Day 4: A very dead, but present, history, and a lively present

Fun in the streets, mummies in the museum

A young person plays in soap suds that resulted from some mischief after someone put detergent in a fountain in front of the Irish National Bank adjacent to the houses of parliament.

One of those all-too-common rainy days limited our activities, but whether you're indoors or out, you can't escape Irish culture and history in Dublin.

We went to the nearby national museums of natural history, archaeology and art to find a well-preserved past, and then enjoyed the sights and sounds of a vibrant present.

The highlights of the archaeological museum are ancient gold works and reproductions, but the stars of the show are the "bog men," 2,500 year-old mummies preserved in peat-moss bogs. Several have been discovered around Dublin in recent years, usually by accident.

The well-preserved, and well-coifed,  head of a 2,500-year-old 
mummy shows Irish pride  in red hair existed centuries ago. 
The lower half of this bog man was lost
as he was discovered by accident as
workers harvested peat for fuel about 30 years ago.

The hand of a bog man reaches across the ages. He was beheaded and his body mutilated, but his well-manicured hands indicate he was a nobleman of the pre-Christian era.

After the archaeological museum, we visited the natural history museum, a Victorian-era curiosity shop stuffed to the rafters with preserved animals in jars, mounted beasts, skeletons and reproductions. Among the unusual exhibit was an extinct Tasmanian wolf, a carnivore more closely related to the kangaroo or the oppossum than coyotes and dogs, pickled human brains, Neanderthal skulls and century-old butterfly collections under heavy covers to preserve them.

Animal heads, skeletons and century-old wood-and-glass exhibit cases cram the insides and line the walls of the Irish Natural History Museum.

The Irish elk was the largest member of the deer family.
It had  antlers spanning 12 feet.
Archaeologist believes early people helped bring it to extinction.

We followed the natural history museum visit to the national art gallery, which has a nice, but not overwhelming, collection of old and modern masters from Brueghel to Rembrandt to Goya to Picasso. The gallery has dedicated significant space to Jack Yeats, brother of William Butler, a modernist painter hailed as Ireland's greatest visual artist of the mid 20th century.

Goya's portrait of an actress of his day
bears a striking resemblance to the modern Spanish 
actress Penelope Cruz.

We finished the day approaching the modern era at Gogarty's restaurant and pub, founded in 1835, making it a relative newcomer to the scene. We learned at the archaeology museum that the area around the restaurant was the site of the original 9th-century viking settlement that was the nucleus of the modern city. Gogarty's features 14 hours of daily Irish music, usually familiar Irish ballads.

Irish folk singers keep the crowd at Gogarty's hostel and restaurant entertained. The establishment keeps the music going 14 yours a day.

After a good long walk, we ended the day comparatively early. For tomorrow we go to Armagh,  and my work begins.