family stories
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First Stories of 2013
We heard the first set of stories in The Irish Storytelling Tradition on Wednesday, June 12. They did a great job of picking stories that suited them and other than a few nerves, they enjoyed the telling. I was pleased with the diversity of stories, and also with how well they supported each other in…
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Irish Lessons
Barry and Bob and I had dinner with Brian Garvan, Jackie Gorman, and Tony McCormack of Tullamore’s Atlantic Corridor Group at the Left Bank Restaurant in Athlone on Tuesday evening. Everyone was trading stories, and Jackie in particular had us rolling. She is a fabulous raconteuse, with a great facility for finding herself in unusual…
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The Craic was Grand
We had a great night at Flannery’s on Saturday night. I hadn’t been there in two years, and there were all the familiar faces – musicians and patrons alike. Barry and I arrived at 10:30, and the place was already full. Val, who is a musician and storyteller, came over to greet us. So did…
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The Best Souvenir is a Good Story
Our students have been here for eleven days and they have been very busy. They’ve been to Emo Court, the Rock of Dunamaise, Clonmacnoise, a trip on the Viking Boat up the Shannon, and climbed to the top of Sliabh na Caillighe, also known as the Hill of the Hag. My constant refrain to them…
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My Eighth Class of The Irish Storytelling Tradition in Ireland
Our students arrived on Friday, May 31. We spent Saturday in orientation and taking a walking tour of Athlone. We spent Saturday and Sunday touring the countryside (Clonmacnoise, cruise up the Shannon on the Viking Boat, Emo Court, and Dunamase). Monday was the June Bank Holiday, so our first class was June 4th. There…
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Beginning and Ending with Laughter
I went to bed last night laughing. It's true I may have been a little over-served at Flannery's. But when I woke up this morning, none the worse for wear, I was still laughing. And then this poem came into my head. My inelegant, but descriptive title for it is "Goodbye to Parts of Self…
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Turn Right in Crookedwood
It was gloriously sunny in Ireland today so I decided to take myself out for a drive. I’d read in Cary Meehan’s Sacred Ireland about a Sheela-na-gig on St. Munna’s Church, north east of Mullingar and about an hour away from Athlone. The book instructed me to “turn right in Crookedwood” and I found it…
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“The Unexpected Constantly Occurs” – We meet the Roses!
In Ireland the inevitable never happens and the unexpected constantly occurs.* Mark and I went to Emo Court on Thursday, May 30th. We were tasked by Study Abroad Ireland director Barry Vaughan to make the lunch and tour reservations for the students’ visit there on Monday, June 3rd, which is a bank holiday in Ireland. We…
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The Ireland Journal is Back!
The Ireland Journal has been on hiatus for almost two years since Study Abroad Ireland didn't make in 2012. It feels a bit odd to be here after such a long time. Ireland has changed and so have I. Ireland has had a very rough couple of years from the economy, to the weather,…
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A Story-based Pre-school Curriculum by Amanda Snyder
When I was about six years old I got to meet a very interesting member of my family, my grandmother’s brother, Tom Nett or Uncle Tom as we called him. Uncle Tom and his wife were the first people I met when we moved from Montana to Phoenix, AZ. Being six years old I found…
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“Don’t do as I say; do as I did” by Gail Kimzin
ATTENTION: all, parents, guardians, teachers and every adult that impacts kids’ lives today. Forget the “I told you so” and the “you should haves”, the lectures, group seminars, one-on-one counseling sessions, power point presentations and all of that “blah..blah…blah” pedagogy we use to instill in our children the do's and don'ts of living a moral life. …
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Stepping into OZ by Louise Laux
When I opened the door to the studio at SMCC for the first time, I had no way of knowing that my life was about to change….dramatically. I was as unprepared as Dorothy Gale when she opened the door from her wind-tossed house in the drab landscape of Kansas. As I listened to a master…