Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE STRONGEST INFLUENCE on days when the most people visited the Book of Kells exhibition in Trinity College was… rain.
According to figures released this week, rain was present across 70% of the ten most visit days at the ten most visited days during the traditional off-peak period of September to May last year.
During the ten busiest days, 80,000 visitors from China, the US and Europe passed through the doors to see the attraction in Trinity College.
The Book of Kells and Old Library Exhibition on the grounds of the college in the centre of Dublin, with an increase of 15.5% on visitor numbers year-on-year bringing in 964,000 people in 2017.
There was a lot more interest in the exhibition in visitors from certain countries, with a 60% increase in the number of visitors from the US, 50% more from Germany, and 33% more from the UK.
The most popular tourism attraction in Ireland last year was the Guinness Storehouse, with 1.7 million passing through its doors.
In all, there just under 10 million overseas visitors to Ireland in 2017, making it another recording breaking year.
Tourism revenue was worth over €5 billion to the Irish economy last year.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
It rains in Ireland most days . It might have more to do with advertisements .
The book of Kells is a link to our past , same as the Tara broach and all of our legends , it’s part of what makes us Irish .
@Nek nedyah: do you actually live in Ireland? It does rain but everyday is an exaggeration beyond belief
@Graham Wilson: by Irish monks.
Iona was a Columban monastery. They fled the Vikings taking the book they were working on with them and ended up in Kells.
I’m always amazed to find so many people happy to queue and pay so much for the book of Kells. While a short distance away there is the Chester Beaty library, with free access and with so many amazing books to look at.
Is the link between rain and visits statistically significant? Have they looked at cause and effect i.e. did the rain actually cause people to visit the Book of Kells or did people just happen to be visiting the Book of Kells when it was raining?
As someone else pointed out, it rains in Dublin most days anyway so the probability that a busy day will also be on a rainy day isn’t really telling us anything inportant.
@Daragh Cassidy: meant to say that the probability that a busy day could also be on a rainy day is naturally going to be high anyway (as we’ve so many rainy days) so this isn’t really telling us anything. Especially as 30% of the busy days weren’t on rainy days!
Jesus, why am I suddenly so interested in statistics and probability all of a sudden lol.
It is the same for going to the pub.
Well, it’s raining today so why don’t we do the Book of Kells and go to the Zoo/walking tour/Botanic Gardens tomorrow?
Why is it held in Trinity College ? Anyone know the reason for this ?
Thrinty has still forgotten the town in Meath where the book got its name , Kells is 50 Minutes from where the book is today.
https://youtu.be/FS0IIN21qf8
have your say