— Mary Anne Radmacher
After months of anticipation, and two weeks of study at Walsh Jesuit, the students’ time to transition to Ireland had arrived. The journey began in Cleveland airport Saturday morning where anxious students and families parted ways. After four gate changes in Charlotte, and a delayed US Airways flight (with no TVs), the students finally arrived in Dublin, Ireland. I arose at 5 am to finalize final preparations for the group’s arrival. I made my way down to Dublin Airport, with the coach, and was able to greet the group upon their arrival. We made a quick stop at an Irish Toll Road rest stop and then made our way north to Belfast. Students anticipated that they would cross a clearly demarcated border on the 90 mile journey to Belfast. But the border, which has been the source of so much pain and conflict, was hardly noticed; except by speed limits signs changed from kilometers to miles and mobile phones switching from IRL to UK networks. We arrived in Belfast around 12:30 pm and the Queen's University hospitality staff welcomed the students and assigned them their dorm rooms.
The students then quickly settled into their rooms and were greeted formally by Mr. Lennon. Students were delighted to meet the man of mystery from the Skype Conference last month. He took us on a Da Vinci Code paced campus and city tour to acclimate the students to the city. The day was beautiful and filled with laughter. The weather was great; similar to an "Indian Summer" day at home. Our group even became the focal point of the cameras of Chinese tourists at Queen’s main campus! They were not even disappointed when they learned we were Americans!
We then had a great dinner at Pizza Express and made our way back to Queen's Elms. We had a quick evening meeting and prepared for our first full day of course work at Queen's University. The students socialized for bit, prepared for tomorrow, and went to bed (Bed time tonight was 9:30 PM). Rest assured that your sons and daughters are doing well. I was proud of the way they fought against the jet lag and kept going in order to adjust to the Irish time. Many of us are meeting at 6:30 am to start the first day of "Running Club."
It is hard believe that our time in Ireland has arrived. We are here as citizen ambassadors to learn from the lessons of the Irish Peace Process and form relationships with the people of Ireland: north and south, unionist and nationalist, Republican and Loyalist. The Ireland of imagination will now meet the Ireland of reality. Samuel Johnson once said, “The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” Students are stepping onto the land that shaped men as diverse as Heaney, Yeats, Bono, Van Morrison, Bobby Sands, Carson, Paisley, and Adams, and will be shaped in turn. I hope that their encounter with Ireland and her people will leave them with an infinitely richer, and more complex, understanding of this amazing place.
~ Daniel Kilbane Bizga
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