Greetings from Dublin

Last day in Ireland! Our original plan was to visit the Book of Kells at Trinity College, but tickets were sold out when we tried to get them two days ago, and the truth of the matter is that the college has had so many antisemitic incidents since last October that I was really ambivalent about going there, hence having waited so long even to get tickets. Instead we enjoyed another day of nearly perfect weather outdoors. We ate breakfast at the Metro Hotel Dublin Airport restaurant, then drove through the tunnel under the city to the Irish Sea. 

We walked along a rocky coast with boats and lighthouses to Sandycove, where we went to the James Joyce Tower & Museum. The defense fortress dating back to the Napoleonic wars has several floors of exhibits about Joyce and his books, but the most exciting parts for me are the top of the tower, which is where the opening of Ulysses takes place, and the restored living space where in 1904 the author famously stayed before fleeing the premises when his friend, claiming to have seen a panther in a nightmare, fired a gun and nearly shot Joyce. 

Then we drove outside the city to Russborough House and Park, a Georgian estate near Blessington with a Palladian mansion, extensive gardens, and the National Bird of Prey Centre on the grounds. Most of the art collection of the original owners, the Earls of Milltown, is now in the National Gallery of Ireland, but its subsequent owners, Sir Alfred and Lady Clementine Beit, had their own extensive collection, much of which remains in the house along with a library, two grand pianos, and Beit's moviemaking equipment and travel films. 

We went on the tour of the architecture and interiors -- the ceilings! the clocks! -- and ate lunch in the excellent cafe. Then we walked around the enormous walled garden, with a lot of flowers blooming for October as well as free-to-visitors apples falling from the trees. We took the long path through the woods and around the sheep grazing under the Wicklow Mountains to enjoy the views and the beautiful weather; there's a fairy garden and a moated island with signs about the Irish fauna living there, including pine martens and barn owls. 

In the late afternoon, we visited the raptor center, which has a wide variety of birds in large outdoor enclosures (all raised by humans, so mostly friendly and eager to squawk at visitors, though the Asian wood owls were confused by the season into thinking it was time to breed and made angry clicking noises). We got to hold an Australian boobook owl whose sibling is going to be in the next season of Wednesday. Then we drove back into Dublin, dropped off our rental car, and took a bus back to the hotel for dinner and packing. Good Yom Tov!