My Summer Sojourn in Dublin: There’s More to Ireland Than a Pint of Guinness

People often ask, what is the best place I have visited so far? I have come to realize that often what matters is not the branding of a certain place, but the hidden charm of the place. It lies in its history, reflected in people’s warmth and the conversation one encounters, ranging from the taxi driver to total stranger and an enchanting meal we pick up on the road, and being immersed in the novelty of the place. 

This year, a friend suggested I attend the European Association of Anthropology (EASA) meeting in Barcelona last week. That’s how my three-week travel plan came into shape. I had spent time in England as a student but had yet to visit Scotland and Ireland. This trip’s highlight was visiting the Irish capital, Dublin, known as the Land of Guinness, the world’s most iconic beer.

Dublin was the last leg before I went to the conference in Barcelona. My flight from Edinburgh arrived in Dublin a little before midnight, but the place was buzzing with people like a carnival.

The taxi driver was a Bangladeshi who brought me to the hotel. I heard the weather had been wet and much cooler for the summer. The following day, the weather cleared up, and I took a bus to the city center, just a few stops from the hotel. The people on the street were terrific. The city looked multicultural, as people from all nationalities moved here for a living. I stumbled on a yellow umbrella walking tour on the streets. This free tour, available in every European city, was my grand discovery. The three-hour tour comprised about 20 people from Europe and a few Americans. The tour guide, in his mid-thirties, was a very energetic young man and happily allowed me to join, even though I had not signed up earlier. 

I learned about the famous Trinity College, the Irish intellectual jewel; the age-old Irish Whisky Museum across the college; the renowned pub culture (nowhere else had I heard of pub tours), and the National Museum of Ireland—Archaeology, with a massive collection dating back to the earliest human habitation of the island (with free entrance). Also, you stumble upon churches on every street — Liberties of Christ Church and St. Patrick’s Cathedral — the most well-known. The city’s biggest attraction was the bars and pubs of Temple Bar, the loud and lively energy of this neighborhood. 

Evenings are colorful. As the afternoon settles in, the pedestrian-only Grafton Street fills with fantastic street performers. Many of them are professionals gathering large crowds. People happily surround these performers as the usual hustle and bustle continues.

Visiting Ireland’s oldest university, the Trinity College, founded in 1592, was like experiencing a part of the ancient tradition. I took a  45-minute guided tour led by a student to peek into the history, and the stories of lust and greed sounded like Agatha Christie’s narrative. I also had the unique experience of visiting the “Book of Kells,” housed at the old library.

The Old Library at Trinity College is well known for the “Book of Kells” an ancient, superbly decorated manuscript in Latin of the life of Christ set out in the gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. The 9th-century manuscript is displayed in a carefully controlled environment in the Old Library, and experiencing the book and immersing in the beauty of the long room is a transforming experience. Only one book spread is visible to visitors at a time, but the pages are turned every eight weeks. 

In this age, when reading is confined to smartphones, over a million visitors annually go to see the book, and it is one of the main visitor attractions to Dublin. The college displays a digital presentation of the history and ethnography of the book that spans 1,200 years. It follows the book on its extraordinary journey from a monastery on the islands of Iona off the western coast of Scotland in about 561 over the Irish Sea to Kells and Dublin around 1653. It came to Trinity College in 1661.

The bookshelves in the long room from floor to the sky-high ceiling are empty, and one wonders why. From 1801 onwards, the Old Library was given the right to claim a copy of every book published in Britain and Ireland, and as a result, by the 1850s, its shelves had become completely packed. Since the building is facing conservation challenges, with pollution and dust accumulation taking their toll and an urgent need to improve fire protection and environmental controls, the centuries-old books were moved to a climate-controlled space. But it’s still worth a look for the 14th-century “Brian Boru Harp” — which one might recognize from the Guinness logo, an essential symbol of Dublin.

The long room, traditionally dominated by sculptures of men, has added sculptures of a few notable, world-renowned Irish women like scientist Rosalind Franklin; folklorist, dramatist, and theater founder Augusta Gregory; mathematician Ada Lovelace; and pioneering women’s rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft. It is refreshing to see the recent addition of these notable women’s contributions recognized in the long room.  

After two days, when I was leaving Dublin airport for Barcelona to catch a morning flight, I was surprised to see the busy activities. People were everywhere, and the airport was overcrowded. I asked the airport attendant why, and she pointed me towards the whisky shelves and a billboard, Guinness.

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Annapurna Devi Pandey teaches Cultural Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and was a postdoctoral fellow in social anthropology at Cambridge University, the U.K. Her current research interests include diaspora studies, South Asian religions, and immigrant women’s identity-making in the diaspora in California. In 2017-18 she received a Fulbright scholarship for fieldwork in India. Dr. Pandey is also an accomplished documentary filmmaker. Her 2018 award-winning documentary “Road to Zuni,” dealt with the importance of oral traditions among Native Americans.