The dedicated curator

During our trip to Ireland we experienced the exciting culture of the Irish writers.
By Rasmus W. Nordskilde & Kristoffer Lyduch

Published April 14, 2010

________________________________

A door made in old, Greek style is not a very common sight in Dublin. On each side is a pillar, and the top of the door is shaped, so it looks like the beginning of a roof of a temple like Acropolis. Though it is not a very common sight, you are still able to find one. It is located on Gt. Denmark St. ,in the middle of a red wall out of bricks.

On the outside the museum does not look like something special at all. In fact, if it wasn’t for the sign above the door, you probably wouldn’t notice it.

     As we enter the door, it is like travelling 50 years back in time, because the furniture is old and there are pictures on the wall. We order a guided tour, and proceed to the cafeteria and the gift shop in the back of the building where we are supposed to wait for thirty minutes.

After a while our curator, Robert Nicholson, shows up and our guided tour begins. He leads the whole group into a room on the left side of the building. The room itself is a strange combination. On one hand it doesn’t seem impressive, but on the other hand you can see that the ceiling is high off the ground.

All the way around the room exhibition cases are placed and the same goes for the middle of the room.

The exhibition cases are filled with different things that used to belong to the famous writers; glasses, typing machines, books, you name it.

The curator begins to tell us everything he knows, and that is truly a lot. He tells about the writers with such passion that you cannot avoid getting captured by his story. As he begins his very slow walk around the room, his speech is hypnotizing. Before you know it, you step into the next room. This room is a bit bigger, but other than that, it is the same as the other room. Explaining about Yates, Joyce and Oscar Wilde the tour goes on. Proclaiming one genius after another, our fanatic curator takes us through the Irish Writers´ history. Describing what they did, why and where we get a brilliant overview of the Irish writer’s storyline. But as the tour slowly comes to an end, we take the spiral staircase to the first floor, entering the old library room, where all books for which there was no room in the exhibition are contained.

When we have seen this library, we proceed to the last and most impressive room of the writer’s museum. This room is fantastically decorated with crystal chandeliers and nicely formed stuccos. The old piano, on which James Joyce spent his mornings playing and where he received his appointments of the day stands as a proud memory of the genius author. So when Robert Nicholson again leaves us on our own, the dead objects he made come alive and thrilling are once again lying silently in the exhibition cases. And as we slowly walk out of the old door, into the 21st century, we all feel just a bit stunned and fascinated by the old Irish writers.