Day 8 - Irish Studies & Service

Our correspondent today is Matt Risser:

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.

Sir Winston Churchill

After a long night of goodbyes and good lucks to the recently departed Mrs. Varnish, we awoke to the sound of a frantic rapping at the door. Gina promptly waking everyone so we were not late to our morning classes. After all of us ate a quick breakfast we left for class at Queens. Our lecturer today was wily British gentleman named Dr. Dominic Bryan. His class was entitled, The Peace Process and Devolved Government. Dr. Bryan is the Chair of the Irish Studies Department at Queen’s; but is on a sabbatical. He is well versed on the peace process in Ireland and has academic interest in the symbolism of paramilitary flags.

As we began class, we learned a lot about Dr. Bryan and his background, a British Catholic who was for the most part unbiased in his views of the peace process throughout the lecture. He touched on the problems leading up to the troubles; but he particularly stressed the peace agreements and the aftermath of the Good Friday or Belfast Agreement. He emphasized that although peace agreements in Ireland have been made, there are still strong divisions in society and government. Only in time will be able to tell how united Northern Ireland’s communities will become in the future. The most important lesson that I learned from Dr. Bryan is that, although agreements can be made between warring factions, “solutions take time.” The insight he presented can be applied to conflict situations universally.

After class, we ate lunch at the dorms, and then left for our service. Service today began at the Conway mill. We were given a brief history of the old linen mill and its operations during the early 19th century; while were invited to tea and biscuits (cookies), which is a very common way of bringing friends into an environment in Ireland. We toured a radio station and Katie was able to guest DJ for a moment. Later we began handing out community awareness fliers from the Community Intervention Project. We had numerous interactions with the local community; including stray dogs and young children eager to lend a hand in distributing the fliers. At the end of our service, we met President of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, as he unveiled a new playground in the neighborhood in which we had just completed our community service.

After our service the night began. Mr. Bizga ordered a delicious gourmet cuisine unknown to many in the states, Dominos Pizza! We all ate and then dressed up for the night ahead. At 7 PM we went to the historic Belfast Opera House to see the play Blood Brothers. The play is the story of twin brothers that are separated at birth by their mother. They grow up best friends, unaware of their kinship, and the tale through their relationship touches on all aspects of human relationships. With a stellar cast and music, as well as intense scenes of gunshots coming from the audience, Blood Brothers was definitely the best play I have ever seen. After the close of the play our Belfast connoisseur, Mr. Bizga, took us to across the street to experience some traditional Irish music. The band was excellent; even including an interesting rendition of “Loosing my Religion.” At the end of the day we closed with a great reflection and some cold pizza.