When I was in Ireland last summer, I didn’t have time to visit the Book of Kells, so I was determined to visit the exhibit this year. This morning, I made my way to Trinity College and was able to see the Book of Kells and The Long Room. The Book of Kells is fascinating and the textual scholarship, much of which is debated among scholars, is overwhelming. The books are beautiful and thought-provoking. I enjoyed reading about how pigments were made and seeing the letter-by-letter examples of the illustrated alphabet. Upon entering The Long Room, I was overcome by “old book smell,” which only reinforced why I will always read books I can hold. There’s something about the tactile experience of turning pages and the scent of a book, old or new, that I never want to trade for the convenience of an eReader. I’m not a Luddite, but I unashamedly love old-school book reading.

After leaving the Book of Kells, I met Whitney and Nicole for lunch at Foley’s. I enjoyed a goat cheese salad (greens! vegetables!). After lunch, we walked to Stephen’s Green and enjoyed donuts from The Rolling Donut.  Most of the local bookstores have Irish sections, and Eason’s is less expensive than Hodges and Figgis, so we decided to peruse their Irish literature section.

I bought a signed copy of A History of Running Away by Paula McGrath,who is a UCD MFA graduate, and The Green Road by Anne Enright, which won the Man Booker Prize and is shortlisted for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction. Joseph O’Connor’s review of McGrath’s book is especially poignant given the theme of our study abroad class: “This beautifully written novel is urgently contemporary in its concerns but is also a quietly compelling exploration of the notions of home and belonging. Paula McGrath is a wonderful storyteller with a vivid sense of place and person.”

Whitney and I made our way to Buff Spa where we spent some time in the sauna and relaxation room. Later in the afternoon, we pampered ourselves with Swedish massages.  

Constance Markievicz was born in London in 1868, although her family home, Lisadell, was in County Sligo, Ireland. She was a childhood friend of Yeats and was featured in his poems “In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz” and “Easter 1916.” For me, as a voracious reader, it’s been fascinating to read about places, people, and historical events and to subsequently visit the places featured in poetry, prose, and historical texts. In this way, the literature, so much of which features the events surrounding the Easter Rising, has come alive.

On the 1916 walking tour, it was eerie to see the grapeshot at the GPO. These physical scars on the landscape reinforced the historical reality of what occurred. Although I could envision the battle taking place at St. Stephen’s Green where Constance Markievicz was a sniper during the Easter Rising, seeing her name on the intake registry at Kilmainham Gaol reinforced the reality of her involvement and the consequences of her choices. A portion of the entry that describes her crime reads as follows:

Did attempt to cause disaffection among the civilian population of His majesty.

As I toured Kilmainham Gaol, it was surreal to see the jail cell in which Constance Markievicz was held. Initially, she was sentenced to death, but she had her sentenced commuted to life imprisonment because she was a woman. She was released from prison in 1917 and continued to support the cause of Irish Freedom.

The sentence portion of her registry entry reads as follows:

Death

commuteth to Penal Sentence for Life