4 July 2005--Stranger in a Strange Land
Well, as you can guess, we didn't get the day off for Independence Day. We did get jelly beans from one of the program directors though. :)

We have different professors for the same class sometimes, but today for Gaelic Culture we had the head of the Irish Department at UCD (University College-Dublin) again. He is, well, like one of my classmates described him: a foulmouthed, belligerent little hobbit, but not in a way that's offensive. I just wish that I could take credit for that moniker!!!

We learned about the great Irish Epic, Tain Bo Cualnge or The Cattle-Raid of Cooley. A brief way to describe it is that it's about a fight between two bulls......

Obviously there's more to it than that, but it would take WAY to long to explain it and it's nearing 2300 my time here.

The main characters are Queen Mebd (pronounced Maeve); Aillel, her husband and the great Irish hero: Cuchulain (Coo-hulan). Mebd is Queen of Connaught and Cuchulain is a warrior of Ulster.

It's starts with a dispute between Mebd and her husband about how much wealth they each have and they discover that they have exactly the same amount of wealth, except that Aillel has a bull where Mebd does not.

Queen Medb of Connaught gathers an army in order to gain possession of the most famous bull in Ireland, which is the property of Daire, a chieftain of Ulster. Because the men of Ulster are afflicted by a debilitating curse, the seventeen-year-old Cuchulain must defend Ulster single-handedly.

The interesting thing about The Tain is that it was written in prose, whereas the other epics, The Illiad, The Odyssey, were written in poetry. This just goes to show how intelligent and advanced the Irish were!

It's impossible to date it as it was at first an oral story, passed down through the generations, but within The Tain there is no mention of Christianity at all. It is entirely pre-Christian. It wasn't written down until Saint Patrick came to Ireland, bringing the art of writing with him.

It's a pretty cool tale with some very nice writing in it. You can google The Tain and come up with a good number of hits, if you're interested.

As far as the rest of my forth went, it was relatively uneventful. The girls downstairs in house 61 made this huge American-style meal...burgers, corn-on-the-cob and all, which was very nice of them.

Until later!

3 July 2005---HURLING!!!!!
Just a clue for all who've enquired....while there is a version of hurling that involves consuming mass quantities of alcohol and then seeing how much square feet you can cover in your own vomit, THAT is not the type of hurling I'm referring to. :)

We attended the Leinster Hurling Finals Sunday afternoon at Croke Park and it was definitely an experience. I learned a bit more about what hurling is and saw some guys in short shorts in the process. (Sorry Dad)

There are up to 15 players on a team and the positions are similar to those of soccer with forward, mid-field, and defensive positions. Each team has a goalie defending a net, but the are also football-type (American) goal posts above the net where a member can also score.

Every team member has an Ash or hurleys which basically looks like a miniature hockey stick with a really fat wedge. Actually if anyone has seen those Fischer-Price plastic putters for kids, they kind of look like that, only made of Ash.

The ball, or sliotar, is dropped in the middle of the field and the objective is to get it to your opponent's goal and either get it in the net, worth three points, or between the goal posts for one point.

It is a contact sport and as you can imagine, there's a bit of whacking going on, both with limbs and Ashes.

There are 30 minute halves with a ten minute break in between. At halftime a bunch of wee hurlers (think peewee hockey) came onto the field to play. They were so cute!!! And actually not that bad either. Very different from the halftime shows we see in the States!

Croke Park is pretty cool. It's open air and huge! It's where U2 played when they were here the first weekend we were in Ireland. I guess some of the girls tried to get tickets outside the park and they were upwards of ?300! Much too rich for my blood, even as cool as it would have been to see U2 in concert.

Anyway, back to the game. There were actually two and we arrived in the second half of the first one. They play both minor and major 'league' together, which is a bit different. The minor's of Dublin and Wexford were playing when we arrived, and Dublin beat the pants off Wexford. A huge hog pile grew on the field and then they ran around the field with the trophy.

The next match was between the major teams of Kilkenny and Wexford. Since we didn't have any team loyalties, it was a bit hard to know who to root for, but we ended up rooting for Kilkenny. Good choice that, since they won! It was a pretty close match too, with Kilkenny trailing in the beginning, but they were the underdog hero of the day.

