Dublin is an exciting and interesting city, a mix of old churches, castles and museums, the home of Ireland’s president, Trinity College, the Dublin Zoo and one of the world’s largest silicon communities known as the Silicon Docks, where 90% of their computer geeks are from the USA. And, I should mention, Dublin is also the home of Guinness Brewery, which began with 4 acres and has now expanded to 60 acres with a 9000-year lease! Guinness also has a large brewery in Africa … which consumes more of “the recipe” than Ireland.
On our last afternoon of this amazing vacation, we visited (along with about 1000 other tourists) St. Patrick’s Cathedral – named for the man who supposedly drove the snakes out of Ireland – “a sacred place near the heart of Dublin.” The present building dates back to 1220 and “over the centuries has experienced and survived wars, revolutions and a reformation.” St. Patrick’s is the National Cathedral for the Anglican Church of Ireland. It was also, at one time, the home pulpit for Jonathan Swift, best known to the world as the author of Gulliver’s Travels and who served as the Dean of the Cathedral from 1714-1745.
On our 45-minute walk back to our hotel, we also visited Trinity College Library in which the ancient Book of Kells was on display – and which had also attracted hundreds of tourists and residents. The Book of Kells, was “written by monks who lived in communities devoted to the study of God’s word, fasts and manual work” and contains lavishly decorated copy, in Latin of the four gospels.”
Our final evening on the Emerald Isle included a Farewell Dinner in which we all gathered at an Irish-Italian restaurant about 40 minutes from our hotel. It was a noisy, fun and festive end to a wonderful vacation.
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