We’ve had a few more explorations around Dublin with my parents. It’s nice knowing they will be back again for more visits, so we don’t have to squeeze everything in on this trip!

One of the things my dad really wanted to see was the Four Courts, which is…exactly what it sounds like…the courthouse for the four courts in Ireland (and Dublin). District court, circuit court, high court, and the Supreme Court. Until 2010, it also housed the criminal courts, but then these moved to a new building a bit further up the river.

While walking around inside the Four Courts, you can see the barristers in traditional black robes, some of them wearing wigs. We saw a fairly equal number of male and female barristers. It was interesting to me how accessible the courts were, especially the Supreme Court. There was a metal detector to go in the building, but it seemed like you could pretty much just walk right into the actual courtrooms. I’m not sure if the US Supreme Court is quite as accessible.

In a similar vein, we went to visit the National Museum of Ireland, which is right next to the parliament building, and it seemed like the parliament also had minimal security. Just interesting to note the differences between here and home. I’ve been trying to learn a little more about how the government works here, and I learned that the parliament is made up of two houses, the Dail (made up of elected representatives) and the Seanad (Senate), which are appointed by various panels. The Seanad must examine bills sent to them by the Dail, which ensures that legislation doesn’t get passed too hastily — kind of a checks and balances system. The picture below of the building with an Irish flag on top is the parliament.

We didn’t actually go inside the parliament, but did go in and visit the National Museum right next door. There are several branches of the National Museum, all of which have free admission, but the one we went to was the archaeology branch, and it was super interesting! There is so much history here in Ireland, which I really had very little concept of before getting here. The museum is home to over 2 million artifacts (I don’t think they’re all on display though!) found around Ireland, dating from 7000 BC to the 20th century. It has amazing collections of prehistoric gold artifacts, metalwork from the Celtic Iron Age, Medieval ecclesiastical objects and jewelry, and loads of Viking artifacts. You can get a sense of early medieval Ireland and the overlap of the pagan and emerging Christian traditions. There’s also really fascinating archaeology surrounding what’s known as “the bog bodies.” These are 4,000 year old bodies that have been completely preserved within the “bog” — super dry turf that somehow prevented the bodies from decomposing. Crazy!

The architecture of the museum is gorgeous too, with a rotunda roof with beautiful robins egg blue inside. I was also pleased that Isaac actually tolerated and seemed to enjoy the museum. We got a map for him and he decided to kind of make it into a treasure hunt to find some of the different things on the map. It gave me hope that we could possibly visit other museums with him when we visit other cities/countries. Even though most of the museum is Irish archaeology, they did have an ancient Egypt exhibit and so Isaac really liked seeing the mummies (for some unknown reason he kept calling them the mumbling mummies :)).

After our museum visit, we went for high tea at the Shelbourne Hotel, a really nice elegant and historic hotel across from St Stephens Green. The Irish constitution was drafted here in 1922, and numerous stars and dignitaries, including Michelle Obama and her daughters, have stayed here. It’s known as the quintessential tea experience in Dublin. Tea is served in the Lord Mayor’s Lounge, so named because it’s a tradition for every Lord Mayor of Dublin to come for tea here on the afternoon of his inauguration.

The tea included delicious sandwiches, scones, treats, and of course…tea! Isaac had the children’s tea, which had a milkshake, kid friendly sandwiches, and various cookies and brownies and hot chocolate. It was total indulgence for all of us, and a memorable experience!