I can really see how people get so involved in the sport. It's also kind of nice to see that an ancient game like hurling is still active today. Hurling is considering Ireland's oldest game with the first written records showing that it arrived on the island as early as the 5th century, but some scholars believe that it arrived with a band of nomadic Celts around 600 BCE. The ball used to be made of twine wrapped around itself. I saw an example of an old ball and Ash when I was at the National Museum at Collins Barracks. Pretty cool.

That's all for now folks!

2 July 2005---Wandering Dublin's Northside
Today I decided to stay in the city and explore it a bit more. Since I've mainly stayed near the City Center, I decided to go to the north side of the River Liffey and explore.

Immediately crossing the bridge I came across a memorial to The Famine. I wish that I could post the pictures of it right now. It is very powerful. There are about six statues done in a sort of rusty clay technique, showing the victims of The Famine. Nearly one million Irish died during The Famine and a good number more emigrated to the States.

The expressions on the statues faces gave me a sense of the grief and sorrow many of the victims of The Famine must have suffered.

I then walked westward and got a picture of the Abbey Theatre, just because I thought that I should have one.

I continued westward and eventually ended up at the Nation Museum for Decorative Arts & History at Collins Barracks. I'm not sure how much time I spent in there, but it was a good chunk of the afternoon. The curator's choice exhibit was my favorite I think. It had different examples of art from across Ireland's history.

Collins Barracks is named after Micheal Collins, the early leader of the IRA. On the ground floor they have his uniform, gun and sword displayed in a case with a very brief synopsis of his life. In 2006 they'll be displaying the military history in Ireland. Kind of makes me want to come back and see, especially considering that most of the museums in Dublin are free!

After a small lunch I continued westward toward Phoenix Park, the largest public park in Ireland and maybe Europe, but I'm not sure. The People's Garden is just off the south gate entrance. Being a lovely day, many families were there, playing, feeding the ducks, etc. The garden wasn't as impressive as Powerscourt, but it definitely looked much more manageable!

It was kind of strange, knowing I was in the middle of the city, but for all intents and purposes, I could have been in the country, especially when I reached the FIFTEEN ACRE expanse in the middle. And lets just say, for those who know me really well, um, well my sense of direction is not what one would call keen, especially once the clouds blew in, obscuring the sun.

I somehow managed to find the house of the American Ambassador, and the very nice gentlemen at the gate directed me back to the south gate entrance. Yeah, tough gig that. If I'm ever appointed ambassador to a country, I think that I'd choose Ireland, just for where the residence is!!

They must have been gearing up for a Fourth of July party because there sure was some loud music coming from the grounds! And to answer some questions, no, we don't get the fourth off. To some of the kids in the group, this might be a little difficult, but I've worked and missed more than my share.

We're going to a Hurling match Sunday. Still not quite sure what it is, but I saw some people playing (what I assume is) it in Phoenix Park. From what I could gather, it's some kind of combination of hockey, baseball, and something else. We'll see!

Ciao.

A Cry From Heaven and the Return to Howth
Mood:  lyrical
What a night! We went to the Abbey Theatre last night to see A Cry From Heaven. It was spectacular, if a wee bit long (3 hrs). The Abbey Theatre was founded in the early 1900s by W.B. Yeats, Lady Gregory and another guy whose name escapes me at the moment. :P It was started as a part of the Irish Literary Theatre to promote Irish plays and writing in Ireland. There was theatre back in the day, but they were imported companies doing imported plays. This was all part of the Celtic Revival of the early 1900s. See, I AM learning!!

Anyway, A Cry From Heaven takes place in Ulster, which is in the north for those ignoramuses out there, and concerns an omen/prophecy that is read the night our heroine, Deidre, is born. It is a tale of love, passion, madness and revenge. Very cool. The omens read the night Deidre is born fortell of the fall of the House of Ulster and the King, Conner, and they allegedly say that Deidre is all to blame for it. Typical.

The acting was well done, but the scene changes were, I thought, a bit clumsy and overdone at times. That's what happens when you have a French director I guess.

I took the DART back up to Howth today and this time I remembered the flippin camera! Yeah me.

I got some pictures of that island just off the coast, which I'm not so sure anymore if it's Ireland's Eye or not. But it is still pretty cool. After walking out onto the Pier again, I trekked up the hills and took quiet a long walk around the village of Howth. The more I saw of the village, the more I fell in love with it.

