Hillwalking

Andrew and I attempted to join a hillwalking group to go hiking, but upon arriving, we discovered we weren't appropriately dressed--no jeans or sneakers allowed given the bog and wetness. Thus, we went on a walk near Marlay Park--You will see there is area where some clear cutting had been done--not sure on the reason behind that. You can see the sea in the panorama view. Andrew is standing near a typical stone wall that goes along many of the road ways here--just on the other side were a herd of sheep. You'll see at the top of the hill there was actually some snow on the ground. We saw several people walking dogs here and a few groups of boys running to the top--wearing shorts! The tree is actually a fake tree which doubles as telephone pole. There were three in total in this area. We had walked by them since we arrived and not notice it at all until today!

An Afternoon in Dublin

Andrew and I spent the afternoon in Dublin--Laura had the flu and opted to stay home! The statute is of Daniel O'Connell, which is found on O'Connell Street! The tourist blurb on this is "This statue is of Daniel O'Connell (featured on the old £20 note), politician, patriot, and champion of the temperance movement. He gained the right for Irish Catholic to enter parliament in London in 1829 (Ireland was then ruled by the England) and later campaigned peacefully for the repeal of the Act of Union of 1801 (when Ireland became officially part of the UK) but was forced to stop by the English armies who threatened his large meetings (1 million+) with cannons (Ireland became a republic in 1919). Look closely and you should see bullet holes from the battles of 1916-'21."

There are several kinds of street artists--musicians, painters, etc. Here is an artist located at nearby the O'Connell statute--the picture doesn't do the painting justice! The river here is the Liffy--this divides Dublin between North and South. The walking bridge is one of the original pedestrian bridges across the river. The church below is located off of Grafton Street--a busy tourist shopping area. We spent the afternoon in the Museum of Decorative Arts and History--they had a special exhibit on Soldiers--appropriate for their location in an old British Barracks.

Temple Bar

We spent several hours this day waiting in state department offices--first to get Laura a Pupil number--somewhat like a SSN for her school. Next, we went to the Garda (Police) that oversees immigration and registered. We were fingerprinted and had our forms reviewed. In the end we received a card that states our status as student for Laura and short-term worker for me. Andrew hung out at Trinity College while we were in lines and got to catch a football match. Afterwards we hit the Temple Bar area for dinner. A visit wouldn't be complete without the requisite pictures! We were in the area pretty early, so not as much was going on. The Temple Bar area is hosting a Traditional Festival next week and we will plan on attending some of the musical events and dancing. There will be a craft market set up as well!

Dublin Institute of Technology

This is Mountjoy Square, the place where my office in Dublin Institute of Technology is located. You can see that the college is part of a Georgian building. I'll post a copy of my office when I get it.

DIT is one of the 20 main publicly funded tertiary education institutions in the state--7 are university status and 13 are institutes of technology. According to the OECD report, "Higher Education in Ireland," DIT was established in 1978 via an amalgamation of six vocational colleges and is the largest institute. In 2001, DIT was accorded full degree awarding powers--for first, masters, and doctoral degrees). There is a push on to set up a state tertiary education system--currently the Higher Education Authority oversees the universities and the Department of Education and Science oversees the institutes. DIT has 11 locations throughout the city. The website for the college is http://www.dit.ie/

My research interest is to see how the strategic policies are influencing the formation of partnerships--I'll do a survey to first determine the range of partnerships and then do some case studies on some. I'm also interested in learning more of faculty work here and will figure out what I might do in that area too. The conversations with US faculty teaching here have been interesting and I'd love to hear more of those stories!

National University of Ireland--Maynooth

We spent the weekend at the National University of Ireland--Maynooth. The photos here are the section of the campus that is part of the seminary. The newer part of the campus is located a short walk away and isn't quite as picturesque. The chapel is St. Patricks and was very ornate. It is set up like the chapel at William and Mary with pews on either side facing each other for the seminarians and priests to do choral presentations and responses back and forth. There are currently about 60 men enrolled in the seminary which is a seven year program. We ate in the cafeteria with them--it was exams weeks on campus so everyone was pretty busy studying and taking exams. We had workshops in Irish, on Irish history and literature, and on Irish mythology. It was quite interesting. We traveled to Rath Chairn, a small community which was settled in 1930 in attempts to keep the Irish language alive. The night we were at their center was a talent show night. We saw some of the competition in which entrants had to do three different talents--several sang, danced, played the pipes or drums, or the guitar. This all transpired in Irish. By the end of the evening we felt woefully inadequate since we couldn't speak Irish and had no talent. We were trying to think if presenting a paper or writing an article would count and thought not! Laura bought a tin pipe at the store to begin practicing. Here is a website with more on the settlement. http://www.rathcairn.com/

Fulbright Group

Here is a photo of the entire Fulbright group and assorted family members. This year is the largest number for the Fulbright program--13 scholars in all and others on arts/culture scholarships and exchanges. During our orientation, we received Irish lessons--I can barely count to 10 and say hello. I'm practicing here with Justin--who is from Home Land Security back home and working on research here with the Garda for his dissertation from Oxford.

