Marsh's Library

When Archbishop Narcissus Marsh told his friends he planned to build a public library in Dublin in 1701, they told him he was mad — neither Oxford nor London had one. He built it anyway, and when Marsh's Library opened to the public in 1707, it became the first public library in Ireland. Over three hundred years later, it's still here, still functioning, and still looks almost exactly as it did the day it opened.

The building was designed by William Robinson, Surveyor General of Ireland, and sits tucked behind St. Patrick's Cathedral in a quiet close that most tourists walk right past. Inside, the original dark oak bookcases with their carved and lettered gables line the walls, holding over 25,000 books from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, plus around 300 manuscripts and 80 incunabula — books printed before 1501. The subjects range from theology to medicine, navigation to classical literature.

The most extraordinary feature is the three "cages" — small alcoves with wire mesh doors where readers were locked in with rare books to prevent theft. They're still there, perfectly preserved, and you can step inside one. Jonathan Swift, who was Dean of St. Patrick's next door, was one of the library's first governors and a frequent user. His annotated copy of Clarendon's History of the Great Rebellion is in the collection.

If you look carefully at some of the bookcases, you'll find bullet holes from the 1916 Easter Rising, when Jacob's Biscuit Factory next door was occupied by rebels. A library catching stray bullets from a biscuit factory: that's Dublin history in its purest form.