Liz Warren | Storyteller

             Clare Murphy, who kicked off the first week of the Three Rivers Storytelling Festival, is a serious student of Irish myth.  After we met in Ballinasloe on Wednesday afternoon, we spent the rest of the day talking about myth, how to find it, craft it, tell it, and especially how to build audience for it. …

Clare had a busy day on Thursday.  Her session at the Aidan Heavey Library started at 11:00.  I got there just before 12:00 and she was still going strong.  I was just in time to hear the Irish version of Clever Manka.  I got to say hello to Mae McLynn, the librarian there that I…

             Wednesday afternoon at the Ballinasloe Library, Clare Murphy officially launched the 2nd Annual Three Rivers Festival.  I’d never heard her before, and I was completely captivated.  She told the best version of The Storyteller at Fault that I’ve ever heard. Click here to see a version of the story. Her version of how CuChulainn got…

              As you can see, Study Abroad Ireland has mandated a hairstyle for its male participants. This is our director, Barry Vaughan giving his commendable and riveting mini-lecture on Dunamase Castle while sitting on the ruins of same.  On either side of him sit two of our three male students, Ryan on the left and Jeremy…

            Yesterday was a bank holiday in Ireland.  Study Abroad Ireland always uses the holiday to take an excursion. We all piled on the mini-bus (there are only 20 of us including faculty) at 10:30 and headed for Emo Court.  Emo Court is a Palladian style manor house, built in the 1800’s and designed by the…

                                Last week before we left, we got an email from Barry telling us that it was rainy, rainy, rainy and cold.  He reminded us to bring proper clothing and to be prepared for a very different kind of summer.               When we got off the plane on Saturday morning the sky was a…

                 We arrived yesterday morning after an undramatic, uneventful set of flights. After we got to Athlone and got more or less settled, we all walked down to The Shack Old World Inn, home of the Hog’s Rose Brewery, commonly known as The Shack.  Study Abroad Ireland's director, Barry Vaughan (standing in the white shirt), bought a…

I've been holding my breath the last few weeks as we waited to learn whether MCC's Study Abroad Ireland Program would make.  I found out Thursday from SAI's director, Barry Vaughan, that we have fifteen paid participants.  That's enough for us to offer the program.  I'll be teaching The Irish Storytelling Tradition, Barry will be teaching…