First Day of Classes

Getting Lost

On my way to my first class yesterday morning, I got very, very, very lost. As in the kind of lost you measure in kilometers. Luckily, a nice man in a bright pink sweater gave me directions, and I got to the IES center only 15 minutes late.

Irish Art: Neolithic to New Age

The professor for this class, Ruth Ferguson, has an amazing knowledge of the topic. We walked over to the Irish National Museum for a quick look at Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and early Christian pieces, and she just rattled off details and such from memory. She also walks extremely fast.

I found this about her on UCD's website:

Ruth Ferguson – Visual Art Curator, UCD Newman House
Ruth Ferguson holds a BA degree in Art History and Archaeology and an MA in Palladianism. She has worked in the National Gallery of Ireland and in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham where she was exhibition officer. Ruth also worked in IMMA until 1995 and curated the shows John Heartfield and Patrick Swift. She has been curator of Newman House and of the UCD art collection since 1995 and is currently the chairperson of the Irish Association of Art Historians.

Basically, every session of this class will involve field trips, if only across the street to the museum. I have to remember to bring my camera... and I need to go back to the museum with it.

Northern Irish Troubles

I'm only auditing this class, but it's extremely interesting, and I think I need the background for one of my other classes. The professor left it up to me on how much of the work I'm going to do... I'm planning to do the reading and some of the homework assignments, but I really don't feel the need to do the big essays or projects.

It'll be pretty intensive all the same. Yesterday, in 2.5 hours, I took 9 pages of notes.

The professor, Kevin Rafter is rather well-known (in Ireland) journalist. He even has a Wikipedia entry.

Reporting Northern Ireland

I think this will end up being one of my favorite classes. The professor, John Horgan, started his career as a journalist in the early 1960s, just when the Troubles were starting up, and he covered it all the way through. He also was in politics and academia at various points. He illustrates his points with amazing stories.

A lot of things he said really emphasized the small size of Ireland, and especially Northern Ireland. Belfast has three main papers, each of which has about 3 solid pages of obits and other family notices. The New York Times or the Washington Post would never do that -- these are small, community papers.