Because of my Irish ancestry, it had long been my dream to go to Dublin, study Irish history and literature, then go out into the countryside. (Our Irish ancestors emigrated from counties Antrim and Roscommon.) Searching the web, I found UCD's International Summer School, and it was exactly what I wanted.

Liz and Dan and I flew from Chicago to Dublin on Aer Lingus. The weather was gorgeous during a taxi ride to UCD's new suburban campus in Belfield, beyond Donnybrook on the south side of Dublin. We stayed in an apartment in the Belgrove Village student residences.

The first evening, we attended a poetry reading by Nobel-prize winner Seamus Heaney at the old UCD campus near St. Stephen's Green. Afterward, several of us gathered in the pub at a nearby hotel and began to learn about each other. There are 94 of us, and we come from five continents and twenty-five different countries.

Wednesday 30 June. We gathered for the first time at Lecture Theatre P in the Arts Building. We registered, were welcomed by UCD President Art Cosgrove, met program director Fran O'Rourke and administrator Ann O'Dwyer, then heard our first lecture. (All the lectures are listed on a separate page.)

After lunch, we gathered at the Dame Street entrance to Trinity College for a walking tour of central Dublin, guided by a graduate student who took us to the old Bank of Ireland (which had also been home of Ireland's House of Lords), Dublin Castle, Temple Bar, Wood Quay, and Christ Church Cathedral in time for Evensong service. He also pointed out the two ugliest buildings in Dublin: known as the "bunkers", they are charmless government blocks on the site of Dublin's original Viking settlement at Wood Quay. Later we took the bus back to Belfield for the welcome party in the Arts Building.

Thursday 1 July. After morning lectures, we discovered the campus Restaurant (cafeteria) where good meals are in the three-pound ($4) range. We went into town to see the GPO, the River Liffey, and the O'Connell Street shopping area. After dinner a few of us went on the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl, in which a pair of actors guided us to several literary sites and pubs, where they acted out scenes from Irish poetry and drama.

Friday 2 July. After lectures and lunch, we went into town, then planned excursions for the coming weekend.

Saturday 3 July. We went to Trinity College to tour the library, with its Long Hall and the Book of Kells. Then we visited the National Museum and walked around Merrion Square, the best feature of which is a statue of Oscar Wilde at one corner. We were near the summer solstice, and this far north we had daylight until well after ten, and it seemed it never got dark enough to see the stars.

Sunday 4 July. We took the bus to Dun Laoghaire, a seaside town at the south end of Dublin Bay. (Under British rule, it was called Kingstown.) We walked to the Martello tower where James Joyce had lived briefly, walked around the harbor and lighthouse, and ate lunch at the ferry terminal. (Martello towers are squat round fortified towers built in the early 1800s to repel the expected invasion from France. We encountered several such towers.)

We boarded DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) for Howth, at the northern end of the bay. We walked out to the lighthouse, listened to a traditional band, and got tickets for the boat ride to Ireland's Eye. Ireland's Eye is a rocky, hilly island in the Irish Sea, not far from Howth. It is unpopulated, though there are two old structures on it: a Martello tower and a ruined church. But it's a seabird rookery and a hiker's and photographer's paradise. It has empty, sandy beaches as well. We hiked to the highest point on the island, and took lots of pictures. The sun was brilliant and the wind was strong, so our faces were red afterward. Back in Howth, we ate excellent fresh seafood at a restaurant called Bloody Stream, then rode DART and the bus back to UCD.

Monday 5 July was our first field trip with the whole International Summer School group. We boarded two tour buses for the Boyne Valley, in counties Louth and Meath, north of Dublin. Our guide was archeology professor Muiris O'Suilleabhain, who will be the program director in 2000. We saw the Boyne River near the site of the Battle of the Boyne, where in 1690 the Protestant King William of Orange defeated the Catholic King James II, with (as we were repeatedly told) far-reaching consequences.

We explored the Hill of Tara, traditional seat of the High Kings of Ireland and where King Laoire gave St. Patrick permission to teach Christianity. We stopped at the magnificent ruin of Mellifont Abbey, founded in 1142. And we visited Monasterboice, a monastic settlement dating from A.D. 520. Monasterboice is in a beautiful setting and has three magnificent high crosses and a round tower in which the monks took refuge from Viking raiders.

At the end of the day we stopped for drinks and dinner at Dunderry Lodge.

Tuesday 6 July. The group went to the Irish Film Centre for a showing of the film Michael Collins, preceded by a lecture by Prof. Tom Garvin. (Here are links to biographical sketches of Collins and De Valera.) But I skipped all that, and instead listened to live music in St. Stephen's Green, and walked to St. Patrick's Cathedral and Christ Church. Walked along the Liffey, bought gifts, and got dinner in Temple Bar. Meanwhile, the others were visiting Kilmainham Gaol and the Guinness brewery at St. James Gate.

Wednesday 7 July. After lectures we walked to the grocery store on the far side of Stillorgan Road for supplies, which we carried home in backpacks. After dinner, we took the bus into town for a reception in Newman House, where we met Mary Freehill, Lord Mayor of Dublin. Newman House, on St. Stephen's Green, is part of UCD's old campus. It was named in honor of Cardinal John Henry Newman, the founder of the Catholic University of Ireland, which evolved into UCD. The reception was held in a room that James Joyce featured in his Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Thursday 8 July. There were no clouds all day! After morning lectures we went into the city for an evening of music and poetry in Dublin Castle's grand St. Patrick's Hall, where Ireland's presidents are inaugurated. John Hume, MP and Nobel Peace Prize winner, was to give the keynote address -- but the negotiations over the Good Friday Agreement were more pressing and John Montague took his place. Seamus Deane read from his work in progress and Derek Bell of the Chieftains played traditional Irish harp music.

