On September 11th, the pupils of RJS were delighted to have a visit from the author Amanda Bell. Amanda, who is the mother of a past pupil, read her latest work ‘The Lost Library Book ‘ to us and, intrigued by the story, Mr. Adair arranged for Forms 3, 4 , 5 and 6 to pay a visit to Marsh’s Library and St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Form Five enjoyed their visit to the medieval cathedral and felt it was amazing to stand in a space where people had been praying for over eight hundred years. Our guide Ciara explained how stained glass windows were like story books and then we enjoyed designing and constructing our own stained glass windows.
However we all agree that the visit to Marsh’s Library was very special. As we walked through the gate hidden in the wall, into a secret garden, it felt like we were going back in time. Entering the library someone remarked on how it felt like being in the library of Hogwarts. Our guide Julie was interesting, smart, kind and helpful. She told us about the history of the library, which was set up three hundred years ago by Narcissus Marsh and has over 25,000 rare books and manuscripts. She intrigued us with stories about the famous people who used the library and made us feel like they were still around. She then organised a hunt where we had to find Lego figures of many of the characters she had mentioned. It was great fun and quite challenging.
We really loved this visit and would like to thank Amanda for sharing her story with us and sparking our interest in this beautiful old library.