If history, archaeology and all that stuff appeals to you, you ought to pay a visit to the National Museum of Ireland (free admission!). Everything inside was very interesting, but I focussed particularly on the Scandinavian connections, of course, and one of them is the artistic legacy left over by those Nordic guys everybody calls ‘the Vikings’. Only a couple of examples here (and the photos are not good: photography is restricted, I could only rely on my iPhone).
The arm-shaped reliquary of St. Lachtin, dated around 1120 AD, a hollow wooden structure covered with richly ornamented bronze panels. It once kept inside an arm’s bone purportedly belonging to St. Lachtin.
And this processional cross, from roughly the same years, is undoubtedly one of the greatest treasures in the National Museum: the renowned Cross of Cong, again a series of bronce panels covering an inner wooden structure. They are exquisitely ornamented with a pattern following the Urnes style of Scandinavian art, already many years after the end of the Scandinavian settlements in Ireland (Dublin was a kind of exception for the remnant Scandinavian cultural influence, archaeologically attested up to roughly the mid-12th century, as noted on p. 122 of Dublin and the Viking World, the book commented upon in my previous posts on Dublin).
Dublin is the gateway to Ireland. It was for me in any case. And I have related news regarding my 2019 campaign, which I will reveal in my next post…
