Michelle Gilliam in Ireland May 09′

Tonight I felt like Ireland showed me what she is all about. We visited a pub called Da Burca, I went in not really knowing what to expect but I got so much more then I could ever ask for. We met a man called the Rock; he was an elderly man that is the 7th son of a 7th son so he was giving palm readings. He started the sing song as they call it with traditional Irish music but it turned in to me singing a song called stay while by a local Knoxville artist. The songs from me, Rachel, John, and Charles were sung with pressure from the Rock among others. The rock sang to the girls the most. He was fond of our young ladies. The wisdom of this man was all in his eyes. When he looked at you it felt as though he was looking into your past and soul. The way the Irish men in the bar including the Rock sang just sent chills up your spine. There was so much passion in the voices of these men. When you listen to these Irishmen you feel the presence of Ireland and the past peoples before that have sung these tunes of pain, love and travel. This experience has taught me that even in this day and age people still have passion for their heritage and that if you want a strong sense of love and family go to the pub with the older men and they will welcome you into the friendly place they call home.

Cory David Harris

I have my own room here in Cork (Shelia’s Hostel) The other girls are sharing in a larger room. Before the night ends though there will be three of us tucked into my bunk beds. This town feels different. Skinnier streets with taller buildings than Dublin, stealing our horizon and our reference points so before the night ends we will have had three separate groups get lost and all take cabs back to the hostel. Allyson and I had a great lunch at a cafe outside with an awning therefore; when it rained we kept right on and had a 2 and 1/2 hour lunch. The check is never brought here, you must ask for it, nothing is ever rushed and this may effect my internal clock when I return to the states, forewarn given. Our lunch consisted of a shared italian pizza and a bottle of water. Water is something I drink often here: at every meal, morning and night. It tastes wonderful and coming from Tennessee where the tap water is drinkable, Irish tap water taste like bottled water. So a glass bottle comes at every meal. Soda? Who is soda? Our dessert becomes a latte and so much humor we are laughing with side splitting pain. Allyson and I understand each other. We can be quiet and reflecting in each other’s presence or we can be giving each other one- ups being more entertained than any electronic device could attempt. We understand the blunt yet subversive humor that banters off our heads without effort. We have achieved this so well that we have an entire book of one liners. All we have to do is re-read them and we are taken again to a memory of relinquished laughter. We have a deputation of us now that seem to enjoy this odd humor birthed out of long hours without REM sleep.

Later that night we disperse into small groups for dinner, again remember a herd of Americans converging on a small resturant on the side streets of Cork is just “Obnoxious”. We find the service here is even more pleasant when eating a meal but otherwise there is a feeling of uppidyness in the speech, dress and looks from the Corkians(my own word). Later we all meet at a pub called Clancys where a U2 coverband is getting warmed up, a one hour OCD tinkering by the guitarist. I was more than ready when they started, feeling I had been teased to the point of pain. In the days of Ipods I have not heard U2’s songs at this decibel in my life. This is the decibel where audible conversation, even when lips are touching ears, is impossible. For three hours our knees bounced, heads nodded while our minds disappeared into self reflection that comes only in extreme silence or extreme noise. Alone in the crowd, I disappeared into a time when U2 sang these old songs. Remembering them on the radio, driving back in the states on the long highways from Tennessee to Florida. Allyson and Emmy and I agreed we would leave once we heard “With or Without you”. It happened about midnight and so went home full of thoughts, sounds and visions that would dance in our head all night.

So… It’s a beautiful day in Cork. Charles and I have decided to make the long trek to the Black Tower. It’s a beautiful tower and super old! Why not? So off we go… soon the clouds begin to roll in (this is typical of the Irish weather). It began to sprinkle as we asked for directions and how long it would take. Another 30 minute walk was ahead of us. “We’ve already come this far! Let’s just finish it.” And so we did… but the sprinkling turned into raining and the raining turned into pouring and the pouring into a monsoon! There we were… a mile from town and a mile from the tower- drenched. head to toe. The paper bags holding the things we had bought were no longer useful. Water had soaked through my boots (this was a feat all on its own) and raincoat. My hair was ruined. We hailed a cab and finally made it to our destination. 6 euro later… we walked through a kiddie museum. All of that for a ten minute walk through a kiddie museum!!!! We called another cab and paid more money to get back to the hostel. Let’s just say… Cork was an adventure. - Racheal Christiansen

Miles and miles of green,

speckled yellow flowers,

May’s  glory.

Walls of rocks don’t look

dividing, but orderly and good;

old and gray like the ancestors

looking over the land;

walls of wisdom overseeing

 the new life in the young Irish.

The sky is always talking here

with fast moving clouds of grey.

White and blue pens writing history

as time moves on.

Rain comes and goes,

sun runs and shows.

‘All in stride’ is carried

to every nuance of life.

Irony follows

And laughter heals

in the moment.

Not in the past

or mind’s future

just enjoying

what is and not what was

or thinking too hard

about what will be,

just stealing time.

