In late May, our office hosted a meeting of all the intellectual property offices in the EU, together with the Irish IP office. The meeting was held at a medieval castle called Kilkea Castle, converted into a nice hotel and golf resort, near Kilkenny. The subject of the meeting was the new strategic plan for our office for the next 5 years, of which I am the main drafter, so that is why I was there. Of course, as always I took advantage of the opportunity to enjoy Ireland on my own a bit. The meeting was starting on Monday evening, so I flew to Dublin on Sunday morning and used the day and Monday morning to do some sightseeing and meet up with a friend and fellow Leica Users Group member Douglas.
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I landed in Dublin around lunchtime on Sunday, went to my hotel to check in, and made my way to the centre of Dublin. I walked to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where I was going to meet up with Douglas. On the way, I crossed the River Liffey. This is the O’Connell Bridge in the foreground:
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I passed the Christ Church Cathedral. People were enjoying the good weather in front of the church:
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I met up with Douglas and we went inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral to have a look:
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It is a magnificent church where one can learn a lot about Ireland’s history under British rule:
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As I often do when visiting churches, I lit a candle for my mother, one in my name and one on behalf of my sister:
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A nice part of visiting a place like St. Patrick’s Cathedral is that one learns a lot about history. For example, the fact that this memorial plaque from the early 18th century is in English and not in Latin bears witness to the English dominance of Ireland at that time, to the extent of repressing the Catholic faith and forcibly replacing it with Church of Ireland, part of the Anglican church. Although today Ireland is predominantly Catholic, St. Patrick’s Cathedral is still part of the Church of Ireland:
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The Boyle Family Momument, first erected in 1630, containing many figures of the family, including the youngest (the small effigy at bottom centre), Robert Boyle, a founder-member of the Royal Society in 1660 and whose law about the pressure and volume of gas is something we all still learn in high-school chemistry (the actual grave of Robert Boyle, who died in 1691, is in London):
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After the cathedral visit, Douglas and I went to a nearby pub, of course, to engage in another Irish ritual:
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After saying goodbye to Douglas, I walked around the centre of Dublin the rest of the evening, including a delicious dinner at the restaurant The Winding Stair, a highly recommended eatery on the banks of the Liffey. This also gave me the opportunity to take in one of Dublin’s iconic sights, the Ha’penny Bridge:
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I woke up early on Monday morning and started the day with a long walk around the nearby Phoenix Park, billed as the largest park in Europe, and I can certainly believe that. It is a huge, wonderful urban oasis:
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I went to the centre of Dublin to visit a museum that sounded interesting. Along the way, as always, I looked for amusing details in the urban space, such as mural of a man peeing in a corner:
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A more dignified detail, a plaque commemorating the first performance of Handel’s Messiah in 1742:
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Old-style Guinness advert:
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The museum I went to visit was Chester Beatty, an incredible collection of religious art and ancient books. This is the place to see fragments of the Bible written in the early centuries of Christianity, or beautiful early copies of the Koran:
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Chester Beatty also contains lots of beautiful Japanese art, think of it as centuries-old manga:
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In the afternoon, I took a bus to Kilkea Castle where I was going to spend the next 3 nights. The castle is very impressive, dating to the 12th century. Today it is a luxury golf resort, with rooms in the castle itself and in surrounding cottages:
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I settled in with a pint at the clubhouse bar and entertained myself looking at the people practicing their putting, with varying degrees of success:
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I then walked to the main bar of the castle, and found several heads of IP offices sharing some pints and laughs. Of course I joined them in this worthwhile activity. Here is James, head of the Irish IP office, and Edyta, president of the Polish Patent Office:
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Agris, head of the Latvian Patent Office, dressed for the occasion:
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The meeting officially kicked off with a dinner in the evening, including a hands-on workshop on pulling pints of Guinness. Sandris, our director of international cooperation, was quite proficient:
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We spent all day Tuesday in serious mode, from 8:30 to 18:00 in meetings, with a short lunch break. The only photo I took during the day was this cute rabbit figurine seen while walking from my cottage to the main castle building:
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But in the evening we had a gala dinner. Someone asked my colleague Maria to hold her glass, so I took this photo and titled it “Maria is multitasking”:
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The dinner was very nice, with a harpist providing the background music. It was a beautiful sound:
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Wednesday morning the meeting continued, but we finished at lunchtime and were then taken by bus to the town of Kilkenny. We started the tour by visiting the Smithwick’s brewery. The beer is actually brewed elsewhere, but the old brewery is in effect a beer museum and a shrine to the family, very well done. We waited a bit for the tour to start:
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Juxtaposition:
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Our guide did a very good job explaining the noble art of beer brewing:
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The smelling room–various intermediate stages of beer production:
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The brewery tour ended, of course, in the on-site pub. The beer is called Smithwick’s in Ireland but everywhere else it is branded Kilkenny:
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After the brewery visit, we walked to a beautiful small park and small hotel called the Butler House, where we enjoyed a very luxurious afternoon tea:
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Then we had a guided walking tour of the town, ending at St Canice’s cathedral. My colleagues Marian and Lenka, with Marian sporting her newly purchased souvenir glasses:
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I took a portrait of James, looking very Irish here:
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Inside the cathedral we had dinner, followed by a performance of Irish music and dance. It was rather curious to have such an event in a church, but on the other hand it is a way for the cathedral to raise money for the upkeep of the medieval building and other work:
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On Thursday morning I spent the morning editing the strategic plan based on the comments received during the meetings, and then I took the bus to Dublin airport and flew home. No more photography that week.
I have also uploaded dedicated galleries for Dublin and Kilkenny.