As with most every city I've visited, one of the highlights of my trip to Dublin was touring the churches. The two primary cathedrals in Dublin are Christ Church, which is Catholic, and St. Patrick's, which is the only Protestant Cathedral in Dublin. Christ Church Cathedral dates back to around 1030, and took its present shape in about 1186. A major, seven year restoration of Christ Church was undertaken in 1871 by George Edmund Street, a well-known English architect of the time who also designed the Royal Courts of Justice in London. One of the walls in the nave has been out of perpendicular by 18 inches since the collapse of the roof and another wall in 1562. The crypt in Christ Church is the oldest structure in Dublin, and is atypical of most crypts in that it stretches the entire length of the cathedral. St. Patrick's cathedral sits near a holy well where St. Patrick is said to have baptisted Irish converts. A Celtic church dedicated to St. Patrick had existed on the site for some time, but the basic layout of the current building was begun between 1191 and 1270. The cathedral has undergone numerous restorations through the centuries, due to damage by fires, floods, and collapses. The site of St. Patrick's was once an island in the River Poddle, which is now diverted underground, thus flooding is a problem up to the present day. In contrast to the large crypt in Christ Church, St. Patrick's has no basement due to the high water table, approximately 7.5 feet beneath the floor. Jonathan Swift was Dean of St. Patrick's from 1713 until his death in 1745. He is buried in the cathedral, along with his friend Stella. Also of note is that the premier of Handel's Messiah in 1742 was given jointly by the choirs of Christ Church and St. Patrick's.

Late Friday afternoon, I set off for my most anticipated stop during my time in Dublin: the Guinness Storehouse. For those of you who haven't seen the light, or just don't drink beer, Guinness is saturated with nitrogen and a small amount of carbon dioxide, rather than carbon dioxide alone, which gives it less of a bite than carbonated beers. Lest you think that it goes down easy, it is a heavier beer called a stout, and the production of Guinness uses 10 times the hops of other stouts, so it has the reputation of being a "meal in a glass." In 1759, Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease for St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin, which was vacant at the time. He once vowed to defend the brewery to the death, when the city of Dublin claimed he was using more water than allowed, even though his water source was seperate from the city's main water supplies. The Guinness Storehouse was built in 1904, in the new "Chicago" skyscraper style, and was the tallest building in Dublin at that time. It is now a museum on the production of Guinness. Also of note is that one of Guinness's employees, William Gosset, better known under the pseudonym "Student," was responsible for developing Student's t-distribution and t-test. Yes, this is the same company who publishes the famous Guinness Book of World Records.

On Saturday, I took a tour through the Wicklow mountains, south of Dublin, which are the source of Guinness's spring water. The weather that day was foggy and rainy, but we did get enough of a break in the rain to visit St. Kevin's monastic site, which was built between 500-600. This is the only surviving monastic site in Ireland, with some parts of the buildings still standing. The tower, around 70 ft tall, served both as a secure place from intruders and as a marker for pilgrims walking through the land, since the tall tower could be seen from far off. On Sunday, I spent most of the day at Trinity College, which has a long and rich history, with alumni such as Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, and Samuel Beckett. Trinity College was first incorporated by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592, but a university had been created on that site by the Pope in 1311. Women were first admitted to Trinity College in 1904, after the death of George Salmon, who had been provost since 1888. He had said that women would be admitted over his dead body, and he did end up being buried near an entrance to the campus. From the campus tour, I also found out that Trinity College has some old campus laws which have yet to be repealed, one of which is that a student is allowed to carry a sword on campus. It also has its own superstitions, once of which is that a Trinity undergraduate is doomed to never graduate if he or she walks under the Campanile, the bell tower. Another point of interest at Trinity College is the Book of Kells, which is an illuminated, or ornately illustrated, version of the four Gospels transcribed by Celtic monks around 800. This can be seen at the Trinity College Library.