I realize I’ve been in Dublin for two and half days and haven’t even told you about what I’ve been seeing yet! To start, here’s a bit of Wikipedia background on the city for you:

“The earliest reference to Dublin is in the writings of Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy), the Greek astronomer and cartographer, around the year A.D. 140, who calls it Eblana Civitas. The settlement Dubh Linn dates perhaps as far back as the first century BC; Baile Átha Cliath or simply Áth Cliath was founded in 988 near by. The two towns eventually became one. The modern city retains the Anglicised Irish name of the former and the original Irish name of the latter. After the Norman invasion of Ireland, Dublin replaced the Hill of Tara as Ireland’s capital, with much of the power centring on Dublin Castle until independence. From the 14th century until the late 16th century, Dublin and the surrounding area -known as the Pale – was the only area of Ireland under English government control.

“From the 17th century the city expanded rapidly, helped by the Wide Streets Commission. Georgian Dublin was, for a time, the second city of the British Empire after London. Much of Dublin’s best architecture dates from this time. The Easter Rising of 1916 left the capital in an unstable situation and the Anglo-Irish War and Irish Civil War left the capital in ruins, with many of its finest buildings destroyed. The Irish Free State rebuilt much of the city’s buildings and moved parliament to Leinster House, but took no bold tasks such as remodelling. After The Emergency (World War 2) Dublin remained a capital out of time, modernisation was slow and finally the 1960s saw change begin. In recent years the infrastructure of Dublin has changed immensely, with enormous private and state development of housing, transport, and business. (See also Development and Preservation in Dublin). Some well-known Dublin street corners are still named for the pub or business which used to occupy the site before closure or redevelopment.”

Mein Schatz’s conference is at Trinity College (or Coláiste na Tríonóide in Irish) founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I, so I’ve been able to spend some time on the gorgeous campus. I also took a tour of Kilmainham Gaol, which is “one of the largest unoccupied gaols in Europe, covering some of the most heroic and tragic events in Ireland’s emergence as a modern nation from 1780s to the 1920s.” Many of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were imprisoned and executed here, which prompted sympathy from the general population for the rebellion against the United Kingdom.

I also toured Dublin Castle, which was the seat of British rule in Ireland until 1922. The history of the castle extends back to the Vikings and the Normans. It actually looks nothing like a castle because the original castle burned down centuries ago. However, the current palace was rebuilt in the same spot, thus the name. After the official pomp and circumstance of the tour, they took us underground to see some remains of the Viking walls which surround the castle — Vikings were not renowned for their building abilities (they had other talents, I’ve heard), so the remains of the walls underneath the castle are quite rare.

Alright, my time is up for today, but I have much more to share with you, so I’ll just have to keep you in suspense. Until then!