Ireland 2023 - Day 3 - Dublin again  

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On Sunday after breakfast, knowing the Archeology Museum would not open until 1 pm, I read in the room for awhile and around 10 am took a meandering walk, across the City in a northwest direction, arriving at the Liffey & following it to Heuston Station (Irish Rail).

I walked 1/2 mile past the Station, to see the Museum of Modern Art, housed in an old military hospital. The property is essentially a public park.

	Dublin		Temple Bar area		River Liffey again, looking west
		Heuston Station		Museum of Modern Art		WWI military convalescent hospital
	back yard looking NE		looking west

The Modern Art collection had only one artist's work shown, and I didn't connect with it, so I went back to the rail station, printed out tickets for tomorrow's train to Killarney, and then sat inside, with a NERO coffee, chatting with others. 

The LUAS tram Red Line runs past Heuston Station, crosses the Liffey and then runs east-west on the north side of tne River. I switched to the Green Line at McConnell St., and headed south, back across the Liffey, to the Trinity stop (the next stop to the south is Harcourt, near the Hotel. My LUAS fare was only 1.27 Euros. An unlimited daily pass is 5.8 Euros. 

I walked briefly through Trinity College, and a friendly local showed me the south side exit, and then gave me directions to the Archeology Museum, based on the Pubs I would pass !    

note - you can enlarge any part of a picture by left-clicking in and then out again (with some exceptions). 

	Archeology Museum entrance		gold neck ornament from 1st century		about Celtic brooches
				Tara brooch, a Celtic era treasure

After an hour or more looking at antiquities in low-lighting rooms, I started to fade out. I went to the National Gallery cafe again for a scone & Americano, and again it helped. 

Later I strolled through St. Stephens Green, but took no photos. Multi-ethnic & multi-generational families were out enjoying a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Dublin and I heard many different languages being spoken.  

I returned to the Hotel, trying an unfamiliar route & found a coffee shop with an amazing Portugese pastry, not far from the hotel; coffee kept me going. 

I enjoyed dinner at the Hotel again for third night and was starting to feel somewhat recovered from the diurnal clock change. I was also discovering the charm of staying at a hotel where you can have a great breakfast and dinner.    

Later in the room I enjoyed reading Judge Gillian Hussey's book about her Superior (Criminal) Court trial history, and in her early days she was assigned to cases from two of Dublin's worst neighborhoods. 

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Postscript - The Tara Brooch is an Irish Celtic brooch, from the 7th or 8th century, made of bronze, silver, and gold. It is decorated with 50 inserted panels with highly ornate filigree.

The brooch is widely considered to be the most complex & ornate of its kind, and would have been commissioned as a fastener for the cloak of a high-ranking Cleric, or, as a ceremonial insignia of high office, perhaps even for a King of Ireland.

An early owner who was a jeweler used the term Tara to drive the price of the Brooch up, but there's no known historical connection to the Hill of Tara.

(ref - info here is from Wikipedia.)

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