby at the Royal Hibernian Academy	One of the exhibits. Something to do with saffron (the crocus-derived colouring), but it was rather beyond me I’m afraid

Ely Place, where the RHA is situated. A lovely quiet Georgian cold-de-sac, just up from Merrion Street.	Just round the the corner from the RHA, in Hume Street, is the house where Sir Richard Griffith was born. He produced the first geological map of Ireland (and one of the first in the world) in 1815

Sorry, this went completely over my head