Desk Chairs and Old Age

Just finished my second week of classes in the second term which is technically called the Hilary Term.  It seems to be going so quickly.  After all this time I finally decided this week to ask for a new desk chair...the one I have been using all this time was broken and sunken in in the seat.  I had to buy four pillows to prop myself up to reach the desk and get support.  Needless to say, apparently I did not spend enough time sitting in that chair typing last term because it finally became so uncomfortable it was no longer manageable.  So I made a request and was brought a replacement chair while the other one is fixed...No I don't understand why they can't just leave the new purple chair with me for good - perhaps because it does not match the green carpet and the other green chair!!
As you can tell from the chair story, not much has been happening other than lots of sitting here at the computer typing.  I have finished two out of three essays - I am currently working on the third which is due Feb 3rd.  I will be writing about the retrieval of voices from the past in Irish history through the eyes of the elderly and those with dementia.  It doesn't sound very interesting but it really is - I promise!  Maybe I'll post a bit of it if my mark is high. :)

Dublin, I'm back!

Well I have been back here for a week, and it has been one long week.  Literally all I did was sleep, work on my paper, and occasionally when required go to class.  A bit stressful and isolated as far as first weeks go.  But my Swift paper is almost complete, and then I will be able to move on to the next one which is due Feb 3rd.  While I was gone, my Swift professor retired and will not be able to help me work on some 18th century texts that I am interested in.  It is quite disappointing to be honest.  But onward and upward.  Classes went well this week, and I know once we all come out from the essay haze it will be a great term.  The best part was the beginning of my six weeks of Joyce class!  Our professor is so interesting and intelligent.  He told us that he has recently finished his own volume of annotations for Ulysses...that is an absolutely amazing feat!!!  I went nerd gushy at that moment.  I will write more about all the courses this term once we have got going a bit.
Last night began a new tradition in the Oscar Wilde Centre...some of us from the program got together to watch a filmed version of J.M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World which we will be studying in class Tuesday.  It was a great deal of fun, especially when the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate the building...but don't worry we just went off campus and got some dinner. :)
Oh yes, I think I may finally be over my jet lag!

Reading Week - final part

The last couple of days of the week we spent in Dublin.  We visited St. Patrick's Cathedral which was I believe one of the highlights of the trip.  And we took a bus tour around the city which was slightly disappointing.  And then most importantly we did some shopping!

Here is the outside of St.  Patrick's Cathedral.
It is a truly magnificent building!

Inside Andrew M (no not my husband but my friend from Scotland) and I nerded out with the exhibits about Jonathan Swift and his grave.

 Swift is buried behind us there with his long time love Stella.

This display has a bust of Swift, his epitaph, and a declaration that he is buried there.

The beautiful pulpit inside St. Patrick's Cathedral.

On the bus tour around Dublin we saw a number or interesting places such as the Guinness Storehouse, St. Catherine's Church (outside of which Robert Emmet was executed) and Kilmainham Gaol.  We did not have time to visit everything but I look forward to going back and seeing all these places - especially Kilmainham Gaol (jail) - it is where the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were executed and is said to be one of the best sights in Dublin.

Another real highlight of our time out and about in the city is the Joyce statue or as its called in Dublin 'the Prick with the Stick'.

Here is me and Auntie Gail with Joyce in the background.

I tried to kiss him, but alas he remained allusive!


And finally....

A beautiful night shot of the River Liffey!

It was an amazing trip - clearly because it took me five posts to describe it!!

I look forward to more adventures soon.

Reading Week Part Four

Wednesday took us to Belfast! It was up early on a bus for the journey. 

On the way we stopped in Drogheda to see St Peter's Church which houses the shrine of St. Oliver (Oliver Plunkett). The shrine is a beautiful gold display which houses Plunkett's actual head.

St. Peter's Chuch

Me with Oliver Plunkett's head!
One of the women on the tour with us was at the shrine as well and said: "Does anyone want their picture with the head?  I do!"  So I said sure why not! :)

It was a very ornate shrine with a spire on top.  I enjoyed the educational displays which surrounded it telling the story of St. Oliver.  Also in the Church was a small portion of the True Cross which is supposedly the cross on which Christ was crucified.
A very interesting stop!  And the bakery with delicious scones was perhaps our favorite piece of Drogheda.

The next brief stop was Monasterboice which had one of the tallest Celtic crosses in the country.

This cross is what is called the West Cross.  It is considered the tallest.


When we arrived in Belfast, we stopped at the dry dock where the Titanic was built.  Having a lifelong fascination with the Titanic made this stop especially interesting despite the cloudy skies and rain.

Inside the dry dock they have a marking which represents the height of a person...it looks so small in the grand scheme of the whole dock.
One of the best parts of this stop was the gift shop!  My favorite purchase was the Titanic coloring book - although I am not sure I would ever give it to a child because it has people drowning at the end!  I found that irony amusing.

Once we got into the city proper, we immediately embarked on a Black Taxi tour which takes tourists to the Protestant and Catholic areas near the peace wall which would not be advisable to visit alone.
Our driver was a wonderfully kind older Irish gentleman who had so much history and information to share with us.
First we went to The Falls which is the Catholic area and saw some famous murals.

Here is Auntie Gail and I in front of the row of murals.

Here is a mural focusing on the Black Taxi tours we were on.

This mural depicts the 10 famous Hunger Strikers of 1981.  Most were members of the IRA.  They were prisoners at the time of the strike.  It was called off once these 10 people died of starvation.  The first to die was Bobby Sands whose mural (right below) can be found around the corner from the Sinn Fein headquarters in The Falls.  This strike was one of the occurrences which helped Sinn Fein become a mainstream political party.

Sinn Fein is a political party founded out of the IRA (Irish Republican Army).  The name means 'ourselves' in Irish.  There is a great deal of fascinating history behind this organization and its role in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.  I encourage you to read more about it.  This is one of the organizations and places that most people would have been afraid to be near during The Troubles.  But for the most part there is peace now in Northern Ireland.

We saw a section of the peace wall on each side of the city - below is the wall on the Catholic side or The Falls.

You can see that it is in a residential neighborhood.  This street is one of the most bombed streets.  You can see on the back of the houses which are next to the peace wall there is a structure which protects the house if anything is sent over the wall.

Next our black taxi tour took us through the gates that separate the Catholic and Protestant areas (directly below) and into the Protestant area.

We again were taken to see some wonderful murals.

The gunman at the top of the mural follows you as you walk by.  It is quite eerie and has a much more violent focus than the murals we saw in The Falls.

This mural depicts King William III or William of Orange.  He is a representation of the Protestant and loyal British side of this country.  He defeated James II (who fought for Catholicism) in many decisive battles in Ireland.

After the Black Taxi tour we went to a restaurant our driver Ken recommended for the best fish and chips in the city.

And then after a bit of walking around it was time to get back on the bus and return to Dublin.  All in all a great day.