Last Day!

We can't believe it's over, but tomorrow morning we begin leaving at 5:30 am; most will leave Trinity at 7. By 10am, everyone will be airborne and leaving Ireland. Twelve of us arrive at 10:20 pm on United--don't forget to pick up your loved one.

We had a cheerful fairwell dinner at an Italian restaurant on Anne Street. Here's a final picture for the blog. See you in Charleston . . .

Book of Kells

This morning Trish (our resident Medievalist) brought everyone to see the Book of Kells, a 9th-century Gospel codex with some magnificent examples of Celtic illumination. A page from book is depicted here.

In the afternoon, some went to the Hill of Howth with Joe for the dramatic "cliff walk." The final pages of Ulysses are on the Hill, when Molly remembers her husband, Leopold, asking her to marry him.

Those who didn't go on the hike visited museums, etc. here in town.

Tomorrow is our last day--a day for students to choose what they want to do themselves.

I'm sorry I'm two days behind. The internet is better in Dublin than Sligo, but there are more distractions. Sunday was "free" day, and everyone scattered to their own interests. I've a picture here of Shannon, Peter, Allison, and Logan at Croke Park (capacity 82,000), where we saw Cork demolish Donegal in the All-Ireland Gaelic football quarterfinals.

On Monday we went to Kilmainham, one of the solemnest places in all of Ireland: many of the martyrs of Irish nationalism were imprisoned here or executed, including fourteen of the sixteen men and women commemorated in Yeats's "Easter 1916": And what if excess of love/ Bewildered them till they died?/ I write it out in a verse--/ MacDonagh and MacBride/ And Connolly and Pearse/ Now and in time to be/ Wherever green is worn/ Are changed, changed utterly:/ A terrible beauty is born.

From the sacred to the banal: we could barely get home on the trolley because of the crush of "Dubs" headed to next quarter-final, Kerry v. Dublin. The hometown boys lost, just like last year.

The literary vein today was a visit to the famous Martello Tower at Sandycove, the site of the opening chapter of Joyce's Ulysses. Below the Tower is the "Forty Foot Hole," where crass Buck Mulligan took his morning swim. Logan got us bragging rites by braving the frigid waters of Dublin bay. He's the seal-like creature in the middle of this picture.

Today was a great day for weather, and we needed it, because we did a five-mile hike from the resort coastal town of Bray (where we encountered an amusement park) to Greystones. Here's a picture of everyone but Joe (who's taking the picture) and Morgan and Jade (who skipped the hike). In order, we have Peter, Eric, Megan, Trish, Logan, Kristen, Langston, Shannon, Allison, Alexa, Emory, and Ariel. It's an extraordinary group of students, and Trish and I feel privileged to be showing them Ireland.

Yesterday we visited Glendalough (or Glen of the Two Lakes). You can see one in the background here, the lower lake. Megan, Langston, Jade, Kristen, Alexa, and Ariel hiked quite a ways up towards the Spinc to pose for this picture. It was our first day of really bad weather--rain, cold, wind.

Glendalough is a monastery town first settled in the 6th century by St. Kevin, the St. Francis of Ireland. For centuries, Glendalough was the capital city of Leinster, the eastern province of the island.

You can see part of the monastery behind Emory, Jade (and Shannon): a stone-roofed church called St. Kevin's kitchen.

We said goodbye to Leslie, our coach driver yesterday evening, and then many of us went to Oliver St. John Gogarty's in Temple Bar to hear a couple hours of Irish music.

The East Coast!

An uneventful day, as we took our bus across the country to Dublin, on the east coast. We stopped at the Lake Isle of Innisfree (which inspired Yeats's most famous poem), took a few pictures, and headed out of Sligo.

We all arrived safe and sound at Trinity College in the heart of the hibernian metropolis. After a brief orientation and a stern word of caution, Trish and I sent everyone on their way for the evening. Tomorrow morning it's breakfast at the "buttery" and then our last day with Leslie, our driver, who'll take us to beautiful Glendolough.

I'll try to get pictures up of Innisfree, but the Trinity server is not that great and keeps collapsing.