when Irish eyes are smiling
*warning...long post*
I learned so much on this trip.
I guess I'll start with the history. You always here about the fighting in Ireland, but actually seeing the cities and hearing peoples stories about how much they are affected by it made it so real. We went to 2 big cities in the north, which is part of the UK and not part of the republic of Ireland. There are walls and barbed wire fences separating the Catholic and Protestant sections. There are murals about the fighting everywhere. The one city we were in, Derry (or Londonderry depending on where you're from) just had it's military occupation leave this past October. My prof's husband lived in Ireland for a long time, and he didn't think we'd ever be able to get into that city. Hearing people's stories was really sad. Our one tour guide is a professor now, but out of 3 other families on his block where he grew up...the kids he was friends with...one family was killed in an attack, one kid became a member of a paramilitary group and went to jail for killing people, and another girl is now president of the republic of Ireland. He said out of the kids on his soccer team growing up, only 5 of them are still alive. Our bus driver had his best friend die in his arms. I can't even imagine growing up in a situation like that.
Teaching
We taught 2 classes while we were there, one in the south and one in the north. There was a huge difference between the 2 classes. The school we taught at in the south was in a very bad area and the kids were really poor. Their teacher told us that one of the girls had been found under a bridge as a baby, abandoned by her drug addict mother and was now in foster care. My group taught a learning support class of 8 and 9 year olds who were so adorable, but we didn't even get through half our lesson. They were all over the place. They weren't bad, just out of control...asking questions all the time, not sitting down, wanting to take a million pictures with our cameras. When we got to the north, it was a much more upper class school. The kids were incredibly well behaved and we got through everything, which was nice since we had it prepared...lol.
Social problems
Drug abuse and related issues as well as homelessness are the biggest social issues in Ireland. We visited a women's reform prison. Definately nothing like a prison in this country, although it is the 1st kind of this type of prison. It's pretty much a locked down dorms type of thing. They see the loss of freedom as punishment enough so the women aren't stuck in cells with nothing to do all day. Also, most of the women in prison are there for drug related reasons such as theft or prostitution. Being in prison gives them a safe place to live so they're not on the streets. We talked to 2 of the women there, which was heart breaking. The one girl started doing drugs at 13 b/c her father taught her how to administer drugs to him when he was too fucked up to give himself more. One of the girls cut herself so much it looked like she should've had stitches. The other girl was supposed to get a 3 year sentence but her mother told the judge she wouldn't be alive in 3 years b/c of all the damage her body had sustained due to her heroin addiction.
We also visited a homeless agency, and they told us about how they're set up. Their type of homeless shelter would never be allowed here. They look at from a harm reduction perspective (yeah, I know, social work talk...sorry) which pretty much means what is the most harmful to these people and how do we make them safer. So providing food and shelter is the top priority, not making sure they're not doing drugs or drinking. The shelter has a wet room for people to drink alcohol and lockers where people can keep their drugs. They're not kicked out for doing drugs as long as they do it safely. They have a clean needle program to help ensure that the drug addicts at least are using safely. I think it's a good idea. Why deprive someone of shelter b/c they're an addict? They need help, not to be kicked back out to the streets.
So yeah, those visits were really eye opening.
Now on the the fun stuff. We did so much of that too. Hopefully I'll remember the best parts at least. Let's see...we toured the Guinness Factory. Yes, I did try some Guinness, and no, I do not like it...lol. (bad
pic at Guinness factory) We went on a musical pub crawl, which was kind of interesting b/c they expained the difference between reels and jigs, etc. and played some for us.
We went to see the Hill of Tara, but it was pouring so didn't really go outside and look around.
Newgrange was pretty awesome. It's the ancient passageway tomb - a huge mound of earth with a passage and room in the middle surrounded by these stones with megalithic art. It's older than Stonehenge and the pyramids. Also, there's this window box and during 5 mornings of the winter solstice, the rising sun enterse through the box and illuminates the passage and room. We saw a pretty rough simulation, but it was pretty incredibly.
Giant's Causeway was beautiful. It's this rock formation of about 40,000 perfectly formed hexagons, octagons, and even 1 9 sided stone, formed by lava...or as the myth goes, a friendly Irish giant who was to fight a Scottish giant, built this passageway to Scotland for the giant to walk across. He then realized the Scottish giant was even bigger then him, so he had his wife dress him up as a baby. When the Scottish giant got there, the wife told him not to wake the baby. He got scared and left b/c he thought if the baby was that big, he didn't want to meet the father...haha. I liked that story.
We crossed this rope bridge that was 85 feet about cliffs and water to this little island. It was pretty scary, especially since I'm really scared of heights, but definately worth it. I was shaking when I got to the other side though. The island was gorgeous. Luckily it was a really clear day, and you could see across the sea to the coast of Scotland, 30 miles away.
We saw a bunch of castles...very awesome. We even had dinner in a restored castle, A medieval banquet type thing, very touristy, but fun and cool b/c it was actually in a real castle.
This is the part where I'm a total dork. My friend and I had milk cravings one night, so we went to the pub in our hotel and asked for a pitcher of milk. The bartender goes and gets us one and walks away. So we're trying to catch his attention and finally do and ask him how much we owe him for the milk. He gives us this look like we're crazy (which we probably are) and goes it's just milk, nothing. It was pretty funny. Then Peggy (one of my profs) walks in and asks us what we're doing. We tell her we're drinking milk. She's like aww, wouldn't your parents be proud of you. lol.
We also took a ferry to one of the Aran islands - Inis Mor - and rented bikes for the day. I think that was my favorite part of the trip. We did 7 mile round trip bike ride up to this fort on top of cliff...well, you rode to the bottom and hiked up...it was amazing. There are no safety barriers in Ireland...you can go right to the edge of the cliff. If you slip, you're dead. It was about 250 feet high I think. Crazy. Beautiful. Incredible. I really enjoyed riding too. The island is gorgeous. It was also a nice work out...lol.
Our last night, we went to this pub that's been continuously in operation since 1620 (the year the pilgrims landed in america). that was pretty cool. hung out with my profs and talked to them for most of the time there which was nice.
I also discovered my favorite potter/pottery...haha...I'm such a dork. Go check it out.
Colm De Ris Pottery is going to be my present to myself from now on, until I get it all...lol.
