Archeology Museum, Irish Language and Riverdance

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

A really full day today!  We began with the Archeological Museum, housed in a former private mansion:

The collection is remarkable, and we could have spent the day.  As it was, two hours had to suffice; most of the artifacts had been discovered in bogs which preserved them with lots of tannic acid and no oxygen.  Some treasures which impressed us included a dugout canoe from 2500 BCE:

There was lots of gold including this necklace dated 1200 BCE:

And this gold collar from 800 BCE:

Humans were found in the bog, most likely victims of ritual sacrifices or other kinds of ritual killings:

Following the visit to the museum we took a “Viking” duck boat tour of the city and part of the waterfront:

  

Part of the experience is wearing a Viking cap and screaming at the pedestrians:

We then had a wonderful time at an Irish language school where we ate a box lunch and had a great lesson in the Celtic languages with special attention to Irish.  The children learned how to say a few words, and how to write their names   It was very well done.

Back to the hotel, out for an early dinner, and then Riverdance. This was a mixture of hokey and remarkable dancing, mostly very well done.  Intriguing episodes related Irish dance to Flamenco, to American tap dance, and to the Appalachian and Western music and dance of the USA.  We all enjoyed it very much; we just had to ignore some of the overdone narration and background videos.

Tomorrow is our last day!  We’ll fly home on Thursday.