Submit to Ireland

After visiting Ireland and meeting “real Irishmen” it was evident that the Irish people hold their history dear to them. As a group, we went on many tours and we were met with the same charismatic, knowledgeable, and proud Irish person everywhere we went.

I think the Irish identity is something that has only gotten stronger with time. The Irish are proud and resilient. Throughout history, the Irish have fought countless battles to secure the rights of their people, and although they were often unsuccessful, the Irish never gave up, they never wavered, and they always came back stronger than before.

While in Dublin, the mark left by the leaders of Easter Rising was shown almost everywhere. When we met at the Spire, we stopped at the General Post Office which was the site the rebels declared Ireland an independent republic. We were able to see the bullet holes on the pillars, and also the proclamation.

Mural of Bloody Sunday

Another event in history that left its mark was Bloody Sunday. In Northern Ireland, "The Troubles" were a turning point in their history and are remembered across the city of Derry. As we were walking through the Bogside, we were able to see the various murals on the sides of buildings depicting scenes from Bloody Sunday. There were also various flags, plaques, and memorials to commemorate the lives lost and battles fought.

 In Derry, I could still feel a divide between the people. There was an awkwardness to the community as if everyone was walking on eggshells, but at the same time displaying their views aggressively enough to warrant a similar behavior on the other side.

A reoccurring theme in our class readings is that the Irish people are extremely hospitable, and I definitely saw that in both Dublin and Derry. Even our servers at restaurants were extremely kind even though they didn’t have to fake it just to get tips, and the people at the stores we shopped in were welcoming and helpful.

I was expecting people to not be so fond of Americans, but the whole time I was there, I never encountered someone that treated me poorly. Robert Bell speaks of the Irish hospitality in Document B when he says, “Such a visit, so far from being deemed an intrusion, gave pleasure to every individual of the family, who were not only impelled by their natural feelings, but conceived themselves bound by a kind of sacred duty, to perform those acts of hospitality.”

Another personal example of mine is when we hiked to the top of Killiney Hill and I managed to come into contact with stinging nettle. I was honestly freaking out and so scared I was about to have a major reaction to it, but then a local man offered his help.

He stopped what he was doing and began to search through the brush for another type of plant to help the pain. Instead of just pointing it out, he got me the plant and helped me try to stop the burning. That just shows how kinds and selfless the Irish are and how willing they are to lend a hand.

The thing that stuck me the most was the history. Our country is relatively young, so to be able to see buildings, churches, schools, and castles that date back 1000 years, it was amazing. We cant get that here.
When a few of u went into the church Christ cathedral, my jaw dropped as I stepped in. I’m not a very religious person, but the sheer beauty of the building and its contents was almost bringing me to tears. I’ve honesty never seen anything like it.

Overall, I'm obsessed with my experience on this trip and I have so much respect and love for Ireland and its people. If I had a word of advice for future students going on this trip it would be: Submit to Ireland, experience all it has to offer even if it scares you. This trip has given me a gift that I will forever cherish. I was confined to my American bubble, but now I feel more aware of the world we live in, not to mention I've made such wonderful friends.

 Now that I’ve been to another country, I’m addicted, all I want to do is travel more, experience more, and see more. where shall we go next?

Ireland Study Abroad Experience

One of the first Irish readings we read before leaving to Ireland was an excerpt from “The Poor Scholar,” Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry, which is based on (or at least influenced by) William Carleton’s personal experiences in Ireland.

Picture from "The Poor Scholar"

 A powerful statement helping define the Irish identity is when the famous Irish author Carleton wrote, “An Irishman will make you laugh at his joke, while the object of that joke is wrapped up from you in the profoundest mystery, and you will consequently make the concession to a certain point of his character, which has been really obtained by a faculty you had no penetration to discover, or, rather, which he had too much sagacity to exhibit. Of course, as soon as your back is turned, the broad grim is on him, and one of his cheeks is stuck out two inches beyond the other, because his tongue is in it-at your stupidity, simplicity, or folly.” (Carleton, 260-261).

 We all took a weekend to describe what this phrase meant. To me, this defines the Irish as being coy, and left me the impression that the Irish would be deceitfully fake. There was an underlying theme that pointed out others to be the butt-end of their jokes and to yank on and make fun of these others in subtle and keen ways. Although this is an impressive feat for people that I initially thought were under-educated in comparison to others, the Irish culture blew my expectations away almost as soon as I landed.

The vast historical knowledge the Irish have predates the United States. Some of history is well known among Irishmen while other have different variations of stories (due to different upbringings and different perspectives from the past and present tensions of catholic and protestant.) An example I can think of that fits the above quote to the explanation of the formation of Giant’s Causeway. Science has explained this natural phenomena being formed by lava. A bus driver in Dublin had told our professor of how he would tell tourists that scientists were all wrong about this formation. He would proceed to tell visitors the tales of the legendary Fionn MacCool (FinnMcCool) as solely responsible and not the preposterous molten lava. Although he was kidding, he was persuasive and funny. 

