Dublin Exhibits

This past weekend, I meant to spend two days in Dublin. In the end, I was only there for about five hours. However, within that time, I went to the Trinity College Old Library and the Book of Kells Exhibition, as well as the National Museum of Ireland's Archaeology Building. It was really incredible. It is one thing to see a slide of something like the Tara Brooch in art history class, but it is quite another to actually see it in person. At the same time, I know it was seeing these things, or similar things, in class beforehand that made it as interesting as it was. Lord knows my grandparents (who came to visit and took me to Dublin) got tired enough of me giving the history and background information on everything that we saw, however fascinating I thought it was.

I was especially excited to see the Book of Kells, considering that I wrote a paper on it last spring. The Trinity College Exhibit was really well done. Before you get to the actual manuscripts that they have on display, you walk through an exhibit of floor-to-ceiling reproductions of the manuscript pages, along with desciptions and meanings behind the contents, as well as information about making manuscripts. However, there was one thing that I found very frustrating about the exhibit. Because it is designed to be of interest to anyone, most of the descriptions are very simplified. I can understand why, but it is still frustrating to see a one-sentence, definitive reason given for something that I know scholars still disagree over, and have read ten articles that give ten different views on the subject.

Well, this is all I have time for at the moment...I didn't come all the way to Ireland to sit at my computer all day!