Documentary Response 5

Our last field trip of this amazing trip was to Dublin again. I love Dublin. The atmosphere of it is amazing! I love the feeling of the busy city. It is really neat to see all the new era things mixed in with all the old building and history there. Both trips there I have come back with wonderful new information about Ireland. On this trip we went to the Chester Beatty Library and we went to Trinity College.

 

I really enjoyed the Chester Beatty Library and all of the collections. Chester Beatty was a very rich Irish-American who collected so many wonderful things over his lifetime.He made his fortune mining in Cripple Creek, Colorado and that is where he earned the name King of Copper. He started collecting Oriental art and books. His collection ranged for Chinese art to Japanese literature. By the 1940's he had built up a very nice collection. Also by this time he owned 19 ancient Egyptian papyri. In 1950, he moved his collection to Dublin. Then the collection was moved into the Dublin castle in 2000 and that is where it is located today. Sadly, we could not take pictures of any parts of his collection. It was such a grand exhibit. The Chester Beatty Library is not a small place it has three levels and is full of items, but it only shows about a third of Chester Beatty collection. I would love to go back to the exhibit and take hours to look at everything!!

 

Then we went to the famous Trinity College! The college was founded in 1592 as the "mother" of a new university. The name was the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin before it was changed to Trinity College. That was a good move to change the name. Could you image saying, "Why yes good sir I go to the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin," you would be out of breath after saying that. :) When the college was founded it was an all male college. However, in 1904 woman were finally admitted as full members of the college.

 This is the original entrance to the college!

 This is the bell tower, which only rings for meal times, exams, and graduation!!

 

Besides being a beautiful old college Trinity is famous for two more reasons. The main reason is for The Book of Kells which has a lavishly decorated copy of the four gospels in Latin. it was associated with St. Colum Cille who founded a monastery off the west coast of Scotland on an island called Iona in about 561. The Book of Kells was probably made in the 9th century by the monks of Iona. And of course you could not take any pictures of this grand book. I was a little disappointed by the book. Only because it has been made into such a tourist site that it isn't very pleasurable to see it.

What I really enjoyed was the Long Room which is the longest library in the world. It is 65 meters long, it contains 200,000 of the Library's oldest books in oak bookcases. It is so amazing to see all the books and think about all the knowledge that is in that room. Also being a complete nerd, like myself, the smell of the old books is wonderful. When you walk in you are hit by the smell of books. I got that feeling I always get when I open a new book to read. Luckily we could take picture in here :)

 As you first walk into the beautiful Long Room!!

I wanted to climb up that ladder so badly just feel the old covers and flip the pages!!

 

 

Just Some Extras:

 

 In the Garden on the roof of The Chester Beatty Library!!

A cool looking piece of art on the Trinity College Campus!!

And well me of course!!!