Friends visit to Dublin
January 2007
Following on from the success of last year’s trip to New York The Friends of the National
Galleries of Scotland visited Dublin at the end of January. The bar was set high by our Big Apple
excursion and it was effortlessly vaulted again in 2007.
Our five days in Dublin flew by and we enjoyed a very warm Irish welcome, packing in a lot of
sightseeing and culture!
Highlights included guided tours of the Vaughan Bequest of Turner Watercolours at the National
Gallery of Ireland; the strangely familiar Millennium wing by the same architects who designed the
Museum of Scotland; the WB Yeats Exhibition at The National Library of Ireland; The Decorative
Arts & History Collection of The National Museum of Ireland housed in the evocative Collins
Barracks and a bracing historical walking tour of old Dublin.
We also enjoyed visiting Trinity College Library and the Book of Kells, the restored Georgian
splendour of Newman House, the little architectural gem that is the Casino at Marino, a reception,
tour, slideshow and dinner in the charming company of the Hon. Desmond Guinness at Leixlip
Castle and a tour of Dublin City Gallery (The Hugh Lane) which included a look at the organised
chaos of the Francis Bacon Studio which after his death in London, was painstakingly
reassembled in Dublin, the city of his birth.
Just in case the art and architecture had only fed our souls, superb meals were enjoyed at the
popular Pearl Brassiere, the elegant Wellington Room of the Merrion Hotel, at palatial Carton
House and the Michelin starred Chapter One restaurant. And we all had a very comfortable stay
in the Davenport Hotel just off elegant Merrion Square.
Thanks to Carol Brodie, Events Organiser from the Friends Advisory Committee, Gemma Forrest,
Friends Co-ordinator in the Development Department of the NGS whom who accompanied us
and Susan Bennett, Osprey Travel for organising such a superb visit. I wonder where they will
take us next?
Graeme McWilliams, Friend of the NGS