On Thursdays I have my History, Politics, and Artistic Expression in Ireland class (long title) with professor Tommy Graham. He's really cool and it's a cool class, so far we've mostly gone on walking tours/field trips around Dublin while he lectures simultaneously. This past Thursday we went to the Irish National Gallery (I'm not sure that's the right name, basically it was a fine arts museum) and the Museum of Natural History. The fine arts museum was okay, pretty small in comparison to most museums I've been to in the States, but they had some cool stuff by modern/recent artists. The Museum of Natural History was basically like the taxidermy section of Tom's Tropicals. Our professor said it hadn't been changed since 1916, and mostly it consisted of just stuffed dead animals. And not even ones that had been killed and stuffed for scientific purposes or to be put in a museum; animals that were like taken from people's homes and whatnot. They were poorly done in a lot of cases, and the bullet holes were visible. Rather disturbing. The cases were all dusty and they weren't arranged in any particular way except like species, and I don't think they were really even labeled with information besides the name. The bummer was we weren't supposed to take pictures in there, but if I go back (it's free anyway) I probably will because it was so bizarre.
Right now I am sitting at the bottom of the stairwell of my apartment building because I can't get on the wireless in the building. I have to sit right by the door to pick up the office wireless signal, and it's rather cold and the floor is stone and hard. The internet situation here is so crappy. Ughhhh...
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1 comment:
Great photos, Alison! I really enjoyed seeing them and reading your blog - especially the part about the "Tom's Tropicals" of Dublin. Coincidentally, I just saw/read some of an article in the Irish magazine we get about the same museum. It was obvious from the few pictures it showed that some of the specimens were a little over-ripe, rather old or perhaps just a tad carelessly taxidermed.
Too bad about the internet signal. I can sympathize with you on that one. Keep up the good work on the blog and keep enjoying Dublin!
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