Pictured is myself on Giant's Causeway

True Irishmen hold heart to the incredible history of their lands and that is what makes America different from Ireland. Here, in the states, people are so eager to conform to change. Everything and everyone are always moving so fast to update and pave new roads and paths without being conscious of what lies underneath. The Irish are a proud community that may fight as brothers and sisters at times (between the Republic and the North,) but their faith and voice carry themselves through even the most adverse moments. The “Fighting Irish” has only stood for Notre Dame to me, but after visiting Ireland I now understand the name.

Irish flag flying outside Kilmainham Gaol

Museum of Free Derry and "The Troubles"

While visiting Derry, our group took some time out of our busy schedule to visit the Museum of Free Derry. The purpose of the museum is to tell the story of what happened in the city during the period 1968- 1972, popularly known as ‘the troubles’.

Glenfada Park in disrepair 2005

 The Museum began as a block of flats in Glenfada Park which was the site of many murders during Bloody Sunday in 1972. The building fell into disrepair and was later saved by the Bloody Sunday Trust.

Phase 1 2006

The museum opened in 2007 (phase 1), but was later reconstructed and reopened in early 2017 (phase 2)

Phase 2 2017

 

 

 

 

The newly constructed building is almost twice the size of the previous museum, and holds 20,000 artefacts. The new building also offers space for exhibitions and a class room.

 

 

 

 The museum and its contents are a representation of the struggles the oppressed people of Derry faced. Throughout this time, young Irish people questioned their identity as an Irish person and were faced with the harsh reality that they are in fact looked down on.

like many Irish characters we have read about in class, they didn't simply dismiss their Irish heritage when faced with opposition, they embraced it and fought to keep their culture alive. One thing that has become evident throughout history is, the Irish will never give up and will continue to fight for freedom.

 

 

Photo taken on-site

The Troubles

"The Troubles" are characterized as the civil rights era, Battle of the Bogside, Internment, Bloody Sunday and Operation Motorman.

One event highlighted by the Museum of Free Derry was Bloody Sunday. On January 30^th 1972, a march was organized by the NICRA against the Internment and the ban on marches by the government. The march was organized to be a peaceful march through Derry, but things did not go as planned.

Although the IRA promised to stay away in order to keep the peace, British soldiers put up barricades to prevent the march from entering the city center square, and a little over an hour after the march began, 13 innocent men had died.

The British Army labeled the men they killed as 'bombers' and reported that the young men were armed, but it was later found that all men killed were unarmed civilians.

Bloody Sunday has become a source of international inspiration for the people of Northern Ireland and continues to be an event with great significance in the community. There are murals and monuments commemorating the events taken place that day to remind the people of the history they share and the lives they have lost in order to secure freedom.

If you are ever in Northern Ireland I encourage you to visit the Museum of Free Derry!

 

 

 

Kilmainham Gaol

If you were to ever go to Ireland, which i think everyone should go at some point because Ireland is just amazingly beautiful, and if you are a history lover like myself i would highly recommend to go to the Kilmainham Gaol. On the tour you will become aware just how important this historic place was for the Irish independence war.

Kilmainham Gaol was a place for everyone.

• woman
• man
• children
• poor 
• rich

The rich and famous were treated much better than the poor of course. The nationalist politician Charles Stuart Parnell was arrested in 1881 on a charge of sabotaging the Land Act so he did end up in Kilmainham, however, he had a big room to himself with a fireplace and good food...meaning he could literally ask for food from a local restaurant and have it sent to him. He lived comfortably in jail to say the least. 

The youngest child to be publicly executed was the age of five. sadly this was not uncommon at the time to have young children in a jail, their sentences could be any where from days to months. One child was in jail for stealing a two leather strips, he got two months in jail and 20 lashes.  

Kilmainham Gaol

Kilmainham was founded in 1796, it's a gaol that is rich with historic events that lead to the irish independence war in 1919-1921. What happened in the Kilmainham that truly pushed the Irish to fight was and is really brutal and unnecessary. It started with the Easter rising and the people (leaders) who put that event together, such as, James Connolly, Patrick Pearse, Joseph Plunkett, John French, Tom Clarke and etc. There were 14 leaders executed in Kilmainham for the Easter Rising. Easter Rising Leaders

Painting inside of an cell 

The cross you see is where James Connolly was executed in the stonewall yard

James Connolly

The research i did, the this name popped up. When i really focused on him the more i wanted to know. James Connolly was truly an inspiring man, he lived and died for what he believed was right. He had no fear. Even though James Connolly was involved with the Irish and he was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising he was actually born in Scotland which was interesting to me. Connolly got severely injured during the fight in Easter Rising to the point where he lost the ability to walk let alone stand, for that reason, he was sent to a hospital in Dublin. There was no doubt what his punishment would be...Connolly was transported from the hospital to the Kilmainham Gaol to be executed by a firing squad. He was put on a stretcher and carried into the courtyard then put on a chair, tied down. James Connolly was buried in a mass grave with no coffin. This killing and the way off the killing outraged the Irish which lead to the independence war. for more on Connolly

I truly enjoyed my experience at the Gaol tour personally because i love hearing about the history,  any kind of history. At the end of the tour you can go through the museum where they have personal items of the prisoners such as goodbye letters from the many who were sentence to death including the leaders of the easter rising. It's truly moving to read...i think if you are like me (love of history) this is someplace you really need to visit!