Newgrange

Newgrange is a tomb about 45 minutes outside of Dublin. It is 5000 years old--pretty amazing feat in the building of it. On the winter solstice, the sun comes through a small opening and lights the inside of the temple area. You have to walk about 100 yards to get into the space and they warn if you are claustrophobic, to stick to the back. Some of the spots are pretty narrow, so heavy donut eaters may have trouble too. It was pretty windy and cold the day we were there, but on the walk back to the visitor center we were treated with a full rainbow in the horizon--no luck in finding the pot of gold however. Here is a weblink for more on the site. http://www.knowth.com/newgrange.htm

National Gallery of Ireland

Here are some pictures from the National Gallery of Ireland. This museum is actually closed to the public--in 2007 one of its marble cantilever staircases fell down during a tour with 11 visitors on it! We saw the damaged area--and took a different route. It looked like not much had been done with the renovation given funding at this stage. The museum had been scheduled to close prior to the accident, but the press was pretty bad.

This is an historic Victorian museum. It reminded me of the children's book "From mixed up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" with us being in the museum when you weren't supposed to be! The displays are now historically significant and contained a number of extinct species--including a dodo bird shown here. Also shown is an extinct Irish deer--amazing span for its antlers! Another unique part was several pieces created out of blown glass to look like examples of species, like jelly fish and other things hard to have stuffed or perserved--they have one of the largest collections, with others in the Corning Glass museum. This was a favorite stop.

National College of Ireland

Here are some shots from the National College of Ireland. This college is only partially supported by the state (which is how they label the governmental support). The rate of support is about 38%--the rest coming from fund development and only some fees are charged. Relative to others in the system, this is a poorly state funded college. The majority receive 80% of their funding from the state--relative to an average of about 30% in the states (William and Mary only gets 18% from the state). You'll see the mission statement shows a big commitment to second chances. The college offers remedial support to those needing it--reminded me of the open access of the community college, but there is not real straight equivalent of institutional levels. This college had been renovated recently and is a section of Dublin that is under renovation and would have traditionally been in the dock area--like below the tracks. The president of the college spoke with us and discussed some of the financial challenges going on now.

Apartment

Here are a few shots of our apartment. It is located right across the street from Laura's school.

Jameson Tour

We did a bus tour of the city on our first Sunday in town, which included a stop over at the Jameson Whiskey factory. We toured the original site--which no longer makes whiskey there--and learned all the steps in the process. Jameson's is distilled three times compared to Jack Daniels which is only distilled once. Obviously, this is why the Jameson is so smooth! Not sure we were the best to distinguish this. I couldn't bring myself to volunteer to be a taste tester of the three whiskey's since a few sips of the Jameson with cranberry juice was even a bit much. Laura took a swig and didn't care for it much. Next we'll have to try to tour the Guinness factory!

Moving in

This is the front of the apartment house--we waited for a short bit with all our luggage for the agent to arrive. We didn't travel too lightly with six pieces of luggage. The cabbie who dropped us off had actually rented the same apartment six years ago so knew the tricky way into the drive and all the low-down on the area including nearby pubs. Here I'm counting out my euros for the down payment--the money seems to run through your fingers here! Laura likes the looks of it--quite colorful. I'm still trying to get used to the coins and how to figure out the amounts.

Laura--1st Day of School

Here is Laura set for the first day of school at Wesley College. The school is located just across the street from our apartment--which you can get a glimpse of in the background. As you can see, she has to wear a uniform with regulations governing the length of the skirt (which she has found most girls ignore!) and official insignia on the pieces. She loves the school and has already made fast friends. She spent her first Saturday in Dublin with a group of the girls who gave her a tour of the must see tourist spots. She'll be already to be a guide if you come for a visit!

Touring

This is the garden area at the Museum of Modern Art--You can almost see Laura!

Taking Off

Here are Laura and I getting ready to leave from Detroit. We had just received about 2 1/2 feet of snow during the week of Christmas/New Year's and were hoping for good weather on the other side of the pond! We flew from Detroit to Boston to Shannon to Dublin. We left Detroit on Friday morning and arrived in Dublin around 7:30 am on Saturday with all the time zone changes. Many crying babies on the cross Atlantic flight allowed for little sleeping!

Address

We have settled into our flat and finally have an address and most importantly an Internet connection. I'll work this weekend on getting up some pictures and text on what we've been doing!

Pamela Eddy and Laura Pape
1 Derrickbawn Court
Ballinteer Road
Dundrum
Dublin 16