Music & the Spoken Word at the Old Library, Trinity College, Dublin

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Lloyd Newell brought Music & the Spoken Word to Ireland when he visited the Long Room in the Old Library at Trinity College in Dublin. This historic library is a sight to astonish and amaze. The library, with its 200,000 volumes, has been in operation for almost 300 years. It houses some of Ireland’s most ancient and valuable books. The longest single-chamber library in the world, it is visited by more than a million people each year as they come to see the books and the beautiful woodwork, including the breathtaking barrel-vaulted ceiling. This Irish national treasure is known as Ireland’s front room because every visiting head of state comes here.

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Newell quotes philosopher and poet Henry David Thoreau when he wrote, “Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.” Scholars who studied and wrote in this library include Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Swift, Bram Stoker, and Samuel Beckett.

The library also houses the Book of Kells, an illustrated manuscript of the four Gospels of the New Testament created by monks more than 1,200 years ago. It was written entirely in Latin, and it features elaborate illustrations.

As Newell says, “Books, whether they be e-books or the old-fashioned paper-and-leather kind, invite you to slow your pace in this hectic world. The time you invest in reading a good book is richly rewarded with a heightened imagination, enhanced empathy, and the thrill of peering into the minds of some of the world’s best thinkers.”

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