A Trip to Ireland

This is a post about my spring break trip to Dublin, where I was visiting the physics department at Trinity College. My first time in Ireland, and though I did not get to see the beautiful countryside, I was most impressed by Dublin city itself. There's a lot to see, the culture is preserved well and proudly, and the people are very friendly.

My tourism could be categorized into three classes:

1. Science: The great mathematician Hamilton was Irish and he is commemorated in several places (there's a building named after him on the Trinity campus). Most famous is Broom bridge on which he inscribed his formula for quaternions as it struck him. The original scratchwork is gone, but there's a plaque marking the event (and apparently an annual walk from a nearby observatory).

   
   

   Ireland has one Nobel laureate in Physics, Ernest Walton, who won in 1951, along with Cockcroft, for the first transmutation of atomic nuclei (they split lithium nuclei into helium particles). There is a metal sculpture on the Trinity campus celebrating his work. Fitzgerald, who suggested length contraction in relativity, was also an Irishman.

   
   

   The grand St. Patrick's cathedral (I missed St. Patrick's Day by a few days) is where Robert Boyle - often called the father of chemistry - is buried.

   
   

   Honorable mentions: There is a wonderful collection of scientific instruments and biological specimens (incl. the skeleton of a king cobra) in the National Museum; Viking skeletons in the National Gallery (no, I do not have a thing for skeletons); and some neat optical tricks in the Museum of Illusions.

2. Art and Literature: I visited the homes of Shaw and Wilde (apparently Hamilton used to attend parties at the latter), and a museum dedicated to Joyce. Samuel Beckett has a cool-looking bridge named after him and an equally cool looking convention center is located nearby.

   
   

   The National Gallery has a good collection of European masters (Titian, Caravaggio, Rodin, Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough). I found a number of extremely well-stocked bookstores in the city, both of mega- as well as middling size. The fact that there have been four Nobels in literature (Yeats, Shaw, Beckett, Heaney) from this small country is often traced down to the extensive reading habits of, and importance of literature to, the people.

   
   

3. History: The National Gallery and Dublin Castle have a lot of historical artefacts, with prehistoric samples dominating the former and the history of the Irish independence struggle in the latter. The room in the Castle where the Irish prime ministers are sworn in is really grand.

   
   

   The EPIC museum of Irish immigration shows a lot of connections to America (going both ways - Eamon de Valera, a president of Ireland, was born in New York; James Hoban, an Irishman, designed the White House).

   
   

   The Long Room at the Old Library at Trinity College is perhaps already familiar to readers as a famous screensaver. When I visited. it was being renovated (after Notre Dame caught fire, concern had grown about the fact that the Library was not fireproof). The famous symbol of Ireland, the harp of Brian Boru is also contained here, in addition to the perhaps equally famous Book of Kells, a lavishly illustrated copy of the New Testament.

Summary

The university campus is beautiful, and the area around it is buzzing with student energy; there are several beautiful parks in the city. I found the place very walkable, which is my preferred mode of discovering a place.

Among the things that I overlooked: this is also the land of Thin Izzy, U2, Van Morrison, Sinead O’Connor, etc. I did not have the time to track these musical greats, though, prompted by a friend, made sure I got a photo with Phil Lynott. I also could not find time to visit the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, where Schrodinger had worked for 17 years (he was invited by de Valera).

Next time!