This morning's lecture was by a young Catholic writer named Chris, who spends his days writing and his evenings being a doorman at DaVinci's Hotel. He has recently published a novel about young people coming of age during the Troubles. Chris told us what it was like to grow up in the Catholic neighborhood of Creggan during a time when gun battles and bombs were a common occurrence in his street.
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| The Irish Coast |
In the afternoon, we continued our language and dance lessons. We have now progressed to asking and giving directions (let's hope we're never dependent on our Irish for this, however!), telling people where we're from ("Cá as tú?" "Is as Meirceá mé!"... this is one of the few conversations that's pronounced approximately as it's spelled...) and counting to 20. We are also becoming quite good at the six dances we've learned; the barn-dance heritage of many of us has come in handy here.
The day ended with another lesson on tin whistle at St. Anne's Primary School. The Waterside class surprised Gearald, our teacher, by learning a special piece; this inspired the Cityside class to go one further and try to learn a difficult jig for next week's lesson. (Will they make it? Read next week...) Gearald is very patient and a fun instructor; he's also a native Irish speaker, so we're trying to pick up little phrases from him as well. So far, our favorite command (not from him!) seems to be "Be ciúin!" (Be quiet!)... supposedly only the leaders are allowed to use this to the students, but...
Today's journey took us to two interesting places. Our first stop was the town of Bellaghy, an area that has been inhabited for nearly 9000 years. Here we visited Bellaghy Bawn, an old plantation house that has been restored to serve as a museum honoring one of Ireland's most famous
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| Seamus Heaney Museum |
The house itself dates from the 1600's, built when settlers from England and Scotland came over to farm the land and defend it from the "savage" Irish.
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| Different costumes at Flight of the Earls |
Seamus Heaney has been writing since the mid-sixties and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995. Some of his poetry speaks of the Bellaghy area, where he spent his boyhood, and of family, friends, tragedy and nature. We were able to see a lovely video of Heaney talking about his youth, walking through the local countryside and reciting his poetry.
From there we went on to Draperstown, where we visited an exhibit entitled "The Flight of the Earls". This museum starts its story in 1594 with the rebellion of the four Northern Irish earls against England and Elizabeth I and covers the history leading up to the flight of these nobles to Europe in 1607. The museum's curator, Frank Casey, also provided costumes for some of our group, who then illustrated the various nobles and their family members, soldiers and servants involved in the rebellion. (We're fairly sure the men of the 17th century wore tights under their trousers, however!) The exhibit, with its video presentations, maps and documents, was a fascinating view into the past.
In the evening Terry Boyle came to speak to us about some of the poetry of Northern Ireland. Two of the poems we read, "Desertmartin" (Tom Paulin), and "H-Block Shuttle" (Rita Ann Higgins) were stark commentaries on the Troubles; a great contrast was Yeats' poem "The Lake Isle of Innisfree", speaking of the poet's love for a peaceful life in the country. Terry's comments were very insightful and there was some good group discussion about these poems. (We also appreciate Terry's organization of soccer games for the students!)
Today was a favorite for many of us. We began the morning by
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| Rope bridge at Carrick-a-Rede |
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| Irish Coast near Carrick-a-Rede |
Next we traveled about 10 miles west to the Giant's Causeway. Legend has it that the giant Finn MacCool began the causeway as a path across the sea to see his girlfriend giant, who lived on the Scottish island of Staffa, where similar formations are found. In actuality these formations were caused by volcanic lava 61 million years ago and by the Ice Age 15,000 years ago. What is so amazing is the mathematical precision with which the
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| Dunluce Castle |
Our final stop of the day was Dunluce Castle, perched precariously on a cliff edge overlooking the sea. First built in the Middle Ages, the castle changed hands quite a few times over the centuries. In 1588 it was armed with 3 cannons from the wreck of the Girona, a ship from the Spanish Armada ship. The house inside the castle walls was built by Randall MacDonnell for his wife Catherine,
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| Dunluce Castle |
In the evening, several of the group went with Anne and Gloria to hear the Ulster Orchestra and the Ulster Youth Choir. The new Millennium Forum, a wonderful theatre, has opened since we have been here in Derry, and its acoustics provided us with a lovely concert. We were impressed with the quality of the choir, which has only rehearsed three weeks over the past three years, according to the conductor. With Copland, Fauré, Rutter and Poulenc on the program, it was a nice way to end a lovely day.
Visits to various local organizations made up today's schedule. The group was divided between the Derry Peace and Reconciliation Group, the Oakgrove Integrated Primary School (Protestant and Catholic students in one school), the Travellers (we know them as gypsies in the States),
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| Another view of Dunluce Castle |
A free afternoon was followed by an evening concert by choirs, bands and orchestras from the area. The theme was Pathways of Praise, and the concert gave those in our group who attended a chance to sing and listen to hymns and choruses led by these different ensembles.
This is a day we won't soon forget! We loaded up the bus to head out for the west coast of Donegal and the cliffs of Slieve League. Our bus was not the most luxurious, and the shocks had seen better days, so many Tigger-like bounces were made by those sitting in the rear of the bus as we went over the bumpy roads. We stopped for lunch at the Dunlewey
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| A beach west of Slieve League |
After lunch, we went on towards Slieve League. Not having
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| On the bus |
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| The Irish Coast |
This was free for the group... some attended church, others got some much-needed sleep, and some studied or read. There were some brave men among us who experimented with cricket and a few others played football (soccer)... another beautiful day for weather.
We had our final history lecture with Peter Pyne this morning. He reviewed some of the lecture he'd given us last week, covering
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| The Irish Coast near Carrick-a-Rede |
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| Sarah, Megan R. and Lorin at Dunluce Castle |
In the afternoon, the group was free to study, send e-mails or pursue other interests. Our soccer players met up with Terry at 2:30 for another match.
