After the Covid Lock-down, we are now relaunching our public walking tours, focusing on exclusively outdoor tours for July and August, with different tour routes on new dates. We’ll also be trialing new microphone and earpiece technology, to allow superior sound and allow more social distancing, to keep you safe. The extra cost of this… Read More Public Walking Tours, relaunched!
I am unable to resist posting a few photos, showing some of my own highlights Open House Dublin 2106.. Saturday: First to the lovely Art Deco Kodak factory in Rathmines. (original building 1930, by Donnelly, Moore and Keatinge) Unfortunately access was unexpectedly denied for the planned tour on Saturday morning of the interior. But we still… Read More My highlights Open House Dublin 2106
Looking at Art | the Art of Looking. Our tour at the National Gallery of Ireland is “How to Read a Painting”. That title, and our approach is prompted by a concern that less of us today retain the inclination, patience or perhaps the confidence to consider or interpret old master paintings. If that’s… Read More How to Read a Painting, evening tour, Nat Gal Ireland, 6pm 14th April.
This post is for all visitors and was inspired by my students. They often tell me they find it hard to get reliable information on the most interesting places to see here. This sounds a bit unlikely at first? With Ireland’s long-established tourism, you’d imagine we’re bursting at the seams with reliable, objective lists and maps,… Read More Arran’s Top Dublin Sights & Visits.
These toy soldiers appear in the same exhibition as the First World War recruitment posters from recent post, although clearly the uniforms and equipment date from much earlier. They come from France, currently on loan to Collins Barracks from the Musée l’armée, at the famous les Invalides of Paris. But as you see, these particular… Read More Secret Soldiers: Exiled Heroes.
In a series of three seperate earlier posts, we’ve looked at the history of Dublin’s cathedral of Saint Patrick’s, from the early Christaina era, in one post, to the Viking ear in another, and finally to the Anglo-Normans, and “the story of the two cathedrals”. It’s all a long, immense, complex web of religious and… Read More Saint Patrick’s History, 4: Richard Boyle, earl of Cork, power, politics and intrigue in Elizabethan & Stuart Ireland.
As an architecture and history obsessive, I often discuss with my students their favorite Dublin visits and “sights”. The great medieval Cathedral of Saint Patrick’s came up in class conversation the other day. I was a little mystified, not to say horrified, when one of my students shrugged her shoulders, and said it was “so-so” ! … Read More Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, my favourite place in the world.
Following on from Saint Brendan in our previous post; another stone carving, from another church. This time from the lovely and medieval St Nicholas of Myra church, right in the centre of Galway city. As you see, this stone carving above shows an angel. But this particular angel is unique, for reasons shortly to… Read More Answer Picture 3… Saint Nicholas Church Galway.
a stone carving from a capital that adorns a column in Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Loughrea, Co Galway. The Cathedral was designed by William Byrne and funded by the wonderful Edward Martyn, Catholic land-owner, Humanist, scholar, patron, and playwright. Martyn was an absolutely vital figure in Ireland’s Gaelic Revival, a hugely important benefactor to the arts. Among his many… Read More St Brendan’s Cathedral & St Brendan Navigator.
We asked readers to try and identify four architectural details, from buildings around Ireland. If you have not seen the quiz yet, you can find it here. Or, if you just want the answers, and a bit of additional detail, here’s the answer to picture 1. (below) This fierce and fabulous sea creature is… Read More Answer 1… Dolphin House, & the influence of John Ruskin.
Arran Q Henderson 