My last post got me thinking about Hopkins even more than I usually do. I knew that he spent the last years of his life in Dublin teaching at University College, so I assumed that he must have died here and thus have been buried here. I checked into it and found out that he lies in Glasnevin Cemetery here in Dublin. With Hopkins heavily on my mind, I took a pilgrimmage to Glasnevin Cemetary. Here are a couple of pictures of my trip out there.
As a Jesuit Roman Catholic priest, Hopkins lies in the Society of Jesus (Jesuit) common grave in Glasnevin. This huge monument is not all to Hopkins by any means. I think that any Jesuit priest who dies in Dublin gets buried here. The markers to the left and right of the cross contain dates well into the late twentieth and even early twenty-first century. The wrought iron fence may obscure them, but two pots of flowers have been places before Hopkins name which is on the bottom tier of crucifix monument in the center (along with all of the other names from the Jesuits who died in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth).
Here is his name in that list. He is called "Gerardus Hopkins" in the Latin inscription. As you can see, he was only 44 when he died.
Several significant figures in Irish history over the last 150 years, along many, many less famous people now lie in Glasnevin. I think all in all the cemetery contains the mortal remains of some 1.5 million people. The whole place was full of these sorts of massive cross monuments. It's a really interesting place, but I was on my way to meet one of my buddies for a matinee so I had to hurry a bit more than I ordinarily would have liked. I'll be back there at some point.
This is the view to the east from the Millenium Bridge in the City Centre. That white bridge is the Ha'Penny Bridge which was built in 1819, so named because they used to charge a toll to cross there. The river is the Liffey, which flows through the middle of Dublin.
This guy is probably the strangest street performer on Grafton Street, a main shopping district just around the corner from Trinity. I've seen him several times. He has a sign (marker on cardboard; not pictured) that claims he's a practitioner of a medieval Japanese art form. As best I can tell, that art is singing/croaking and beating on a jagged stick with another stick that's slit at the end. Don't think I'm being insensitive on this one or belittling Japanese culture. I'm simply not buying that he's actually performing a Japanese art form of any sort. Among my many reasons for doubting his claim: he's wearing a flannel shirt with an Aztec or Mexican cloak draped over him. Another main one is the implausibility of any group of people regarding the sounds he's making as a vessel for artistic meaning. Obviously someone likes it because he had a fiver in his donations basket.
Well, that's all that I've got for today. Seth, Sam, and Clay (if you're out there), prepare to be defeated in the Great Transatlantic Jack O' Lantern Contest. I've found a pumpkin and am ready to roll.