I managed to get a picture of the Abbey that's there. Ruins now, but the graveyard is still in use. I was brave enough to take pictures from up above it, but not so much as too enter the Abbey as some Norwegian tourists did. I just felt that it was a bit disrespectful.

I also saw their monument to those who were lost at see. It's this great Celtic Cross standing on a rock with a giant anchor and chain sort of leaning against the base of the Cross. Very impressive and moving. Plaques with names are set evenly around the base, commemorating those who are lost, but not forgotten.

Not sure what I'm going to be doing the rest of the day. Maybe just wander around Grafton Street. I do have to make another trip to the bookstore for some more books for class, but I'll try and restrain myself this time.

Until later!!

28 June 2005----Book of Kells and other stuff
Mood:  happy
Did a bit of shopping this morning and solved my sweater dilemma. I really didn't pack as well as I thought I had. Oh well.

I also went to a bookstore and got some of the books that I'll need for the summer. I'm still peeved that I forgot my Yeats book, but I guess that one can never have too much of Yeats. Either way, I spent a bit more than I had intended--got some fun-pleasure books as well as the ones I'll need for classes. Bookstores are so dangerous for me, but there are definitely worse things to be addicted to!

We also took a tour of the campus and learned about the buildings and their origins, but that wasn't as interesting as seeing the Book of Kells. Yeah, it's a book, but what a book!!! The amount of detail that went into creating the book is amazing.

The girls and I took the DART up to Howth, a small fishing village north of Dublin. Placed on a peninsula, it juts out into the Irish Sea, pointing at a very cool piece of landscape: the Eye of Ireland. A short, round building sits at one end of the island; I'm not sure if it was an outpost or a primitive lighthouse. The other end of the island is covered by a huge rock formation that looks as if one of the Celtic gods had split it in a fit of anger.

The town of Howth itself is lovely. Set into the hills rising above the coastline, one can imagine themselves settling down here.

It was a bit misty and rainy, but none of us seemed to mind. The weather just added to the atmosphere of the place.

We ate dinner at a restaurant called The Bloody Stream. Quite a name! Apparently the name come from way back during the Norman invasion and a great battle took place in and around the stream where the restaurant now stands. The water turned red with blood from the fallen combatants, and soon after the stream was renamed the Bloody Stream. The restaurant owners decided to name their restaurant after the stream as a way of making peace with it, as the stream had a tendency to flood their lower floors!

It was after dinner that we walked out on the levy to get a closer look at the island. And dammit, I didn't bring my camera, again!!! I should just start carrying it with me everywhere. Grrr.

Oh well, I guess that means I just might have to take another trip up there. Darn. :)

27 June 2005----First day of classes
Mood:  lucky
We had our first day of classes today. All four of the classes I'm taking were today: Irish Literature, Irish Drama, Irish History, and Gaelic Culture. All were pretty interesting and I think that I'll be liking the courses very much.

I had forgotten that I was going to be buying books while I'm over here, but fortunately it looks like I won't have to buy too many. I'm a little bummed that I forgot to bring my book of W.B. Yeats's poetry, would have save me a couple of Euros. Darn.

The Dublin Literary Pub Crawl was tonight, and although I didn't drink as much as some of my companions did, I still had a lot of fun. We started at The Duke and from there we went to three more pubs I think, with some 'cultural' stops in between. One of the pubs we went to is called The Old Stand, but back in the 1920s it was called The Monico and was a favorite hangout for Micheal Collins and the other founding members of the IRA. It was slightly humbling and amazing to think that we were standing in the place where the plans for Irish freedom from British rule were born.

The last pub we went to is called Davy Byrnes and is associated with James Joyce and his epic Ulysses. It is so amazing to be in a place (Dublin) where so many of the 19th and 20th writers were. To see where they lived, ate, learned, fought. One can almost feel their presence, watching over us. I wonder what they would have to say....

26 June 2005---Free day in Dublin
Mood:  cheeky
Today was more of a quiet day. A good thing considering the late night we had last night. The girls and I headed down to the Temple Bar area to have some fun, which we did...although I discovered this morning that some of us had more fun than others!

Temple Bar was sooooo very crowded and the pubs even more so with U2 being in town. Dublin was flooded with thousands of U2 fans this weekend, making an already crowded and busy city even more so.

