Dub-town

Okay I am back! Mom, no more sending me emails chastising me on my lack of blogging. 

Dublin - the River Liffey 

It’s been a busy past week and a half – we were in Dublin last weekend from Thursday til Sunday and the professors all started giving us essays at the same time. But we don’t have class on Fridays (nor did we yesterday, we went to a castle/abbey instead) so I now have time!

The cross marks where the chair was placed, the door
where the ambulance dropped the ailing prisoner off

We left for Dublin last Thursday morning and stopped at Kilmainham Gaol (jail) on our way into Dublin. Kilmainham was the main location for political prisoners during the many uprisings, most notably the Easter Rising which eventually led to the Irish Free State.  A little about The Rising – many people did not support it because they already had home rule (their own parliament) that would start once WWI ended but when the British government responded by executing 14 of the leaders—one of whom had to be propped up and tied to a chair—by firing squad it caused outrage and garnered more support for the revolution. We went to dinner that night at The Brazen Head, Ireland’s oldest pub established in 1198. I had the beef and Guinness stew topped, of course, with potatoes. 

the roof box is the cutout in the white stone above the door

Newgrange, see the people on the right for size reference

On Friday we went to Newgrange, a passage tomb made over 5000 years ago. It is the oldest still standing manmade structure that you can enter, if that makes sense. What makes it so cool is that on the Winter Solstice the sun enters the roof box (see picture) and lights up the passage leading to the inner burial chamber. Newgrange is 85m in diameter and 11 m tall… huge! I hadn’t heard of it until I did my summer readings for Ireland, but it is so worth going to.  

We also went to the Hill of Tara where the high kings of Ireland were crowned, this was not that interesting, it’s just a hill with overgrown mounds on it. At night we went on a pub crawl, ending in the one where they shot scenes from the movie “PS I Love You” The pub crawl isn’t something I would recommend, they give you some free alcohol but then you are stuck at a pub for an hour and all the bar drinks cost minimum 5 Euro. 

St. Patrick's Cathedral

 Saturday we did a bus tour all over Dublin. The presidential election is going on right now so we saw many candidates’ busses all over the city. In Ireland, campaign season is only five weeks so they have to go hard core for those five weeks. The president is also mostly a figurehead, their only real job is to say whether a law should be sent to the Supreme Court for review, the prime minister is a more legit position. They also vote by ranking all the candidates (7 this year) from 1 to 7, eliminate the bottom candidate, and see how the rankings fall etc. until they have a winner! Strange. After the tour we met our theo prof, Brother Colmàn, at the National museum and he took us to some of the artifacts that relate to our studies. One of the really cool exhibits is on bog bodies… bodies that fell into (or were put in sacrificially) the peat bogs and were preserved there for over 2000 years. They can tell all sorts of things because they are so well preserved like what their last meals were, the vitamins in their diets, etc.

 

 Sunday we spent at Clonmacnoise, a monastery established in the 6^th century. The site is known for the High Crosses, ornately carved crosses that stand 14 feet tall.  The cool thing about it was that it is located on the River Shannon, the North/South travel way, and a drumlin (hills created by glacial deposits) which is necessary for travelling West/East because of all the bogs!

Sorry that got a little long. Just a few more little tid bits…

On Thursday we went to Kylemore Abbey, a castle of 77 rooms that was turned into a monastery and school. It is gorgeous!

prom date and me!

The boys are planning Poitin Prom, poitin being the illegal moonshine made here in Ireland. They put all the girls’ names into a hat and drew names for dates and then they have to ask their date creatively! It is kinda funny because they are all so into it, more so than the girls are. Anyway, my date asked me by pouring Guinness so that the foam spelled “prom?” Anyway, one of the boys on the trip is also a photo major, so he will be taking all the awkward prom pictures and the music (yes, the playlist has already been created) is a mix of stuff from today and our awkward middle school days.

We are here until next Wednesday, then it is off to visit the rest of Europe! I am getting super excited for that trip and, as much as I love the group, it will be nice to all go our separate ways for a little bit!

michelle