We were slow to meet the students who were in their last week of school but a few of us did and found that the place to go for our second night was called County. This was a great night meeting Irish girls and boys. My favorite story of the night was all the girls fixing up Charlie for his big night out. He wore Cory’s jeans,shirt, and shoes. I fixed his hair. Every girl had some kind of input. As we entered the place there was hardly anyone there but then it filled up in 30 minutes, “The Americans are here” seemed to be the buzz on cellphones. In walked Maria, a beautiful red head and her friend Tara. Thanks to Cory introducing himself, Charlie’s shyness may have prevented the introduction. It did not take long before Maria and Charlie were talking fast and later dancing, ending with a ten minute kiss that everyone awed. It is not advertised and most certainly not promised, but many hope they will come to Ireland and have a romance, Charlie found his.(cute)

Thurles is a sleepy little town where everything closes at five. The town square has pharmacies, coffee/sandwich shops and pubs. We have made our markers and learned the simple layout of a town that has the same population of Pellissippi State (my college). We made it to the Montestory, Saint Patricks, and threw our suitcases in our assigned rooms. I have my own room with a bathroom. Both rooms have a large window with a view of the Cathedral and a huge cypress. We raced to the local “magnet” school where 9-11 y.o. boys and girls sang to us in gaelic and recited poetry. Their faces look so much like the children of East Tennessee. There are the typical blonde haired, blue eyed with freckles but there are also the ‘dark irish’ and the most beautiful one I have met is Lara from the Tipperary Institute where we take classes. She had dark hair, blue eyes and freckles. Our first night in Tipperary we were exhausted from the nonstop pace of Dublin and stayed inside. We get dinner every night at 5:30 from the lovely nuns at St. Pats. Tonight we washed clothes. And like a slumber party we sat around and talked, it was the beginning of the bonding.

a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/38198497@N02/3545899896/” title=”Sara, Racheal, Emily and Allyson by mlnuttgill, on Flickr”>Our favorite pub in Dublin became Oliver St. John Gogarty Temple Bar. It is where we started the pub crawl our first night. Interesting pub, it has live irish music upstairs and below it plays the oddist montage of american music. No one would ever hear: Beyonce, Kenny Rogers, and U2 all in the same place back in America. I suppose that is why we love it is much. It accommodated the 14 of us and our unique blend of music as well as exposing us to culture. John reveled in the traditional Irish music longer than all of us since he knew many of the words. He visited Ireland back in the 80s. This pub ironically enough though had Spainiards, Welch, English, French and Croatians but no Irish; therefore we ended up calling it the United Relations Bar. An English man told me after the night was coming to a close that I was the nicest American he had ever met. I told the group later ‘ I was glad I could help diplomatic relations.’ He was a fireman who just had his tooth knocked out by a fire extinguisher. It was a fun night where you talk to 10 foreigners all in one night and get a little piece of their story. Just being in a setting like that was amazing. Of course on our bus trip to thurles we joked, now we are ready to meet some Irish people; since Dublin was full of so many internationals. We were not disappointed when arriving to Thurles….

The Jameson Distillery is a stop we made on our second day. This is one of my favorite memories yet… I hope it is conveyed as funny as when we experienced but I know it will not be. For my side was splitting in pain and I was reduced to tears. So keep in mind this is a “had to be there kind of story” but such a good one it is worth telling. 

We bought our tickets but the tour did not start for 20 minutes. Elaine passed the tickets out to Theresa (Tn cis), Charlie (student), Emily(student), and myself. There were only five of us because we frequently paired off and did our own thing… 14 people in one restaurant is just a “bunch of obnoxious Americans” . We are usually close by each other but …back to story. Emily and I shop in the gift shop and there were some bathroom breaks. (Actually everyone here calls it the toilet. The signs even say so.) Before the tour starts, Emily is looking for her ticket to get ready to go inside the theatre room. She has lost her ticket (8euros) But we did not fret long because Elaine pulls out a ticket and said she found one beside the sink in the bathroom, she had thought it was her own. So we proceed to take the tour… a 10 min video and then a guided tour of these rooms that are a remake of the distillery. Half way through I am anticipating the end, the serrated stub at the end of my tickets affords me the chance to try Jameson, something I have never done. I had stuffed my ticket inside my coat. It is not there. I frantically am looking through my clothes when Elaine walks up to me and in her british accent “Whats wrong?” I tell her I have lost my ticket. She plainly says “Well I just found one on the floor” while she pulls my ticket out of her purse for the second time. At this point my sleep deprivation is slipping in and the giddyness is on high. I can not bellieve Elaine keeps finding our tickets we keep losing. I recompose myself and we continue on the tour without too much of an interuption. Into the next room we are again the last ones to leave each room while the 20 -30 people proceed with the guide to the next location. But we linger a bit here because frantically charlie comes up to us and has lost his ticket as well. At this time I lose it, laughing so hard while I am trying to tell Theresa what has occurred during the course of the tour.(She is trying to compose us). My story is filled with a hoarse vice of  “and then”, and “and then”, over and over till I finally spit it out this magic purse that keeps spitting out tickets,while Elaine is leaning against the wall crying with laughter. We are all laughing so hard while I tell Elaine, she must go help Charlie find his ticket because she is the only one who can (with a dramatic emphasis). the ticket is found- we gain composure but as we enter the next room we find that the 20-30 people and the guide were all quietly watching our breakdown of sleep deprivation. By then we welcomed a straight shot of Jameson.