#i also believe its cannon that Luke is a big time animal lover so you know it hurts

[thewriterowl]

do you think baby luke cried when owen made him shoot womprats that were getting into the farm?

100% did. Like he cried often the first few times. Then, Owen took his hand and led him over to some stones to sit on, sharing some chilled bantha-milk that are normally stored for special holidays and occasions, and spoke to him;

"Kid, I don't want you to ever think you need to apologize for crying over taking a life. From these vermin to the dragons in the dunes to, well, anything else this blasted scorched earth may make you do. We kill to survive here and, cause of that, we know the value of life better than many of those in the spoiled core worlds. Kill when you have to. The rats come close? Send warnings. As long as they don't destroy us, we won't destroy them. But they're smart enough...when they pass that line, you gotta make a call. And you will need to learn to live with that--cause your aunt and I want you to survive."

Owen talks to him about the beauty and ugliness of life, of survival, and how these things maybe should haunt a person, to ensure they still whatever truly is a soul, but that making a choice to protect isn't something to underestimate and can be the hardest moment, where you may falter for a second or maybe it doesn't hit you until later what you did, in your life.

I for sure think Luke as an child, maybe into his teens, felt so much guilt killing these creatures who are surviving on a planet ruined long ago by people like him.

I also think, later in the night, after the celebrations have ended and he realizes how heavy the medal is in his hand as the echos of that explosion rang through his eyes, that, though the right thing, his uncle was correct in how choosing to protect, and the consequences of such, can be delayed.

[hallsp]

Dublin

Dublin can be quite expensive. And I’m not just talking about two fingers of whiskey in St. John Gogarty’s on a Saturday night. An adult ticket for the Guinness Storehouse, for example, is €14. The full cost of a trip to Ireland, including flights and accommodation, must cost an arm, if not the better part of a leg. So, the more free stuff the better:

1. Trinity College, Dublin

The cream of Ireland: rich and thick.

Trinity College, Dublin was established in 1592, officially incorporated as the “Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin,” on the site of an old Augustinian monastery, All Hallows.

The walled campus, a calm oasis in the centre of a chaotic city, is an architectural marvel: filled with beautiful cobble-stoned squares, buildings of Portland stone, ancient libraries, and a hidden garden.

It’s the alma mater of Jonathan Swift, Oliver Goldsmith, Edmund Burke, Thomas Moore, William Rowan Hamilton, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, and Samuel Beckett. It’s also a legal deposit library for Ireland and the United Kingdom, and home to the incredible Book of Kells, a ninth-century illuminated manuscript copy of the gospels.

My favourite thing about the Book of Kells, aside from its astounding decoration, is the scribe’s take on Matthew 10:34. The manuscript reads gaudium (joy) where it should read gladium(sword), so the line is rendered I came not to bring peace, but joy. The canonical Bible, along with modern scholarship, believes that this should instead read I came not to bring peace, but the sword.

Tip: It costs nothing to roam around the grounds of the college. An adult ticket to see the Book of Kells costs €11 at the door (and €14 for a fast-track ticket online), but you can get in free by sourcing yourself a student. Current students, and graduates, are allowed up to three guests at no cost, so ask around — someone will bring you in.

2. Oscar Wilde Statue

“My first meeting with Oscar Wilde was an astonishment,” revealed W. B. Yeats, “I never before heard a man talking with perfect sentences, as if he had written them all overnight with labour and yet all spontaneous.”

If you don’t believe the testimony of Yeats, and you want a good laugh, I suggest you have a read of the transcripts of Wilde v. Queensbury in 1895. Wilde was privately prosecuting the Marquess of Queensbury, his lover’s father, for publicly declaring him a “posing sodomite.”

Edward Carson, once a student at Trinity alongside Wilde, now became lead defense barrister for Queensbury, as well as lead character assassin. Their court room exchange will give you a sense of what happens when two minds — one drearily literal, one beautifully ironic — collide.

Wilde is still remembered for his intelligence and humour. Indeed, some of his “perfect sentences” are etched permanently in stone next to his statue across from his old home, No. 1 Merrion Square. These Wildean one-liners are so incisive and scintillating, they’ll make your day.

We’re all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

3. The Chester Beatty Library

I’ve been trying to avoid use of the phrase “hidden gem” but it’s impossible when you’re talking about Dublin’s little-known Chester Beatty Library, tucked away inside Dublin Castle.

It contains some of the most treasured manuscripts in the whole world, really priceless objects. The collection includes the earliest copies of the gospels, the letters of St. Paul, the Book of Revelation, alongside fragments of the Old Testament, as well as early copies of the Qur’an, the Life of the Prophet, the Gospel of Mani, and countless manuscripts from other religious traditions. If you like history, you might never leave.

4. St. Patrick’s Cathedral

St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which dates from 1191, is one of the most beautiful buildings in all Ireland. The cathedral was rededicated in 1254 after renovations. Rebuilds were carried out after a fire destroyed the tower and part of the west nave in 1362, and after the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660. The spire was added in 1749. By the 19th century, the cathedral was once again in disrepair. Between 1860 and 1865, Benjamin Lee Guinness (yes, that Guinness) spent £160,000 on rebuilding the cathedral, so much of what we see dates from this time.

The cathedral was the scene of a scuffle between two of Ireland’s leading Anglo-Norman families, the Butlers and the FitzGeralds, in 1492. The Butlers, seeking refuge in the cathedral, were surrounded. Gerard FitzGerald ordered that a hole be cut in the door through which he offered his hand in a gesture of peace, and the two families reconciled. This is the origin of the phrase “to chance your arm.” This very door is on display towards the rear of the Cathedral.

