Trinity College Old Library Long Room
Trinity College in Dublin is famous
for housing the Book of Kells, but what impressed me more was the Old Library
Long Room. It was built between 1712 and 1732 and houses over 200,000 rare
books. Lining the center isle are
covered displays showing books of all kinds and artifacts from the library’s
history. One of the displays shows the dye and color pigment they would have
used to make the Book of Kells. Its enormously high ceiling and shelves after
shelves of books is quite beautiful in a sense. Architect Thomas Burgh
constructed the building in the Georgian architectural style. The Long Room
measures 209 ft 3 in long and 40 ft 3 in wide. He specially designed oak
bookshelves to be perpendicular to the long walls as to allow as much natural
light as possible to enter the chamber. In 1801, the library was given the
rights to a free volume of every book published in Britain and Ireland. Soon
after the bookshelves became full and more space was needed. In 1856, Benjamin
Woodward and Sir Thomas Deane were hired to work together and create more space
in the building. To add an upper gallery of bookcases they barrel-vaulted the
ceiling. The renovation cost the college 7,250 pounds in 1859. The Long Room is
an amazing thing to see and I even happened to find my name on one of the
statues in the room. That doesn’t normally happen a lot for me. The spiral staircase in the corner was
also pretty impressive. Unfortunately everything is roped off for its own
preservation. So as I walked along I just did my best to take in the
exceptional library the best I could.
The Golden Globe
Sitting in front of the Berkeley
Library is the sculpture titled, “Sphere within a Sphere.” It was created by
Arnaldo Pomodoro in 1982 and given as a gift to Trinity College. Some people
refer to it as the “Death Star,” but I myself call it the Golden Globe. The
geometrically shaped sculpture is a 3D sphere that sits on a raised square
platform. As its name says, it is a sphere inside of another sphere. The sculpture
is made to have open spots on the outermost sphere so people can see the inner
sphere. The values and shades between the shiny golden color and the dark
shadows cast throughout the spheres gives me a transforming technological vibe
to me. The shiny golden color comes from the sculpture being made of bronze.
Italian sculptor Pomodoro did a great job with this piece of art. I found this
globe to be rather intriguing as we saw it on our walking tour. I’m sure the
students who attend the school barely even notice it anymore but it definitely
adds a nice touch to the beautiful Trinity College Campus.
Céad Míle Fáilte
A hundred thousand welcomes in Irish is Céad Míle
Fáilte. The Cliffs of Moher welcomes anyone who wants to experience the
astounding beauty of these cliffs. I noticed first on arrival an interestingly
carved wooden statue representing the Cliffs of Moher. At the top sits a castle
and as you peer at the statue I start to notice the little things the artist
added to it. Two birds which I assume are puffins sit on one side, a little
fisher man sits in a little niche carved near the top, at the bottom a huge
wave is taking off with a surfer riding it out, and of course multiple ridges
throughout it representing the cliffs. The actual texture of the sculpture is
roughly smooth. Its rough because he carved so much into it but he smoothed
over his sharp edges because he knew people would be touching and leaning on
it. How deep he carved into it in certain spots allows shadows to fall certain
ways creating lighter and darker spots on the wood. Unfortunately I could not
find the artist or any history on this sculpture. It definitely adds a bit of
artwork to the cliffs site.
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