Daily Dispatches from Ireland/Northern Ireland

LONDONDERRY — We began our sixth and final day together by checking out of the Maldron Hotel, loading our suitcases onto the bus and settling into our seats for the three-hour trip back to Dublin Airport. Our drive through the sprawling outskirts of the city, past the never-ending lush green fields, was the perfect backdrop…

LONDONDERRY — Our fifth and final full day started with a panel on the healing process in Northern Ireland and the connection between trauma, art and reconciliation. The class heard from Archdeacon Robert Miller, actor Michael Doherty and playwright Jonathan Burgess.  While we ate pastries and drank coffee and tea at the office of the…

LONDONDERRY — When Nobel Prize–winning Irish poet Seamus Heaney traveled from Belfast north to Londonderry on Wednesday, Feb. 2, 1972, the day was bleak and dreary. He wrote in his poem “The Road to Derry” of the “wet wind in the hedges” and “dark cloud on the mountain.” Heaney then described the “flags like black…

BELFAST — During our last day in Belfast we met 10 people, all of whom are an integral part of creating and keeping peace in Northern Ireland. We spoke to victims on both sides of the conflict, senior members of paramilitary groups during the Troubles, leaders of ethnic and religious minority groups in Northern Ireland,…

BELFAST — Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! This morning started bright and early as we prepared for our adventure to Slemish Mountain, once St. Patrick’s home and now a popular pilgrimage hike on his namesake holiday. As we left the city, Belfast’s pink double-decker buses and brick buildings gave way to green fields, grazing lambs and crumbling farmhouses.…

BELFAST — At 8:41 a.m., after a six-hour direct flight, our airplane landed in Dublin. Twelve excited students, Dean Melanie Huff and adjunct professor Liz Donovan arrived chock-full of expectations for the journey. Our arrival was smooth until we reached border control, and things started to look bleak. Student Lauren Hartley had lost her passport. …

BELFAST – The last day of our trip through Ireland started again with a traditional Irish breakfast in the Europa Hotel. The rainy, gray morning skies of Belfast contrasted the occasional green on the streets: a reminder that it was the eve of St. Patrick’s Day. Our class departed each our own way as our…

BELFAST – After another traditional Irish breakfast buffet of eggs, beans and black pudding, we departed Londonderry for Belfast. This time, the ride was sleepier, as we watched the countryside roll by and reflected on the trip so far. Like Londonderry, memories of the conflict were alive in Belfast, with the majority Protestant city, the…

LONDONDERRY – Today, our class began exploring tumultuous divisiveness and violence in Londonderry’s recent history — and ended with an uplifting message of unity and friendship across religious divides.  After breakfast at the Maldron Hotel, we followed Northern Ireland guide, Dr. Barbara McDade, into the Bogside to learn more about the somber echoes of past…

LONDONDERRY – On Wednesday morning, we checked out of Gresham Hotel in Dublin, met our bus driver, Kevin, and began our trip to Derry. (Or is it Londonderry? More on that later.) Most students slept on the bus, curled up in their seats as the rain pattered down the windows. Others had a variety of conversations…

DUBLIN — We started our third day in Ireland at 8:30 a.m. by walking along the south bank of the River Liffey to Christ Church Cathedral. The Protestant cathedral was founded almost 1,000 years ago under the reign of Viking King Sitriuc, according to the church’s website.  Housed within the cathedral are several storied artifacts,…

DUBLIN – After a hearty buffet breakfast of sausages, potatoes, eggs and black and white pudding, we convened in the lobby at 8:45 a.m. – on the dot, as Greg Khalil, our professor, had hammered into our heads the night before. Ian Bermingham, our tour guide from yesterday, was already there in his tweed coat,…

DUBLIN —  We landed in Ireland at about 7 a.m. Sunday and were greeted by typical Irish fog and a spraying of light rain. Though the class was low on sleep, spirits were high. We experienced a momentary scare when half the group was trapped in an airport elevator. But the luck of the Irish…