This is a guest blog post from our student social media ambassador, Garrett. Currently studying abroad on the semester program, “Conflict, Peace, and Transition in Northern Ireland” at our program in Derry-Londonderry.
Halloween at New Gate (my internship) went off without a hitch, and I am now the happy owner of a DeLorean photo op! For my part in the performance, I threw on a Hawaiian shirt and rattled away on a prop piano (pronounced: broken, out of tune piano) with strobe lighting above and highland dancers below. Over the 3 nights we had probably thousands of people watch, grooving along to Johnny B. Goode and The Power of Love, and I was even able to swap out with a coworker’s daughter to watch the performance myself. It was incredible! I’m so proud to work with these incredible artists, and I hope events like this can continue to enrich the arts here in the Fountain neighborhood.
October also featured our group’s week away to the southern border counties of Tyrone, Fermanagh, and Armagh. With a stop to the Ulster American Folk Park, Nigel (our program director) released us back to the wilds of the States, treading out the journey of migrants from the Emerald Isle to the New World. So many cute era shops, but more importantly a great sense of the history binding these Ulstermen to the proud Scotch-Irish we know back home. We got a pretty incredible tour, and heard some great stories from local period actors. We even got to burn some peat! Incredible earthy smell, but all it could make me think of was how much I missed the smell of firewood back home! They don’t burn much wood here…
The border counties trip was most importantly about engaging with local groups, outside the first and second cities of Belfast and Derry. The experience of the conflict was much different out there, and we heard firsthand how people have continued to live so close to the legacy of that. I’d like to thank the founders, staff, and community members of the South East Fermanagh Foundation, UISCE, and Crossfire Trust for sharing their time with us.
Something a bit easier to share is the experience of the border itself. Although I don’t think the impact is quite the same without being there and hearing what we’ve heard about how conflict and peace have been fought for over this border, it was impressively simple. A historic international boundary, its meaning changed in the last hundred years since the partition (division) of the island, the establishment of the republic, the joining of the European Union, and now the exit of the UK – this imagined line represents something huge. And it’s invisible. Today most people zip across it without even knowing. You might only know you’ve crossed the border by the change in road signs, or the quality of the roads. We students could have walked right over it never knowing. Only Nigel knew. A little stream, barely more than a ditch drain, passes under the road through a culvert. And that’s the line. Invisible. Imagined. Historic.
This past month I also had a chance to get away for a Saturday, spending the day at the beach and cliffsides near Castlerock. Grabbed a quick tea and cake for breakfast before hitting the coasts which, as always, showed off their gorgeous basalt, and I took a dander (i.e. stroll) about Downhill Demesne and Mussenden Temple. A Midwesterner’s description of the day wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the cows at pasture. Oh cows.
We’re wrapping up our midterm break here now as November starts in earnest. A time to refresh and reset, many of us took to traveling around the island while we had time. Myself, though I spent a lot of time with the Halloween performances at New Gate, took the chance to hike the Causeway Coastway. An absolutely magnificent 25 miles between Portstewart and Carrick-a-rede over 2 days, I was able to slowly take in some of the coastal scene we zipped past on our first week. From St. Patrick’s Well to Ramore Head, Lacada Point to Runkerry House, and the Causeway Amphitheatre to Black and White Beach, it was an absolute joy to just get out and breathe the fresh air along the washing ocean waves. Really humbling to take the bus back along my route in under 20 minutes though!
Tomorrow I’ll be heading to Belfast to tour Crumlin Road Gaol (a historic prison) and attend a concert by the Ulster Orchestra, “Worlds of Fantasy”. Full of music from video games, superhero movies, and stories of swords like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, I’m very much looking forward to this final getaway before heading back to the very real world of internship again.
See ya later!
