more on my ireland trip

we're on day three, sunday june 13th, and our visit to glasnevin cemetery.  it was an easy bus ride to the cemetery on bus 40. We got off and crossed to the entry. The entry is dominated by the O’Connell Tower marking the family plot. We then headed to the left to see the Parnell Rock marking his grave. We continued to see Archbishop MaCabe’s sarcophagus and then on to the Jesuit community grave. Among those buried is Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889), an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose 20th-century fame established him posthumously among the leading Victorian poets,

I returned to the main area of Glasnevin to find the graves of the Father of the Irish Republic Eamon De Valera and founder of Fine Gael/Civil Warrior Michael Collins. We also found the symbolic grave of the Manchester Martyrs who remain buried in England.

We left the cemetery and took bus 40A to the National Gallery district. Our first stop in the Gallery was the exhibit of Thomas Roberts, a first-rate 18^th-Century landscaper. I was impressed with his landscapes, reminding myself of that century when artists left the studio to work in nature. I also noticed his horses, the one painting capturing my attention was that of a donkey standing in contrast to horses standing in the enclosure.

I enjoyed the work of neoclassicist James Barry, the portrait gallery with Joshua Reynolds and his portraits of Oliver Goldsmith and Charles Coote, Thomas Gainsborough and his portrait of James Quinn (also famous for Cottage Girl), Thomas Pooley and his portraits of Sir Philip Perceval, Thomas Hickey and his portrait of Edmund Burke, Joseph Patrick Haverty and his portrait of Father Matthew (also known for his Limerick Piper), Francis Grant and his portrait of Edward Nugent Leeson, 6th Earl of Milltown, Nathaniel Hone and his portrait of Jonathan Swift of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Sean O’Sullivan and his portrait of Douglas Hyde, Maeve McCarthy and her portrait of Maeve Binchy, James Hanley and his portrait of Ron Delaney, Mark Shields and his very formal portrait of Mary Robinson (the UN High Commissioner). The portrait I really liked was Bono by Louis le Brocquy, very modern, very minimalist.

I passed Joshua Reynolds’s Omai, the portrait of a Polynesian prince, I had seen earlier at Tate in London on my way to the Jack Butler Yeats collection. I very much enjoyed the early Yeats before his works became too expressionistic. Some of the early works included The Priest, Double Jockey, Before the Start.
In trying to get together with the gang, I ran across a rehearsal by violinist Elizabeth Cooney and 8-string guitarist Redmond O’Toole for a concert later that afternoon. They were playing some J. S. Bach. We visited the gift shop for some postcards and then headed for the Merrion Square exit and for a park walk-about.

Now managed by Dublin City Council, it contains a statue of Oscar Wilde, whimsically nicknamed as the fag on the crag, who resided in No 1, Merrion Square from 1855 to 1876, many other sculptures and a collection of old Dublin lamp standards. Until about 50 years ago, the houses in the square were largely residential, but today most of them are used for office spaces.
we left the park and headed for Temple Bar and an early dinner at Oliver Sir John Gogarty. The pub was named after Oliver Joseph St John Gogarty (August 17, 1878 - September 22, 1957) who was an Irish physician and ear surgeon, poet and author, one of the most prominent Dublin wits. He was also a football player for Bohemian F.C. and an Olympic bronze medallist for literature. He is remembered as the inspiration for Buck Mulligan in James Joyce's novel Ulysses. We met Gogarty, well at least his bronze figure.

We headed for the less noisy restaurant and stayed away from the pub. I ordered corned beef and cabbage for my traditional Irish meal. Thank God I had also ordered a pint of Guinness porter for the meal itself was awful. The beef was tough, really tough. I think this search for authentic traditional food will end soon. There is an elfin image that watches over the restaurant.
We walked back to the hotel and went to St. Mary’s the pro-Cathedral for a photo op of the Murdered Mayors statue, aka the Dublin Martyrs, Mayor Francis Taylor and his grandmother-in-law Mayoress Margaret Ball.
we returned to the hotel to prepare for our trip across the island tomorrow.