May 22 - Part 1 - Trinity College

I'm up bright & early on a sunny morning - finally adapted to the time change.
Out for a quick walk.  
The news here is refreshingly low on Trump's antics, and Canada doesn't make it (somebody e-mail me if Vancouver Island sinks).
The biggest issue here is the May 25 vote on the Abortion Issue ("Repeal the 8th").  Tons of Yes and No campaigners on the streets, handing out leaflets.  We've seen one No campaigner out on his soap box (literally) in 3 different parts of the city in the last 3 days.  We haven't seen any screaming matches and have only been approached once (we must look like tourists).  
The lamp posts around town are just plastered with signs.   It will be a while before they are cleaned up.

Since it's sunny I got a nice shot of the Ha'Penny bridge, nicknamed thatbecause of the toll charged back in 1816 when it was built.  












A close shot of a bunch of 'love locks' on the bridge.  I thought about cracking that nice, black combination lock, but figured that would be a bit tacky.

Time to wake up her majesty and get some brekky.







Breakfast & coffee over - off to Trinity College!

The 30m high Campanile in Library Square.

 A building on the north side of the square.  They all had temporary signs in front, "Quiet - Exams in Progress."  Take that you students!










The "Sphere Within a sphere" sculpture, with a selfie of yours truly if you look carefully - right beside where the sticker was peeled off.









The Book of Kells exhibit - no photos of the actual book, and only non-flash pix in the outer exhibit, so you may want to Google it for better views.  Here's the Wikipedia link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Kells

This page shows the four apostles whose gospels comprise the book:  Matthew, Mark, John & Luke

Laura wants to go for dinner & a beer - I'll add more later.

I had Bangers & Mash & a couple of pints for dinner - ole 'Half Pint' had two glasses.  Back to the Book of Kells:

This is a portrait of St. John.  Remember - the book is smaller than a table picture book, so the poor monks doing the amazingly intricate artwork in poor light and even poorer working conditions had to be super talented.












The chronology of the book - it's amazing that it survived at all.

This is the Chi Rho page - some of the the most intricate artwork in the book. 

That's it for photos of the exhibit - I can't do justice to it.  From this exhibit we went in to the Treasury where the actual book is on display.  Very inspiring.  The engineer in me wondered how the monks could do such detail.  I realize I haven't included any photos of the actual text, but it is also delicate and beautiful.









 Here's the 'Long Room,' the actual old library of Trinity College, with 200,000 volumes.











 A view of the upper floors of volumes.








Busts line each side of the main hall.







 




Here's a book that was on  display - a mere youngster from the 14th century.   It's subject - Early Irish Laws on Beekeeping!

This is a little higher resolution description of the text.  I hope you can make it out.  It was shot through smudged Plexiglas.














That's it for a very short tour of Trinity College - didn't want to disturb exams.
Up the road a ways is Dublin Castle.