Update

Apologies

I started writing this post on Wednesday, saved it to finish later and forgot I hadn't posted it. Sorry, y'all.

Art History

We took another trip to the Irish National Gallery; this time to look at 19th century painters. We also have to start thinking about our final projects, which can be anything related to art. Anything. I'm thinking of just cleaning up some of the pictures I've taken of various architecture around the city and turning those in, maybe with a little glitter on top.

Introduction to Northern Irish Troubles

Cancelled. So I went and found the National Library instead. It's on Kildare Street, and they don't let you check out books, but they do have a very nice microfilm room.

Reporting Northern Ireland

We watched the first TV interview done with Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, for Irish TV. It was done in 1994. Gerry Adams has one of the most amazing media presences I've ever seen. He doesn't seem to be a very nice person, all things considered, but he does know how to talk to people.

Valentine's Day

Christopher found purple roses to send me. Absolutely amazing.

Creative Writing

A group of us are talking about going up to Drogheda, where the professor lives, and visiting him. He keeps inviting us.

Revolutionary Traditions

We're covering the Great Famine now. It's strange; if you talk to most people about the famine, they'll say things like "The British kept exporting all the food and made the famine worse." But the professor put up the actual import and export figures for Ireland during the famine years: the exports dropped to zero and imports went way up. So, there's a lot of myths about what happened that aren't necessarily true.

Celtic Myth and Legend

The professor for this class brought in two traditional Irish musicians who played us a bunch of jigs, hornpipes and reels. They also sang in Gaelic. Very cool stuff. Planxty and Altan are supposed to be the best modern examples of Irish music. (One of my favorite singers is Christy Moore, who used to be part of Planxty).

Glasnevin Cemetery and Kilmainham Gaol

On Friday, my Revolutionary Traditions class went on a field trip, first to Glasnevin and then to Kilmainham. Glasnevin houses the graves of many Irish nationalists, including Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera, who you may remember from the movie, Michael Collins. De Valera's grave is the most vandalized in the entire 120 acre cemetery, while people still bring flowers to Collins' grave every day.

Kilmainham held political prisoners from every Irish uprising between 1796, when it was built, and 1924, when it was closed. The leaders of the Easter 1916 rising were executed by firing squad in the courtyard. Pictures are here and here.

The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival

I spent most of my time Sunday handing out programs for the film festival. It wasn't the most exciting job in the world, but I got a free ticket to any of the other films. I have two more shifts: Monday and Saturday.