It was still fun though...until I realized that I had worn the way wrong shoes. Ouch!! But I think I got proposed to, although I don't believe that his heart was in it! ;)

Today we walked down Grafton Street and the City Centre. It was like a huge bazaar with the musicians, jugglers, human statues and street performers. I think that Dublin's probably one of the few places on the plant you'll hear a penny whistle alongside a jackhammer. Strangely enough, it didn't seem out of place.

I would have loved to have spent more time exploring, but we had to get down to the Guinness Brewery and Storehouse before it closed for the day.

The Brewery was fascinating; learning about the history and the process of making Guinness. At least I found it interesting, some were more focused on the free Guinness at the end of the self-guided tour.

There's an area on I think the third floor where guests can write down their "I was here" cards. Us dawdlers wrote our epitaphs, and lets just say that Nina Cahill has left her mark at the Guinness Brewery!

At the very top of the building there's the Gravity Lounge, and it offers a spectacular view of Dublin and the surrounding hills and mountains. You can even see the Irish Sea on a clear day, which we were fortunate enough to have. Very cool place.

Lacey, Diana, Colleen and I were the dawdlers. We found a cute little restaurant somewhere in the City Centre. The food was excellent and we even got free wine with our dinner because we were 'early birds,' whatever that means, but I usually never say no to wine, especially free wine! :)

Not partying tonight, at least for this girl. Classes start tomorrow and I'm not one for hangovers in class. Just not my cup of tea.

Toodles!

25 June 2005---Journey to County Wicklow
Mood:  happy
Today we toured some of County Wicklow which is south of Dublin. It was so nice to get out of the noisy, smelly city and into the country! This was the Ireland I was yearning for. Dublin is a great city and all, but it's too busy and crowded for me. I guess I'm a country girl at heart :)

Out first stop was at Avondale, the birthplace of either Charles Stewart Parnell. He was a great nationalist and political in the mid to late 19th century and he was leader of the Home Rule Movement.

The house is preserved to the time in which he lived and there are some wonderful antique furniture and carpets gracing the place. Above the main door of the house there is a wonderful tapestry. I only hope that the picture I took turns out!

After Avondale we traveled to Glendalough, a monastical site set in a valley of the Wicklow Mountains. The round tower built hundreds of years ago still stands, as does Saint Kevin's Kitchen, which was really a small church, but because of its proximity to the cathedral, visitors to the monastery thought it to be a kitchen.

The walls of the cathedral still stand and one can feel the mystical rumblings of the walls around you. Giant grave slabs cover the ground of the cathedral, evidence of the people who once lived.

The oldest monument at Glendalough is a Celtic Cross made out of granite from the surrounding Wicklow Mountains.

After a very filling lunch of Irish Stew, we set out for Powerscourt Gardens. I've never seen such wonderful gardens before. The roses were amazing! The blooms were bigger than my hand.

Looking out from the second floor of Powerscourt one can see the terraced Italian gardens, with steps leading down to Triton Lake. Winged horses guard the top of the lake where Triton sits out in the middle, spouting water up into the air. It made me yearn for the 35mm and its telescopic lens.

I was only able to see about half of the gardens as we only had an hour to wander, but it is definitely a place that I would love to return to. While not having to worry about driving and the traffic in Dublin, I could have used more time at both Glendalough and Powerscourt. I hate that rushed feeling one gets when in a tour group and your stuck on the tour guide's watch. I'd much rather take my time and go at my own pace.

I'm really hoping that I can travel down to County Cork as well as up to Sligo where W.B. Yeats is buried. Just have to figure out bus schedules.

I'm slowly getting used to handling Euros. It's still kind of weird to think that I may have ten Euros in my coin purse.

Until next time!

Posted by dragon3/irelandtrip at 12:01 AM CDT
Updated: Thursday, 30 June 2005 7:46 AM CDT
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24 June 2005---Orientation and Tours
Mood:  a-ok
We had our 'official' orientation this morning where they gave us the schedule for the next couple of weeks, as well as a folder full of brochures and other helpful information to aid us in our stay here in Dublin.

I met the other two girls on my floor this morning: Laura, who's also from the University of Minnesota, and Colleen from Notre Dame. Jean is also from Notre Dame. As it turns out, it's all Notre Dame and Minnesota students in House 61. The Wisconsin and Michigan students are grouped together in houses across the courtyard. Whether by design or happenstance, we're kind of shut off from the Wisconsin-Michigan students. I'm leaning toward design and not complaining at all. Being eight to ten years older than the other students is a bit difficult, but it does have it benefits as well.

