Day Fourteen: "Did You Know There Was A Castle In Dublin?"

This week's excursion was to Dublin Castle, a landmark so significant in Dublin's history that it turned out I had walked past its entrance about four times prior to our visit and I didn't even know it was there. Once you walk through the gate, however, we were treated to a gorgeous building that has incredible significance in Irish history. The bulk of the castle was built in the 18th century, and it's where the British viceroy overseeing Dublin would live. It's built on the remains of a castle built in the Norman era, thus it's much more modern that what we Americans usually imagine castles looking like.

The castle itself is quite interesting, as it housed the British representation in Ireland. It's quite ostentatious, and it was used to throw parties for the visiting dignitaries and other guests of the British empire. The one part of the tour that makes everyone's stomach churn is when we visited the dining room. It was notable that during the mid-1800s, those dining in Dublin castle would often engage in 12-course meals that would last for hours and hours. The mid-1800s were also, of course, the time of the Great Famine in Ireland, where over 1 million people starved to death and over 1.5 million were forced to leave the country to seek better living conditions. So while the wealthy British dined on their massive feasts, peasants who were literally starving to death would be banging on the gates outside, just trying to get someone to throw them a scrap of food. Needless to say, this is a somewhat harrowing image.

But it wasn't all bad! For me, the best part of Dublin Castle was the square at the center, and the historical significance of that site. For it was there, on January 16th, 1922, the British government handed Dublin Castle over to Michael Collins, and officially established the Irish Free State. It is one of the single most important moments in Irish history, and we were all lucky enough to set foot on the same hallowed ground.

Following a light lunch, we continued our excursion to the National History Museum. The museum was designed with the intention of creating a sense of a uniform Irish history, collecting artifacts from as early as the 3rd century BC. That being said, the museum goes to great lengths to ignore the presence of the British in Irish history. All the artifacts and pieces relate to an entirely Gaelic history, and there aren't any objects from the 1600s on, as they would all indicate the presence of the British. It's a typical Irish move: creating a very strong political statement by doing something that, at least on the surface, seems quite passive.

They do, however, have an amazing collection of bog bodies. Bog bodies are people who, for one reason or another (accident, ritual burial, torture, etc.), were dumped into the peat bogs around Ireland upon their death. The way the soil and nutrients collect in the bog allows these bodies to become perfectly preserved as they sat for hundreds of years. When scientists discovered these bodies, they instantly began to decay due to exposure to air for the first time in centuries, but were still incredibly well preserved. The National History Museum features several of these bodies, including one where you can make out the fingerprints, fingernails and pores on the back of the hand. It's utterly creepy, and still very cool. Sort of like mummies, but with much better preservation techniques.