Monday
Monday was completely uneventful, taken up by homework and errands. I did manage to finish The Butcher Boy which I cannot recommend with any honesty. I knew how it was going to end two chapters in, which is forgivable, and it was written completely in a stream of consciousness, which is not. On a good note, however, the local grocery store, Tesco, carries ramen.
Art History
For class yesterday, we walked around Trinity College and looked at its examples of Georgian architecture, which is typified by neoclassicism. Lots of columns, plinths and temple fronts. I took pictures of several examples as well as other parts of the campus.
Northern Irish Troubles
The reading load for this class is intense. It all tends to be extremely interesting and very biased one way or another. One of the most interesting things that keeps cropping up is that the various phases of the Troubles were never started by the IRA. The situations usually went something along the lines of:
- A group of Catholics (non-IRA) organize to march for civil rights (such as fair housing allocations).
- Protestant police would attempt to stop them from marching.
- Protestants would attack a Catholic settlement.
- The IRA would step in to protect the settlement.
Reporting Northern Ireland
Even scarier is the fact in the Irish Republic, on the other side of the border, it was routine to lock up suspected members of the IRA. Because IRA members, Sinn Fein members, etc. did not recognize the courts, all it took was an Irish police officer swearing that there was reason to believe they were members and they'd be locked up automatically for three months. No other evidence was needed.
Upcoming
On Friday morning, I'm going out to see Newgrange, and am likely going to Cork for the weekend. More on all that later.
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