Guinness Factory and Book of Kells

Saint Mary's University

Tuesday 9th of December
Last night was one that the group has been looking forward to since we heard about it: a trip to the Guinness factory. It was a self-guided tour and we could spend as much time as we wanted. It started with a look at the 9000 years lease for the Guinness grounds. The exhibit itself took us through the ingredients of Guinness as well as the process itself. My favourite part was the advertising department. Here they had all the ads and commercials ever released by Guinness over the years. At the top there is the Gravity Bar, where the ticket to get in can be exchanged for a pint of Guinness or a soft drink. Here is where we could see the whole of Dublin though there was a better view from the elevator. After a quick stop in the gift shop we headed back.

Earlier this morning was a trip to see the famous Book of Kells at Trinity College. However, when we got there we learned that the actual Book of Kells was not there but was removed to do conservation measures to it, whatever that means. There was, however, a replica available to view. We decided to go see it anyway since a replica was better than nothing at all. There was a whole exhibit as well so it was no big deal. The exhibit was great and it had two videos playing showing how a book was put together such as the pages and the binding and the cover, etc. Another video showed how the pages were prepared and then the writing down on them. The replica showed four pages open to view and it was quite amazing the detail that went into all of this. After this room we went up some stairs to view the Long Room. Obviously it is a long room with many old books. We could only go about half the length of the room before the tour was over and we went down stairs to the gift shop.

After poking around for a while we headed back to the hostel so the actors could prepare for class. I needed to organize a few things and then head over to work in the office so that I could continue my work on this blog and the library. Who knew it was going to take this long?