Tuesday 24 April 2018

Two and a half weeks into the trip and it’s still wet and miserable. Summer happened last Saturday. The sun came out. So did the shorts and short-sleeved tops, revealing an unsightly amount of bare lily-white skin. I’m still cringing.

We did manage to get out a couple of times, first to Dubllin Castle to see the art exhibition ‘Coming Home: Art & the Great Hunger’ a visual interpretation of the Famine with artworks from the 1830s to the present. 

The Great Hunger (1845-52) was the worst demographic catastrophe of nineteenth-century Europe. The conflicting need to remember and the desperate need to forget, result in an extraordinarily moving exhibition… Curated by Niamh O’Sullivan.

The second exhibition, ‘Caution! Fragile – Irish Glass – Tradition in Transition’ was at the National Museum of Ireland in Collins Barracks. This place was an absolutely fascinating treasure trove. We went for the glass exhibition but there was so much more. We spent hours there but still didn’t see all of the exhibits, about thirty, so I hope we get the chance to go back.

We also got to catch up with some family and friends.