Ireland Journal
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Nuala Hayes Kicks-off the Three Rivers Storytelling Festival
“This is the beginning of the story. One day, Bran went walking alone near his home. Hearing music behind him, he looked back often, but he saw nothing. So sweet was the music he lay down and fell asleep. When he awoke, he saw beside him a The quoted text at the beginning of the…
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My Mom Would Be Proud
When Nuala Hayes and I went to the Aidan Heavey Library in Athlone yesterday for her storytelling session, we were met by Mae McLynn and Gearoid O’Brien, who work at the library, and by Paula O’Dornan, who works for the Westmeath County Library system. It was the first time I’d seen them this summer and…
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The First Day of Class
These are the students in the summer 2008 Irish Storytelling Tradition class in Athlone, Co. Westmeath, Ireland. In the back from left to right are Jake McKindles, Lindsey Stokes, Arlyn Schmuck, Amber Watson, Marvin Pettet, and Michael O’Connell. In the front are Ashley Bagley, Alex Shannon, Kalli Fox, Michelle D’Ecclessis, Megan…
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A Day to Get My Act Together
The students are on their first field trip today. We start classes tomorrow because today is a bank holiday and the Athlone Institute of Technology is closed. So, they are off to Boyle Abbey and the Cruachan Ai Center in Tulsk. I stayed behind to contact Gavin and keep an eye…
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The Students Are Here – and a new colleague
On Saturday, Mary and I met the students and our three other colleagues at the Dublin Airport, loaded them on the bus, slogged through the bank holiday traffic – including a two-hour back-up outside the town of Moate – and then got them more or less settled in…
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It’s a Nissan Micra!
In the previous years that I’ve come to teach with Study Abroad Ireland our director, Barry Vaughan, has rented a car for the program. He can’t come this year because he is the president of Maricopa’s faculty association. Mary Aldridge is in charge this year, but she did not want to drive. So, I am…
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Getting Settled
This is Gavin Doorley, the manager at the Croi Oige Student Accommodation, and his was the first familiar face Mary Aldridge and I saw after arriving in Ireland. His face was not completely familiar – I don’t think I’ve ever seen it with a shiner before! He got it last week while rooting for his…
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A Tale Should Be Judicious
A tale should be judicious, clear, succinct; The language plain, the incidents well link’d; Tell not as new what everybody knows, And, new or old, still hasten to a close; There, cent’ring in a focus round and neat, Let all your rays of information meet. What neither yields us profit nor delight Is like a…
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Cushendall, Cushendun and the Glens of Antrim
One day a young woman came upon an old woman washing a stack of tiny white shirts in a river in the north-east corner of Ireland. When she inquired about the shirts the old woman told her, “These are the fairy’s war shirts. There will be a great battle in Scotland tomorrow…
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Storytellers of Ireland
The Storytellers of Ireland website is now live. On it you can learn about upcoming events and find contact information for most, if not all, of the storytellers I’ve been meeting and writing about. On Wednesday night I had the opportunity to meet two of the Storytellers of Ireland…
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Is This Your First Time Home?
First time home. The first Wednesday I was here I walked east on the Dublin Road about a mile to the large roundabout that defines the eastern edge of AthloneTown. My destination was the Creggan Court Hotel where the Weight Watchers meetings in Athlone are held. When I got to the desk to pay I…
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Second Stories
The day before Liz Weir came to class, the students in the Irish Storytelling Tradition experimented with creating simple storyboards as a technique for learning their stories by connecting to its images. Through this exercise I learned that Allison Davis is considering storyboarding as a major once she selects which design college…