Ireland day 0148. Wednesday 23 February 2022- Visitors02

Today’s summary	Another day in Dublin. Went to Fegan’s for brunch then cathedrals then Trinity college. Finished off with beers in Temple Bar
Today’s weather	Mostly dry and sunny in morning, occasional heavy showers in the afternoon. Strong westerly wind. About 8C

Today’s overview location (the red cross in a circle shows where Val and I are at the moment)		Close-up location

Commentary

Another very full day in Dublin today. Started out the day with a walk across the town and ended up at Fegan’s 1924 café, behind the Four Courts for another superb brunch with our guests. Lingered there for a very enjoyable couple of hours then headed over the bridge to the south bank and up to Christchurch cathedral. There are two cathedrals in Dublin and (in a correction to the original blog) they are both Protestant. There is no Catholic cathedral in Dublin which is odd as it is the majority religion in the city, although there is a “pro” cathedral (i.e. a parish church temporarily serving as a cathedral) at St Mary’s. Christchurch has its roots right back in the Viking era. Unfortunately today it was closed but fortunately just down the road is the other cathedral – the “new” St Patrick’s Protestant cathedral – built in the 1200s so a mere 800 years old, and which was open to visitors today.

I’m not really a natural fan of religious architecture, but the cathedral was beautiful and definitely worth a visit. I was particularly fascinated to learn more about its illustrious Dean Jonathan Swift – you can see a bit more of his legacy in the photos below. When his body was exhumed a century after his death, the post mortem revealed that he probably suffered from an ear condition which caused the dizziness and tinnitus which he had complained about in the years before he died.

From the cathedral we hot footed it down to Trinity College then with miraculous timing just as it started to pour down with rain we found ourselves outside the Book of Kells exhibition so we took shelter inside and treated ourselves to another look around.

We rounded off the afternoon with a few pints at the Temple Bar then, feeling distinctly mellow, headed back to Malahide for a late supper and a well earned (well I thought it was anyway) gin and tonic.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Christchurch cathedral. Sadly closed to visitors on Tuesdays and Wednesdays	Just down the road is St Patrick’s cathedral. This one was actually open

Stunning stained glass window on the southern transept of St Patrick’s cathedral	Believe it or not this is a cast of the skull of Jonathan Swift – of Gulliver’s Travels renown – who was Dean of St Patrick’s cathedral in the early 1700s

Dodging the showers in Trinity College en route to the Book of Kells	Val in having a lecture in the Temple Bar this evening!

With Luke Kelly – lead singer of the Dubliners – at the end of the Royal Canal