Travel dates: June 16-19, 2019
Everything I read about Ireland before our trip cautioned me against devoting too much time to Dublin. And, honestly, a quick poll of my family puts Dublin in last place out of our six England/Ireland stops on the trip. But in looking back over our time in Dublin to put this post together, I don’t understand quite how this is true, because we did a lot of really cool stuff in Dublin! So I think Dublin suffered because it had such stiff competition from the other places we went and probably because we were all pretty tired in Dublin, too–we had just had a very intense travel day coming from England and Dave’s sister’s family had had the same coming from California (I realize England is much closer to Dublin than California is, but we managed to make it take almost as long to get there with our transportation choices).
We only had 3 nights/2 days, so our Dublin stop was far from comprehensive, but here’s what we opted to do with our group, which included kids from 6-18 years old.
Book of Kells and Trinity College
We watched The Secret of Kells (and the Secret of Roan Inish; Irish movies are so secretive!) in preparation for our trip, so of course we wanted to go see the Book of Kells at Trinity College while we were in Dublin.
Not the real Book of Kells! You’re not allowed to take pictures of the real one; this is a replica:
The Book of Kells is a lavishly decorated manuscript of the four gospels in Latin, probably completed around 800 C.E. It’s housed in the library at Trinity College, and a ticket to see it also includes an exhibit about the book’s history and access to the impressive Long Room that holds many of the library’s oldest books.
We bought tickets in advance, which I recommend; when we got there the line to buy tickets wasn’t bad, but it had gotten very long by the time we left. Buying in advance lets you bypass that line. Once inside, you’ll be competing for space with a lot of other people at the museum exhibit, at least if you’re there in summer like we were.
Umm, some kind of really old writing system. That’s all I remember:
But the room with the book itself in it wasn’t so bad, and we were all able to get a good look. They change the page of the book daily, if I remember right, so you don’t know which one we’re going to see.
After you see the Book of Kells, you head to the Long Room to gaze in wonder at how cool it is:
Then there’s a nice gift shop to finish off your visit.
Predictably, the Book of Kells went over better with my teenage kids than with six year old Abe. But it was a short enough visit that it didn’t try his patience too much, and there’s plenty of room to run around at Trinity College before and/or after:
The Jeanie Johnston
The Jeanie Johnston is a replica of a “famine ship” that carried thousands of Irish emigrants to Canada in the mid 19th century. After construction, it spent several years traveling the world and retracing the voyages of the original ship, but today it’s permanently docked in Dublin and you can take a 50 minute tour of the ship and hear the stories of its passengers.
Tickets range from 6-11 euros, depending on age, and they also offer a family ticket. We spontaneously decided on a tour while we were out walking around, and were able to get in on a tour that was leaving just then no problem. It was a hit with everyone who did it (some of our party opted to skip it), including Abe….it’s a short enough tour and offers enough novelty (what with being on a ship and all) to hold the interest of younger kids.
National Gallery of Ireland
And then there are some places that are probably not going to hold the attention of young kids, so Milo, Ari, and I headed out to see the National Gallery while other people stayed behind at the fancy Airbnb to play pool and whatnot.
For some reason, half of the National Gallery was closed….but only on the exact day we decided to visit. This was a little frustrating, as was attempting to navigate the confusing building. But there is no charge to visit, and they have some impressive stuff. We managed to find the Vermeer and the Caravaggio, and we were all struck by how much…better great art is than good art. If that makes sense. It’s the sort of thing that’s hard to tell when you’re not looking at paintings in person. Nice job, Caravaggio and Vermeer!
National Library of Ireland
This was our other big kid only stop; we came across it while we were looking for the National Gallery and decided to stop and see the very nicely done Yeats exhibit:
Dublinia
I was very excited about this one: kid friendly museum with Vikings?! Sign me up! From the beginning, it did not disappoint; this sign about rabbits was one of the first things we encountered:
The museum takes you through the Viking and medieval history of Dublin, with plenty of hands on activities along the way. There’s also an area with lots of ancient artifacts, though this was closed for refurbishment while we were there (and still is, as of this writing). At the end, you can climb St. Michael’s Tower for a view of the city. Admission is 11 euros for adults, 6.50 for kids, or you can buy a combo ticket that includes Christ Church Cathedral next door, which I recommend! Those tickets are 18 euros for adults and 9.50 for kids.
Vikings show up right away!
Abe is a Viking:
I feel like maybe an American museum wouldn’t feature a pooping medieval guy so prominently, but I could be wrong. There were sound effects, too:
Strongbow is not pooping:
Up to the tower!
Christ Church Cathedral
Right next to Dublinia, Christ Church Cathedral isn’t the biggest cathedral in Dublin, but it does have some things going for it. Like a booklet they give you that helps you spot things like this monkey:
And the crypts down below that you can explore:
It was also the only place in all of England or Ireland where we managed to find a good t-shirt. I guess t-shirts just aren’t really a thing there? Anyway, we looked just about everywhere we went because we like to pick up a few t-shirts as souvenirs on trips. But we struck gold here. In the crypts below the cathedral, you can see the mummified remains of a cat and a rat that were found in the pipes of the cathedral’s organ:
The theory is that the cat chased the rat into the pipes and they both got stuck. Anyway, we found a VERY CUTE t-shirt for Abe (no adult sizes, alas) depicting a stylized, considerably less grisly version of this story.
Much walking:
We spent a lot of time in Dublin just walking and walking and walking. Our lone experience with Dublin buses, post ferry, left us feeling kind of overwhelmed and intimidated, and we didn’t attempt it again. Which meant we were very tired, but we also saw an awful lot.
Saint Stephen’s Green:
(there were a lot of famine statues, and they all seemed to include a starving dog):
Ha’penny bridge:
Molly Malone statue:
Dublin Castle:
Saint Patrick’s Cathedral:
Assorted other stuff:
And that was it for our brief Dublin stop. There’s a ton I wish we’d had time for, as usual, and I also wish we’d had time for day trips out of the city to see some things on that side of Ireland. But, as it was, it was time to head off to Killarney!
maybe you would like to pin this?
You saw a whole lot more in two days in Dublin than I did in one. I remember Hapenny Bridge. I mainly walked around checking out yarn shops and thrift store (I still have clothes from that visit) and galleries. I know I went to some cathedral or other but after twenty-five years I don’t remember which one. Of course I didn’t have time to do much planning. My goddaughter and I drove down from Belfast on a day that her mother unexpectedly didn’t need the car.