Jun7

Dublin Castle

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Tuesday, 28-October-2025

As I mentioned; having friends or family visit is a lovely excuse to see the touristy parts of my home city that I wouldn’t otherwise see.

We started with the Jeanie Johnson, which I hadn’t seen.
Then off to Trinity’s Old Library, which I had.
Lastly, the Dublin Castle itself, which I hadn’t seen.

Nicely book-ended, no?


Well, in case the photos don’t make it clear enough… Dublin Castle is fancy. Like… fancy-fancy. Not “Buckingham palace”, or “The Vatican” level, obviously… but still. Pretty damn fancy.

Jun5

Another view of the old library

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Monday, 27-October-2025

After visiting the Jeanie Johnson, a tourist adventure that I hadn’t been to, I took my Mom and Steve to a tourist adventure that I’ve been to more times than I can reasonably count – The Old Library at Trinity, and the Book of Kells exhibition that’s connected to it.

At this point, there’s really not anything else I can add to this: It was just as beautiful as it always has been… and, frankly, just as “we’re in the middle of renovating” as it always has been.

… True story – when I visited in 2023, the Old Library looked exactly the same as it does today. And in 2023, they were telling us that they were about to close the Old Library for renovations “within the next month, to stay closed for at least two years”.

Well… they didn’t. And it’s not. But thankfully, that means we got to visit again!

And the views? Just as beautiful as they’ve always been.

Jun3

The Jeanie Johnson with my Mom and Steve

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Monday, 27-October-2025


My Mom and Steve were visiting from Massachusetts!

It was the weeks around my graduation from Trinity, and having family visit was absolutely lovely – life was a bit hectic and chaotic, of course, but it always is and always will be, it seems. We were making the most of it, having a lovely time, and getting out and about as much as possible.

One of the fun things about having people visit is that it gives an excuse to go do the touristy things that’re hard to rationalize on your own… or at least it feels that way for me. One of those things was visiting the famine ship Jeanie Johnson – something that’d been on my list, but I never really had a good excuse to overcome the inertia and actually go do.

So… we went!

It was lovely, if a bit depressing of a story – this ship was one of the very few famine ships (ships carrying Irish emigrants away from the famine) that didn’t have anyone die on board during its many voyages. Of course, the tour included the context to the statement – explaining the positive conditions aboard the Jeanie Johnson, specifically in comparison to the horribly squalid conditions seen aboard the many other ships with less pristine track records.

Regardless, it was a valuable lesson – and a beautifully restored ship!