All Photos Post #2

I know what you're thinking. "John you just did a 'quick update' post, why are you being lazy and doing a teaser post?" Well I've had a bit of work to do for Monday so this will have to suffice until I can get that done. In the mean time enjoy the pictures. The first few are extra from around Dublin and Glenageary and the last ones are from Co. Mayo.

Oh and a quick story as well while I'm at it. Frank, my home stay "father", goes swimming every morning at 7am in the sea. Prior to going to Mayo I was invited by him to join in on what the Irish consider an activity that is "good for your health". Clearly the Irish have no conception of what hypothermia, pneumonia and shock are because when I jumped into the water I entered into a World of Cold. I truly believe that I will never, never be that cold for the rest of my LIFE! Moral of the story: If you are the type who whines about how cold things are take a dip in the Irish Sea on a February morning. You will never complain again, not just about the cold, but about anything.

Mayo Teasers

Quick Update

Hey everyone! Thanks for being patient, but I'm afraid you will all need to wait until the weekend for me to install a proper update. Currently I am in Rossport, County Mayo in the Northwest coast of the island. We are learning all about the Corrib pipeline and environmental politics which is a topic that I have never explored or even really heard about! Again sorry that I cannot provide a good update, but I am taking loads of great pictures and I'll be sure to get them up ASAP.

Irish Museum of Modern Art and Kilmainham Gaol

So yesterday I joined a few people from my group and we decided to go to the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Walking down the street we just so happened to randomly find the Guinness factory, but alas we did not go through St. Jame's Gate.




Instead, we stuck to our plan and just up the road we arrived at the front entrance to the museum.







It appeared to be, like many of the buildings in Dublin, anything but modern in its structure. I do not know the history of the building, but It appears to be of a military-style construction. I am sorry to inform my readers that I was unable to take any photographs while inside the museum, but I can tell you from personal experience that the outside of the museum was greater to view than the sum of the artworks inside.



Upon exiting the museum we decided to walk through the other side of it towards Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced 'jail') which had a terrible, but intriguing history. It was built in the Victorian Era as a new form of prison with the policies of individual confinement and silence being paramount.

Unfortunately, the Great Famine, caused by a pan-European potato blight, happened shortly after the prison's opening. This resulted in massive overcrowding, often with five to six to a single cell. Indeed the prison was often seen by the populace as a better place to be than the slums. At the time people often committed crimes in order to be put in Kilmainham where they were at least assured three meals a day.



During the 1916 Uprising it was used by the British as a political prison and many important Irish political figures, such as Eamon de Valera, were held there at the time. Many were also executed in one of the courtyards. (if you have seen the film Michael Collins this courtyard is seen near the beginning)


During the Irish Civil War the prison was utilized again as a political prison by the Irish Free State. It was abandoned as a prison in 1924 and was left in a general state of non-upkeep, mostly because people wanted to forget about the terrible memories of it, but through private donations it was refurbished and reopened as a museum in 1966; the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising.

At the end of the tour we were told to exit in the same way as the first jailbreaks from Kilmainham, who paid off the guards, received the keys to the front door and walked out! Hope you enjoyed the virtual tour of one of the more fun days I've had here so far. Wish you all were here!

A Quick All Photos Post

The first pictures are of the outside of where I'm living in Glenageary (25 minutes south of Dublin city center by DART) and the second group of pictures is some random shots around the city today. Tomorrow I will make a post about the Irish Museum of Modern Art and Kilmainham Gaol. The last two pictures are teasers for that. Hope you enjoy!

a view of the seafront

the kitchen

the front door

an interesting sign

some cool graffiti (it is EVERYWHERE!!!)

funny name for a liquor store chain

teaser of the Irish Museum of Modern Art!

teaser of Kilmainham Gaol!

Come back tomorrow for more!

So I Know It Has Been Awhile...

First I would like to apologize to everyone reading for my complete lack of posts the last week. It has been incredibly busy here, but now I have some free time to sit down and FINALLY write a post. The big holdup was due to YouTube being very unkind and consistently taking 5+ hours to upload videos. On top of this it would sometimes choose to freeze in the middle of an upload causing all of my time waiting to come to nothing.

Enough of the excuses on to the blog post proper!

The family that I am staying with is called the Cootes. They are Frank, Shiela, Fran and Jacqui. They are around 60 or so and their daughters are 27 and 30. At first I was not certain about how things would work out (I had previously heard that they were hard to socialize with) but so far things have been good. Shiela does not work and Frank does delivery work of some kind. To my surprise I found out that they are not Catholic, but are Church of Ireland (the equivalent of the Church of England or Anglican) so they are not the stereotypical Irish family. I live in a suburb by the sea called Glenageary and it is a typical Irish suburban area for the most part. There is a Catholic church and a local pub up the road and to get to the seafront it is a 20 minute walk down the hill.

In general things are not too much different here, but it is the little differences that throw you off. Take heating for example. I don't think I can remember being in a centrally-heated building other than a supermarket or bookstore since I have arrived. It is all about the fireplaces and radiators. Another thing is how much smaller everything is. Refrigerators, stoves, washing machines, you get the idea; they're all tiny compared to American sizes.

My commute from my house to school isn't too bad. I just take the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) into the city center and walk for 20 minutes. The nearest station is a five minute walk from my house and the train is generally clean. Taxis are pretty expensive and the bus system never takes you exactly where you want to be, but once you get lost a few times you figure out how to work it. The actual building that classes are held in has some pretty amazing plaster moldings on the ceilings and walls that I will have to take more pictures of. (I had shot a video of the whole building but...you know)

My group is full of pretty laid back and easy to get along with people. Most of them come from the east coast such as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, but there are two people from California as well.

The other day the group was split into four smaller groups and we were told to do a scavenger hunt through different areas of the city. I didn't think it at the time, but once my feet stopped throbbing from walking so much I realized that it was a great way of not only learning the layout of the city, but a good way of learning about the history of the city as well.

So now on to the pictures!