Dublin: Oct. 12-14, 2018

I visited Dublin for the first time in about 25 years. The city has dramatically changed.

Historical places attract tourists as they did more than two decades ago.

The Trinity Collage is one of the must-see places in Dublin’s old town. Johnathan Swift, Oscar Wild and many other famous figures graduated this university. Its library and The Book of Kells are especially famous. I found many tourists making a queue in the rain.

The Temple Bar Street, near the River Liffey, has been the busiest amusement and drinking area for centuries. The area has been renovated in the last two or three decades.

Ireland has experienced remarkable economic developments since the 1990s. Many leading financial institutes as well as IT giants opened their offices, including their European headquarters, in Ireland. Many of such offices locate in the newly-developed harbor areas.

Google opened its new offices in 2016. About 7000 people are reported to be working in the offices.

Facebook’s HQ is a huge building. (See the top photo)

Citi group’s office stands along the River Liffey. Jeanie Johnston Tall Ship, which transported 2500 Irish people from here to the U.S. in the mid-19^th century is placed in front of Citi’s office.

More than 1 million people died of starvation between 1845 and 1852 when Ireland had the potato famine. Statues of famine people are placed along the river. (See also the 2nd photo)

Messages are displayed in the curtains behind the monument. They include: “Poverty is not natural, it is man-made” and “Leave no one behind.” (See the 3rd photo)

The Emigration museum, not the immigration museum, was open in 2016 near the monument. In the time when anti-immigration is popular in the U.S. and many other European countries, Ireland’s moves to focus on emigration and sympathy for poor people are impressive.