And here they are…

It’s a super-quaint nineteenth-century cabinet museum, where almost everything is catalogued and exhibited in glass cases. There is no VR here, no animatronic T-Rexes, no interactive installations or contrived ‘Did You Know?’ infographics in Comic Sans.

I’m convinced that some of the furniture is of similar — or greater — cultural and historical significance than the artefacts on display. Certainly, the interior of the museum — its design, proportions, echoes, lighting, and layout — reflects an important piece of human heritage in its own right.

It feels like this is a quirkily happy side-effect of decades-long chronic underfunding. The museum, never having been modernized, stands largely untouched and unchanged for more than a century, as if preserved in amber.

Of course, Dublin being Dublin, there was ‘fun’ to be had in the nearby souvenir stalls. Down the street, our species’ evolutionary history was depicted in t-shirt form:

Ha, ha, ha — you see? It’s hilarious.

Oh well, at least the institution itself is a definite treasure trove, if not a treasure in its own right. The museum itself belongs in some kind of museum.

Go there. Now.

Before they ‘modernize’ it.