National Print Museum

The National Print Museum of Ireland is located in an old barracks which now houses, amongst other offices, the Labour Court. It's on Haddington Road in Ballsbridge. I have intended calling in there for a long time and finally, I paid my visit. I think I found the location a bit daunting. After passing through that great stone gateway, would I be able to find my way. A check beforehand of the website helped. A sign in the window of a building in the yard anouncing "Free Exhibition" didn't. The sign and the building had nothing to do with the Print Museum.

The Museum is in the former Chapel.

Passed through the coffee-shop/tea-room, greeted by a girl at reception/shop, given an individual guided tour while an elderly man used the machinery - he was printing a poetry book, I think. All the machines are in working order.
One definite thing I learnt, was that the letters we often associate with old print presses - be they in wood or copper (maybe) - those letters are only moulds. Each time a document is printed, new letters are formed - from a silvery metal, using those moulds. So one of the machines in the process is just making little letters from moulds - either monotype (each letter is done singly) or linetype (where a line of letters is formed stuck together and this of course can be justified - an amazing rotary thing figures out the gap required when all the moulds in the line of print are in place).
Wow! An education! And no doubt, much more to be learnt.
If I brave the yard again!