Jonathan Swift, the author of Gulliver’s Travels, became Dean of St. Patrick’s in 1713. He actually tried to prevent the “songsters” from his cathedral choir from taking part in further performances of Handel’s Messiah after its hugely successful world premiere in Dublin in 1742. He condemned their “disobedience, rebellion, perfidy and ingratitude,” in having offered their services on the opening night.

Tip: It costs €6 to gain entry to the Cathedral, but if you attend one of the services you can go in for free. Evensong typically starts at 17:30.

5. National Museum of Ireland

The National Museum houses all of the archaeological treasures of Ireland, among them the spectacular Tara Brooch, the Ardagh Chalice, and the Cross of Cong.

There are also Viking swords, and cannons from the Spanish Armada, among much else.

6. Glasnevin Cemetery

Opened in 1832, Glasnevin Cemetary is the de facto national cemetery, containing the graves of many of the biggest figures in Irish history from the last two centuries: Daniel O’Connell, Charles Stewart Parnell, Michael Collins, alongside others, like the writer Brendan Behan, the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, or the singer Luke Kelly.

It was the first non-denominational cemetery in Ireland, founded by Daniel O’Connell, who led the movement for Catholic emancipation in the United Kingdom, of which Ireland was then a maligned constituent.

Tip: The tours are brilliant but they ain’t cheap. It’s free to look around, though, and you can eavesdrop on the famous speech by Patrick Pearse. Make sure to go for a pint in Kavanagh’s, known locally as the Gravediggers, in Prospect Square, just next to the back gates.

7. Áras an Uachtaráin

The home of the President of Ireland, it was once the residence of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the vice-regent of the King or Queen of the United Kingdom.

There’s a little round room with small portraits of all the Irish writers who have won the Nobel Prize for Literature: W. B. Yeats (1923), George Bernard Shaw (1925), Samuel Beckett (1969), Seamus Heaney (1995), and James Joyce, who never won the award, but bloody well should have.

Tip: It’s entirely free, but it’s first come first served, so get there early.

8. Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum, known locally as the Dead Zoo, was built in 1856, three years prior to the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.* It’s very much a Victorian museum, filled with stuffed animals, skeletons, and ridiculous life-size models. It hasn’t changed a whole heap in a hundred and fifty years.

*Interestingly, the first person to respond to Darwin’s theory was Samuel Haughton, a naturalist in Trinity College, Dublin. He wasn’t very supportive.

9. Christ Church Cathedral

Dublin is unique in having two cathedrals, St. Patrick’s and Christ Church. It’s even worse when you consider that these belong to the Protestant Church of Ireland, so that the Catholic Church maintains its own separate pro-Cathedral, St. Mary’s on Marlborough Street, which is the “temporary” seat of the Archbishop of Dublin until such time as their ownership of Christ Church is restored. This has been the situation since 1825, and remains so.

The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, known widely as Christ Church, originally dates to around about 1030, when Hiberno-Norse convert King Sigtrygg Silkbeard built a church on the site, prior to his pilgrimage to Rome. This pre-dates the Anglo-Norman conquest.

The Normans organised a complete rebuild in the 1180s. There were further rebuilds in 1358, 1562, 1829, and 1871. Much of the current building is Victorian, dating from the last big restoration between 1871 and 1878 by architect George Edmund Street, at a cost of £230,000, paid for by Henry Roe, the whiskey distiller. St. Patrick’s, then, was rebuilt with profits from beer, while Christ Church was rebuilt with profits from whiskey.

Henry II attended Christmas Mass here in 1171, the first time he took communion after the murder of Thomas Beckett. The cathedral was also the location of the coronation, in 1487, of Lambert Simnel, Yorkist pretender to the throne of England. Christ Church was restored to the Roman Catholic rite in 1689, when James II arrived in Ireland. This was reversed in 1690, when William defeated James at the Battle of the Boyne. William presented the cathedral with a gold communion plate, which can still be seen in the crypt.

Tip: Like St. Patrick’s, if you attend one of the services you can go in for free.

10. National Gallery

The National Gallery contains the finest collection of art to be found on these shores. There’s the best of Irish painting, from Jack B. Yeats, to William Orpen, and Louis le Brocquy, along with more famous international works by Vermeer, Van Gogh, Monet, or Picasso.

The best of the bunch is The Taking of Christ (1602), by Caravaggio, which was unexpectedly rediscovered and recognised in 1990 in the residence of the Society of Jesus on Leeson Street.

This is my favourite painting, and not simply because of its proximity, but because of the tale of its discovery, the centrality of this event to Christianity, the perfection of the colouring, and the cameo appearance by the artist himself. He’s the figure farthest to the right, holding the lantern.

Caravaggio was a genius, and this is one of his most exquisite pieces. He was a master of light and dark, and his paintings are stunning in their realism. Although the practice of chiaroscuro, “light-dark,” had been widespread, Caravaggio deepened the shadows and focused the light. He made the form definitive. He was avant-garde Baroque.

Plus, Caravaggio was a delinquent, a miscreant, and an opportunist. He carried a sword for fighting. He drank excessively. Indeed, his first self-portrait was merged with a portrayal of Bacchus, the hedonistic Roman god of wine, and ritual madness. Caravaggio used his concubines, all prostitutes, as models for such luminary religious figures as the Virgin Mary.

The satirist H. L. Mencken once said that the “great artists of the world are never puritans, seldom even ordinarily respectable.” In fact, he was adamant that no virtuous man “has ever painted a picture worth looking at, or written a symphony worth hearing, or a book worth reading.” Ain’t that the truth.