Class has been quite interesting. We spent two days on the history of Ireland from BC till around 1800, right before the famine. Martin, our assistant coordinator and teacher this week, has done a fantastic job of explaining how the Irish became who they are today and why the relationship with Britain is so strange. He talked a good bit of the parallels between America and our colonization and revolution and Ireland's similar history. He also was able to explain - not fully, but that's because it's a difficult subject - what caused the separation of the northern 6 counties into what we now know as Northern Ireland and why there was so much turmoil up until recently (and the current trends!). It's intriguing. You'll have to ask me if you're interested, because it's too much to go into here.
We went to St. Audoen's Church Wednesday afternoon. I can't say it was gorgeous (you'll see what a gorgeous church is in a few minutes), but it was unbelievable to think that I was standing in a room built in the 1100s. That's almost 400 years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue; over 600 years before America declared independence, and 900 years from today. Whoa. The church was built in stages throughout the centuries, as different invaders and rulers changed the religions and required different things. This picture is of an excavation site within the church building that was built in the 1400s. They found a cobblestone path from the 1200s that led down to the river Liffey under the building:
Then we went to Christ Church (I have a few pictures from before my camera died). Here's a beautiful church:
After those two churches, we went to Dublin Castle (it's more of a palace than castle, though). The neatest part about Dublin Castle is that it is still in use by the government. They have their inaugurations there every 7 years of the Irish President, they still use it for state dinners, And some of the rooms have been displayed in shows and movies like The Tudors. Here's a picture of the outside of the part of the castle (unfortunately, some of it was destroyed when an accidental fire spread throughout the wooden castle and hit the powder storage tower).
My favorite room had these huge Waterford chandeliers in them: the ladies' sitting room - I am jealous.
After Dublin Castle, we shopped a little and ate at Messrs Maguire's, a microbrewery on the Liffey. I think I mentioned it in the last post.
Thursday, June 3, 2010:
Well Thursday we discussed the famine. Holy cow, what a downer. I'm sure you all know that the famine devastated Ireland; if you didn't, here's a fact: there were more people - over 8 million - in Ireland in 1830 than there are today - around 4.5 million. Martin said it was the only country in the world to experience that loss of population. Here's another fact: the famine was not a total failure of all crops, just the potato crop. Ireland was still exporting grains, vegetables, and fruit to Britain (forced to export, I mean). The potato crop, however, had become the sole crop grown by the poor Irish Catholic tenant farmers. So when it failed, they had absolutely nothing to eat, which then led to them not being able to work and being vulnerable to diseases, which led to them being evicted, which led to their death. It's a terrible, terrible story, and yet one that teaches a lot of lessons. There were so many variables - cultural, political, economic - that had been in place for years that it is impossible to name one ultimate reason why it happened.
to be continued....
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