Irish Society

Today was another beautiful day in Galway -- I did buy sunscreen, and it didn't seem to jinx anything! After class, my friends and I headed to Eyre Square (pics above) for lunch in the park (where we had a cute little bird join us patiently waiting for a bite), and then returned to campus for the showing of our first Irish film, The Quiet Man. It was an entertaining film (starring John Wayne) about a man returning to rural Ireland after years in the states. I am curious to have a discussion on it in class next week. After the movie I came home for dinner with Billy, and then shared tea and scones with Mary (I picked up some fresh scones in the city). It's so great to have a family here!

As I am writing this blog for academic reasons as well as personal, I would like to share some thoughts about my Society lecture today. Our topic was more historical, basically discussing how Ireland got to where it is today. Professor Curtin spoke about socialism and nationalism, and focused a lot on how a group gets the idea to become its own nation. In the case of Ireland, there were unionists who wanted to stay under British rule, and there were nationalists, who were in support of creating their own government. In the end, it was settled that Northern Ireland would stay under British rule, while the rest of the island would become an independent state. (There is of course much more to it than that, but that's my blog summary!) When thinking about how to apply what was learned to my goal of having my students write a play that brings in their diverse background based on what I learn about Ireland's history and literature, I think this lecture illustrated the importance of looking at where my students come from. Not only should we look at the fact that they come from a variety of different countries, but we also need to examine how those countries have been developed. I recently read the book The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and this novel includes a lot of the history of the Dominican Republic. It is certainly not a pretty one, and I'm sure that has effected some of my students' families. I think that when we embark on our writing project, we should spend some time doing historical research on the many different places that they come from, and look for similar themes that we may want to include in our production.

Once again, CONGRATS TO ACLA'S CLASS OF 2009!