Friday 9 July. After lectures and a quick lunch, we began the optional field trip to Ireland's west coast. We stopped at Clonmacnoise on the banks of the Shannon in County Offaly. Clonmacnoise is a sixth-century monastic site with a cathedral, nine churches, and two round towers. It was raided by the Vikings in 800 and later by the Normans, and finally destroyed by Cromwell. During the afternoon, we passed through portions of Counties Kildare, Laois, Westmeath, and Roscommon. We stayed in a B&B in the resort town Salthill on the edge of Galway.

Saturday 10 July. After breakfast, we gathered at Eyre Square for a walking tour of the colorful city of Galway. Highlights: the Cathedral (newest, and perhaps last, stone cathedral built in Europe), the local boats known as "Galway hookers," Nora Barnacle's home, Salmon Weir Bridge, Spanish Arch, UC Galway -- and the justly famous Kennys Book Shop. Lunch was seafood in Quay Street.

Back on the bus, we drove through Connemara to Clifden then to a beautiful beach, where some of us swam in the surf. Connemara, where Gaelic is still widely spoken, is a glorious expanse of seashore, wildlife, mountains, bog, and heath. For much of the journey, the famous peaks known as the Twelve Bens were in view:

(photo borrowed from http://www.commerce.ie/ardaghhotel/hotel.html)

We ate at a pub in Renvyle, then walked up the hill to our assigned B&B, which had a glorious view of Galway Bay.

Sunday 11 July. Before the bus came for us, we took a walk to admire the views and the wildflowers. It was a beautiful morning. Our first stops were the neo-Gothic Kylemore Abbey and Cong, where John Ford's The Quiet Man was filmed. On to Lady Gregory's Coole Park, where I napped under the "autograph tree" in which Yeats, Shaw, and other notables had carved their initials. At Thoor Ballylee, we toured the medieval square tower that W. B. Yeats bought from Lady Gregory and in which he raised his family.

Monday 12 July. Morning lectures, afternoon nap, then into town for a lovely recital in the John Field Room of the National Concert Hall. Cormac de Barra played the harp music of Turlough O'Carolan. Dearbhla Collins played piano music by Fields and Chopin. John Fields was the Irish composer credited with inventing the nocturne and inspiring Chopin. Afterward, we visited a pub with some of the others, then took a taxi home.

Tuesday 13 July. After one lecture, the rest of the day was a field trip to County Wicklow south of Dublin. The bus took the long and scenic route through wild countryside to Glendalough, in the valley of two lakes (Glen da locha). In the sixth century, St. Kevin came here as a hermit but eventually founded a monastery that became a monastic city and center of learning. The settlement was plundered by Vikings and Normans, and destroyed in 1398, but a round tower, churches, and other ruins remain. It's also at the edge of Wicklow Mountains National Park, and the scenery is gorgeous. Dinner was a picnic by the lake. Beautiful! (Here's a web site devoted to Ireland's National Parks).

Wednesday 14 July. After lectures we took the bus to O'Connell Street to shop for gifts and to see the GPO and the monuments to O'Connell, Larkin, and James Joyce. Walked to Leinster House, the seat of both houses of the Irish Parliament, where we joined the group. We were greeted by Eamon O Cuiv, Minister at the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht -- and grandson of the late Premier and President Eamon De Valera. (The Gaeltacht is the name for the areas where Irish is still spoken.) Then we walked to Abbey Street, north of the Liffey, for dinner in a pub, where we were joined by several classmates and by Derek Bell! Then it was a short walk to the Abbey Theatre for a performance of Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa, preceded by a talk by the Abbey's artistic director.

Thursday 15 July. After lectures at Belfield, we all went to the National Gallery of Ireland, where we heard lectures by the curator of the Yeats Museum and by Anne Yeats -- painter, daughter of W.B., and niece of the painter Jack Yeats.

Friday 16 July. In the morning we heard our last lecture, then a lively panel discussion featuring a former Minister of State, a leader of the Christian Solidarity Party, and a professor of Economics. Then we received our certificates of attendance. Later there was a farewell party in the common room, where the wine and Guinness flowed freely. Each country more or less had to sing at least one song for the group. Some of the performances were comical, and some exquisite: a student from the Czech Republic and another from Slovakia sang, in harmony, the old national hymn of Czechoslovakia. Some of the farewells were quite touching; we had made some good friends here.

We used our free weekend to see Viking Adventure, a tourist attraction dedicated to the founders of Dublin; Dublinia, another attraction with a medieval theme; and the the huge Phoenix Park, where we enjoyed a cricket match, live folk music, and tea on the green. We spent a rainy afternoon in Stephen's Green shopping centre and met some friends for a last long evening of Guinness, laughter, and gossip.

It had been a splendid three weeks. The weather was fine, the Irish people friendly, the scenery superb... The University treated us like distinguished visitors. The lectures and tours were led by outstanding scholars. In summary, we absolutely loved the experience!

Milestone
on Ireland's Eye