During the mini-break, I headed to Dublin, Ireland to soak up a bit of the luck of the Irish! During my trip, I visited Trinity College (part of University of Dublin) on my first day in rainy Dublin. My friend, Patience and I decided to take a tour of the campus and the Trinity College Old Library which features The Book of Kells, a world-famous 9th century gospel manuscript. Our tour guide, a student at Trinity College gave us a brief history of the college and the some of the traditions and myths. For instance, if a virgin student walks through the archway on campus, the bell will ring out! We learned about what the students do: where they live, eat, and study. After seeing the quad and some of the well-known buildings, we headed to the library and The Book of Kells exhibit.
The exhibit was very informative and the manuscript itself was so intricate and detailed; it is hard to imagine someone hand painting each detail onto the page!
We then got to walk through The Long Room, which houses 200,000 of the oldest books in the Library. The Long Room is the main chamber of the Old Library and it was built between 1712 and 1732, by 1830, the library had to be expanded upwards to make room for more books ( there’s always a space issue in libraries!)
The Long Room was my favorite part of my visit to Trinity College, the architecture of the room was stunning and the amount of books in that one room was incredible.
I wish I could have spent more time at Trinity College and in Dublin, but the next day, we were off on a whirlwind tour of Southern Ireland!
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