School Trip to Town

National Gallery and No. 29 Tour

On Friday, April 4th, 5th Class toured the National Gallery, then skipped across Merrion Square to visit No. 29, a restored Georgian era home. 

Gallery tour guide, Eliza McCormack met the class in the main hall, under Daniel McLise’s imposing Marriage of Strogbow and Aoife.  From Lady Lavery’s dresses to Paul Henry’s skyscapes, pupils had a chance to compare original paintings with their own classroom interpretations.

It’s hard to tell which pictures here are the originals.

The house at No. 29, Fitzwilliam St. belonged to a Mrs. Beattie in 1805, and has been restored to the state it might have been in at that time. While there, we saw the ‘gentleman’s privy’ which was used at the dinner table, and the ceiling shelf, where food was stored out of the reach of rats.

Pupil Comments on No. 29:

“It was a hard life for the maids”
“They only washed twice a year. Yeuch!”
“I saw someone I knew out a bus window.”