Today was Sunday, so we visited with the church of Christ at Knocklyon, a suburb of Dublin. As far as we could tell, this was the only congregation in the city. This meant we needed to be at the bus stop by 9:05 to get there for services at 10. So when we headed out, Jeff was on a mission, and I tried my best to keep up. He’s kind of a gazelle.
It was quite a long walk to get to the bus station, but we made it in time. For much of the ride, we were the only people on the bus, which was quite nice considering how crowded public transport normally is. From the point where the bus dropped us off to the church was a bit of a further walk, but we got there early enough to speak to some of the first comers. As we walked up to the building, a taxi deposited some other visitors who were from England. It was a very interesting day for the congregation, because in addition to the English visitors and us, there were two other couples from the U.S. The first regular member to greet us was named Angela, and she was called the church archivist. We gave our address, and she promised to write us. We had a good conversation with her and some other members before services began. I was pleased that I knew most of the songs, as that isn’t always the case when we visit other congregations. I was struck by how multicultural the church at Knocklyon was. We heard accents that sounded like they were from Eastern Europe and Africa in addition to the Irish. It was encouraging to find such diversity, and to experience how very friendly the people were.
After services, Jeff and I were trying to figure out how to get to our next bus station to take us on to the National Museum of Ireland – Decorative Arts and History. Several people were attempting to help us, and then someone recommended Angela to us, as she was most familiar with the buses. She was extremely kind, going out of her way to take us not only to our bus stop, but also rode with us to the Luas station (Dublin tram system) to see that we got going in the right direction. Angela clearly lives her Christianity — so generous, kind, and joyful — not to mention witty and clever.
We ate at O’Brien’s Sandwich Shop before boarding the Luas to the museum, and the sandwiches were pretty good, although our drinks were not cold at all. When we got to the museum, we were struck by how big it was. It’s housed in former barracks built to impress upon the Irish the might of the British army. The national museums in Ireland are free, so we were surprised at how few people were taking advantage of it, until we realized there was a sports match on, and a lot of people were caught up in that. We could have spent all day looking at the exhibits, but only stayed a couple of hours because we wanted to see some cathedrals as well. We walked through an exhibit of the curators’ favorite items from the various collections as well as an extensive exhibit on Irish silver and a special exhibit on the Irish in the military throughout history. We even saw a Tennessee connection in a display on the only Confederate regiment designated as “Irish” led by Randall McGavock out of Nashville. I suppose this is where McGavock Pike gets its name.
I began to get very tired at the museum and knew that we still needed to make it through the cathedrals, so I suggested to Jeff that we move on before it got too late. We took the Luas back to the city center, and walked a good while to Christchurch Cathedral. Like other cathedrals we’ve seen, it had an abundance of stained glass and intricate stone work. I also liked the colorful designs on the floor, and was appreciative that more areas were open to the public than at other churches we’ve visited. Jeff went down in the crypt, but said it was less like a crypt and more like a museum exhibit.
After the cathedral, we had wanted to visit St. Patrick’s Cathedral as well, but it started raining, time was running short, and I was just about worn out. We decided to save the church for later, and instead visited a Spar on the way back to our room. We picked up a frozen pizza and a few other things, then figured out how to use the European oven in the shared kitchen.
Tomorrow, we will visit the Book of Kells and some more museums — hopefully with a little less walking than we did today.