Ireland day 0855. Wednesday 31 January 2024- Dundalk *

Ireland day 0855. Wednesday 31 January 2024- Dundalk

Today’s summary	Neither of us were working today so after a video call with a friend in the morning, we drove up to look at Dundalk – a town we hadn’t visited before – and the “Now Now” exhibition at the An Táin Arts Centre. Deeply disappointing. Had lunch in a café then a quick look round the town centre which wasn’t at its best on a grey very wet January afternoon. The Museum was more interesting. Returned to Malahide and a call to UK friends in the evening
Today’s weather	Heavily overcast and raining hard for much of the day. Strong north easterly wind. Appx 10c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The blue line shows where we walked) (No GPX today)

Commentary

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

The website says “‘Now Now’ is an interactive gallery, relaxation centre and cafe“. Well, that sounded pretty interesting. And doubly so, as the “Now Now” exhibition was being laid on in the An Táin Arts Centre in Dundalk – a town we had never visited, even though it’s less than an hour up the M1 from us. So, as we both had a day off today, we decided to make that our destination for today.

First, though, I had a Zoom chat with one of my friends in the UK – very enjoyable to exchange news and views, and generally put the world to rights. As soon as I had finished, though, we donned our wet weather gear, jumped into the Trusty Yaris, and pottered off up the motorway.

By the time we arrived in Dundalk, it was pouring down and blowing a gale. So we didn’t really see it in its best light and it was hard to form an impression. It reminded me a bit of the northern British Pennine town where my parents grew up – definitely a bit post-industrial and still finding its way in a new world. We managed to park pretty much opposite the Arts Centre so made our way swiftly across the road and sought the dry sanctuary of the exhibition.

It’s hard to describe exactly what the exhibition was like, though I think it’s fair to say that by no measure I could think of did it live up to the promotional hype. For a start, it was being held in what felt like a recently abandoned cellar under the Arts Centre itself, and the exhibits – such as they were – were rather hard to interpret. Anyway, at least someone was having a try, and the Arts Council could presumably tick a box somewhere.

After that disappointment, we were feeling hungry so found a nice café across the road (“23 seats”) then after lunch went off to have a look at the local museum. It was actually quite interesting and well done, though in parts it looked like it hadn’t been updated since it opened in 1994. But there were some interesting artefacts and well thought out displays, which we had a good look at. We only had an hour left on our parking ticket, so we just looked at the highlights, then scooted back to the car and drove back to Malahide before it got completely dark.

So it was definitely an interesting day you, though I’m not sure that we will be rushing back to the “Now Now” exhibition. But it’s dinner time now and there’s some delicious curry left over from the weekend that needs eating up. I’m feeling hungry again (which is a bit odd as I haven’t really actually done very much today) so I need to get the rice boiling. And then we have another call with some more friends later this evening, which I’m very much looking forward to. So that’s all for now!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Umbrella an essential feature of our quick walk round Dundalk	One of the more interesting galleries in the “Now Now” exhibition

The entrance to the An Táin Arts Centre is actually more impressive than the exhibition	In the Louth county museum. Quite good, if a little tired in places

I was interested in this display about the glacial history of the area – but glaciation is one of my particular fascinations, so perhaps that’s not so surprising	St Patrick’s Church Dundalk. The main body of the church was completed in the late 1800s and is modelled on King’s College Cambridge. The tower at the front was added in 1903

The exhibition sounded very promising, but sadly it didn’t live up to the hype