Jonty travels…

The places I enjoyed the most in Dublin, there were a number of interesting museums to explore.

The Little Museum of Dublin
Starting with one of the newest, which tells the history of the city entirely through objects donated by the public. A wonderful idea which could be replicated elsewhere. It’s housed in a Georgian townhouse on St. Stephen’s Green, visited through a half hour tour with time after to explore the rest of the exhibits.

National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology
Housed in a wonderful Victorian building, with a grand ceiling, there were few standout sights in the archaeology museum, but it was a joy to explore, with lots of side rooms and a broad ranging collection.

National Museum of Ireland – Natural History
Another Victorian era museum, and untouched since then which was a large part of the appeal. It was filled to capacity with animals, stuffed and / or bones of, along with plenty of small people running around.

National Gallery of Ireland
Home to a decent selection of art works, including the national portrait collection, the gallery is housed in a somewhat confusing series of older buildings joined together in the 1990s by well judged modern additions.

National Library of Ireland
Closed on Sundays when I visited, but the exhibition on Yeats was open and nicely displayed.

Not strictly a museum but Trinity College had grand architecture as expected, and the Trinity College Old Library was home to the Long Room, a quite spectacular, if extremely busy, space housing some 200,000 of the oldest books in their collection.