A Night of History and Science Promised for Culture Night 2011 at TCD

Sep 22, 2011

As part of Culture Night 2011 Trinity College’s Library, which features the Book of Kells exhibition and the College’s Old Library, along with the Science Gallery, will open their doors free of charge to the public.  Offering a night of fun and atmosphere, this year’s Culture Night will kick off at 5pm on Friday September 23rd, and is the biggest the city has seen with over 150 venues taking part.  Since its establishment in 2006, Culture Night has grown year-on-year to include towns and cities across the country, and encourages the public to explore our country’s cultural heritage and introduce young people to the range of cultural treasures on show in the city.

Located in the heart of Trinity College Dublin, the Book of Kells is the centrepiece of the exhibition, Turning Darkness into Light.  Written around the year 800 AD, the Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript containing an intricately decorated copy of the four gospels.  Key words and phrases in the script are embellished with a range of intricate and lavish drawings symbolising religious messages for the worshipers at the time.  The Book of Kells is widely regarded as Ireland’s finest national treasure.  Two volumes of the Book will be on view, one opened to display a major decorated page, and one to show two pages of script.

Upstairs from the Book of Kells visitors enter the main chamber of the Old Library, the Long Room.  Stretching 65 metres in length, and housing over 200,000 of the Library's oldest books, the Long Room also boasts a collection of marble busts, Ireland’s oldest harp dating from the 15th century, and one of the only remaining copies of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic.  A current exhibition running in the Long Room, “The Best Doctors in the World are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman", explores the Library’s collections relating to 300 years of TCD’s School of Medicine and the history of medicine in Ireland.  The Long Room and Book of Kells exhibitions will open for Culture Night at 5pm and close to the public at 10pm.

Across from the Old Library, the Trinity Long Room Hub will play host to a Multilingual Soiree, organised by the School of Language, Literatures and Cultural Studies.  TCD staff, students and friends of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies will read their favourite poems and prose extracts in French, German, Italian, Irish, Polish, Russian, Spanish and in translation. Some may even sing!  The readings will run from 6.30 - 7.30pm.  All visitors are welcome!

A short stroll through the College campus will lead visitors to the Science Gallery.  ELEMENTS, the Science Gallery’s current exhibition run in collaboration with TCD’s School of Chemistry, invites guests to an interactive experience that promises to create a bang!  Explore the beauty of the elements, the design icon that is the periodic table and stir up some reactions in the atomic kitchen.  The exhibition is a visual conversation between art and science that draws on Dmitri Mendeleev’s iconic periodic table.  Linking directly with the International Year of Chemistry, the exhibition features a range of artworks, installations and experiments.  The Science Gallery will open for Culture Night at 5pm and close to the public at 11pm. 

Culture Night is an initiative of the Temple Bar Cultural Trust.  This year over 30 regions in Ireland will take part in the renowned late night of free culture which offers the public the opportunity to visit iconic cultural venues, buildings and spaces free of charge.