This afternoon we had a city tour of Dublin that took us through the southern Georgian District of Dublin and saw the famous colored doors of Dublin. We also saw where Oscar Wilde lived, which was pretty cool.

After the Georgian District, they took us to Saint Patrick's Cathedral, which is Anglican, not Catholic; a fact that surprised many in the group. There were these neat Celtic grave slabs that made me wish I had remembered to bring my camera. D'oh!! Oh well, I'm here for seven weeks, so I can always go back.

I also saw Jonathan Swift's grave, smack dab in the middle of the Cathedral. Right next to him is Stella. Swift, as well as being a great satirist, was Dean of Saint Patrick's Cathedral back in the day.

Apparently they have a wonderful boys choir that sings during services. I just might have to go check it out.

After Saint Patrick's Cathedral the bus took us to Castle Dublin, where one tower of the 'original' castle still stands today. Most of the castle was destroyed in a fire, and in a foolish attempt to stop the fire, the British guy in charge at the time decided to set off an explosion that would smother the flames and effectively put out the fire.

Let's just say his plan failed. Miserably.

Castle Dublin is still used for governmental functions today, such as the swearing in of the President.

Along the tour we saw the throne room and the throne William of Orange sat in after he thoroughly trounced James II. In what I think I remember as the King's bedroom they had a magnificent Vandyke painting. Sorry no pictures!

Our guide also took us to the remains of the gunpowder tower beneath the castle. Down there one can the Viking and Norman influences in the architecture.

Once our city tour was completed, we had a reception at the National Library to officially open the summer school. They had some wonderful displays of the artwork in some of Hans Christian Anderson's books. The artist was Irish, but his name escapes me for the moment.

I think the purpose of the evening was to get us to expand and mingle. How successful that was, I'm not sure, but the hor'dervs and the wine were wonderful!

23 June 2005----Crossing the 'Pond'
Topic: 23 June 2005
I finally arrived in Dublin after crossing the 'pond' and transferring in Amsterdam, which was a trip in of itself. The flight from Minneapolis was thankfully uneventful, if one didn't mind being squashed against strangers like sardines in a can. Sleep and food deprivation tends to made one either a little cranky or loopy, and I choose loopy.

After landing at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, I had about 45 minutes to find the transfer ticket station, get my transfer ticket and then race down to my departure gate. Being the lucky bunny that I am, my arrival and departure gates were on opposite sides of the airport. Needless to say, the sweat was dripping. I didn't even have time to exchange dollars for Euros which would have been helpful on the flight to Dublin as I was starving!!!

Landing in Dublin was quite interesting. Luckily getting through customs wasn't a big deal, however finding transport from the airport to Trinity proved to be a bit of a chore. Fortunately I was able to find two other students going to Trinity as well, and between the three of us, we managed to get there in one piece.

The traffic here is insane! It's utterly chaotic. The traffic is surely on par with that of New York City. . .with the added bonus of the cars being on the other side of the road. I wonder how long it will take to get used to that....

That apartments they have us set up in aren't too bad at all and we even have our own rooms. The bathroom is a bit of a disappointment however, the showers in particular. For a small person with short limbs they might be okay, but with my long monkey arms I have turn turn round very carefully else end of bruised all over. At least the shower head is high up, otherwise I'd be lost.

After showering almost thirty hours of sweat off and a lovely two hours nap I met one of the other girls on my floor, Jean. She and another girl in our building, Diana, and I went down to the Temple Bar area so I could feed my noisy belly.

That proved more difficult than anticipated....

The first place we tried basically kicked us out because we hadn't ordered a main course and because they were so busy. U2 was in town, and something like 80,000 fans descended upon Dublin for the blessed event.

It still didn't seem to make a whole lot of business sense to me. I mean, we were still going to buy some food and drink. Money's money, right? Weird.

I ended up getting a fantastic goat cheese and tomato crepe just across the way and then we hit up Baskin Robbins for a scoop of ice cream. A brilliant idea we all owe to Jean. Smart girl. Ice cream can truly solve all your ills, especially chocolate ice cream!

Toodles until next time!