Cliche title I know, sorry for the lack of creativity. Well, the fun never ends here in Dublin, Ireland. Yesterday was another busy day beginning with a briefing at the Taoiseach's office.
The Taoiseach is basically the prime minister of Ireland. He or she is appointed by the President. The President here is has much less power and is more of a figurehead like the Queen of England. The President is expected to be neutral so the Taoiseach does more of the actual policy work. We didn't actually meet the guy but some people from economics and foreign policy departments talked to us. I was bored because I don't understand any of that stuff.
After that I got to do something much more up my alley with the English group. We went to a reading of the play The Long Christmas Dinner by Thornton Wilder. This reading was part of a celebration of the 80th birthday of Irish playwright Brian Friel. He was actually there too. We read some of his plays for the trip so it was really neat to see him. He selected three plays that influenced his writings so we saw that one last night and we're going to another tonight.
The reading was held in the Abbey Theatre. It was founded by Lady Gregory among others whose estate we visited earlier in the trip. At one point W.B. Yeats was involved in the theatre. I think it was a controversial place because it was a place for specifically Irish plays that promoted the culture of the Irish.
Today I got to sleep in and then head over to the Book of Kells. We were able to get in for free (thank goodness) since we're staying at Trinity which is where the Book is held. There was a boring little intro to how the books were made which led up to the actual manuscripts. They really are beautiful.
I can't imagine how long it took these monks to make these things and how meticulous they had to be. They were also very artistic. The thing that I was most impressed with was the Long Room Library.
Yeah, that's two stories of books right there. The library was filled with books by like 1850 so that's when they knocked the roof off and built the second story. You can't see or get near any of the books but you can still take in the impressiveness of the place. The had an interesting little exhibit going on consisting of books and things from different countries about the rise and fall of Napoleon. That wasn't too exciting except they did have a facsimile of one of Beethoven's original compositions. I can't remember the title of the symphony but it was something in E minor. That's not helpful...So tonight we get to go to another reading which I am psyched about. Did I mention how much I love theater?!
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