Dublin to Derry

I went with my Modern Irish Literature class on a week-long trip to Ireland, which is a pretty fantastic deal I would say. We took RyanAir, and although reviews online mention instances where the airline employees, halfway through conversation, feigned not knowing English when faced with difficult problems, our flight was uneventful (although there was pretty loud techno music playing for a lot of it).

We started in Dublin. We went on a lot of tours, of the sites of the Easter 1916 rising (including the post office, HQ of the republicans and still a fully functioning post office today), of Kilmainham Gaol (which conveniently housed like every single Irish republican from the 19th to the early 20th century), of Glasnevin Cemetery (where our tour guide pointed out that you can write that you're an in the IRA or any other illegal organization when you're dead as they can't arrest you then). We also saw a fantastic exhibition on WB Yeats (which noted that Yeats had a vasectomy late in life so that he could experience a 'second puberty'), the James Joyce Martello tower (the site of the first chapter of Ulysses, complete with old Irish swimmers bathing in the freezing, turbulent waters of Dublin bay, and the Book of Kells (one of the most famous and beautiful illuminated bibles, full of gorgeous Celtic designs and definite influences from the East, the Middle East, Germany, etc). We also went on a musical pub crawl which involved a lot of Guinness (it's better in Dublin) and very talented Irish folk musicians who explained their craft and then performed a lot of traditional songs.

After a few days in Dublin, we headed to Derry, or Londonderry. The name depends on where you are and who you're talking to; in the Republic of Ireland, it's Derry, but in the North it's Londonderry due to the fact that London sent over its guilds centuries ago to set up shop there, and the name people use depends on whether they're republicans or unionists (consequently, the 'London' is crossed out on a lot of the signs in the North). Derry was home to a lot of the bloodiest fighting during the Troubles of the past forty years, including both the Battle of the Bogside and Bloody Sunday (in which the British military killed thirteen civil rights protesters), and the city's past is commemorated in a lot of giant murals throughout. It's quite safe now (although the Catholic and Protestant populations are becoming more and more stratified), and the people are unbelievably warm and welcoming. Also the city itself is really cool, with the only complete city wall in Britain never to be breached, and probably some of the steepest commercial streets I have ever seen.

Derry's location also set us up to do numerous trips to the countryside. On the way from Dublin we stopped at Newgrange, a prehistoric tomb that's older than Stonehenge or the Pyramids. We also went to Grianan of Aileach, an Iron Age fort in Donegal, and from there Malin Head, northernmost point of Donegal and Ireland, at the same latitude as about halfway up Newfoundland. Malin Head, which we arrived at right as the sun began to set, featured the most riveting, majestic scenery I have ever seen, with giant cliffs overlooking the sea and enormous multicolor waves and basically the sort of landscape that makes you feel like this guy. After all this we returned home to London.

It's crazy that this semester is nearly over. Two more weeks of classes, and then I go to Budapest for a week, and then I go back to America. In a lot of ways it will be nice, but in a lot of ways I am totally unprepared.