Dublin, Ireland

November 13, 2018

Dublin #

You best believe I made a stop in the city where I started my 6 week backpacking trip in 2016. Dublin! Another favorite. I wish I could live dozens of lives so I could truly soak in the beauty, history, and culture of every city on this trip. Not least of all, Dublin.

I stayed in an historic hotel that, with its winding halls and unpredictable layout, reminded me of “House of Leaves”. Fortunately, I didn’t get trapped.

Since I missed it in 2016 by about a couple hundred yards (facepalm), I made a more deliberate effort to seek out and visit the Quaternion plaque on Brougham (Broom) Bridge.

It says

Here as he walked by on the 16th of October 1843 Sir William Rowan Hamilton in a flash of genius discovered the fundamental formula for quaternion multiplication i2 = j2 = k2 = ijk = −1 & cut it on a stone of this bridge.

A columned stone church with a tall clock spire in Ireland, a yellow-green ambulance parked at its railings Shoppers and schoolgirls in uniform on a Dublin shopping street under a lit “Welcome to Dublin One” bow sign The Parnell Monument obelisk with its bronze statue and gold harp rises over a Dublin street corner under grey skies Stone Gothic church in Dublin with a scaffolded clock-tower spire, a white van passing on the street below at dusk

Empty Dublin street corner at night, a lit deli storefront and streetlights glowing over wet pavement Canal lock with a small weir beside a lane in Dublin, brick houses on the far bank and a walker on the path Paved canal towpath stretching toward a low sunset, hedges on the left and water with a green fence on the right Sunset light reflecting gold on a reedy canal in Ireland, grassy bank in front and dark clouds overhead Stone arch bridge over a Dublin canal beside a modern rail bridge, with a towpath curving underneath on a grey day Graffiti-marked Broom Bridge arching over the Royal Canal in Dublin, a stone plaque set into the wall by the towpath

Stone plaque on Broom Bridge, Dublin, marking where William Rowan Hamilton carved his quaternion formula in 1843 Curly-haired man taking a smiling selfie in front of Broom Bridge and the canal in Dublin Long reflecting pool of the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin, benches along both sides and the Irish flag flying beyond Children of Lir bronze sculpture of falling figures and rising swans above a leaf-strewn pool, Irish tricolor overhead Old-fashioned hotel sitting room with green velvet couches, red armchairs, a marble fireplace, and patterned red carpet