Full Speed Ahead

The past few days have been full of class related activities. On Friday we got the opportunity to talk with two journalists, Barney Cowan and Judith Hill, that have been working on covering The Conflict here in Northern Ireland. They explained to us what their jobs as journalists have entailed and how they strive to report on things even when those things hit close to home. They also explained that they are still covering the Troubles from the 70s, 80s, and 90s today as peace has begun but hasn't quite been completely achieved yet.

Don't worry, friends and family. I am perfectly safe here. When I say peace hasn't been completely achieved, I mean that it is an on-going process. The journalists described it as high peace, which hasn't quite been reached. Peace will be an on-going process for Northern Ireland. So much has happened here, so much hate. It will take time. Part of healing is remembering, and this has been hard for the people of Northern Ireland. Barney mentioned that the older generations are struggling to remember what happened without burying the generations behind them in the same mess. I think that hits the nail on the head.

After our talk with Barney and Judith, we went on a tour of Crumlin Road Gaol. This was a wee bit strange, especially after our political tour guide, Sean, had informed us that he had stayed in Crumlin Road for a while when he was arrested. Knowing that the jail was used fairly recently, and wasn't actually closed down until 1996, was surreal. It made the jail feel much more raw and real. There were some similarities between it and Kilmainham Gaol, but it was neat to see the differences between the two.

Yesterday we had a creative writing session with Jo Egan. Egan is a playwright, spending a lot of her time researching for and writing plays that tell stories that haven't been told. As a creative writer myself, I thoroughly enjoyed this lecture. She had us do a few exercises during the three hour session, which included a ritual/routine written in action, the plot of a film written only in action, and a piece of recomposition. It was fun! She was very knowledgeable and open, making the session enjoyable! It was yet another reminder that I should be writing more poetry while here in Ireland.

Today we traveled to the Titanic museum in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast. The museum was fascinating! It started out with information on the city of Belfast and how it grew to be a booming city in the mid- to late 1800s. The museum then went on to describe the many ships that Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries built. Halfway through, the museum went into the Titanic: how it was built, the furnishings of it, the means of communication it had on board, how it sank, and the aftermath of the tragedy. Going through the museum took about two hours due to the amount to look at within the exhibition. One of my favorite things was a photograph of men standing underneath the Titanic's propellers. It denotes the sheer size of the passenger liner. It's no wonder the passengers had no doubts about their travel on the Titanic when the ship was massive.

Included in our museum tour was a tour of the SS Nomadic. This ship was used to transport passengers and mail from the Titanic and its sister ship the Olympic. The significantly smaller ship was quite useful as it transported troops back and forth from Brest, France in WWI and was used as a minesweeper in both World Wars.

Having taken a taxi back to Queen's University, a group member and I ventured into the Botanic Gardens. The gardens were a nice getaway after the chaotic crowds at the Titanic museum. I found myself desperately needing to decompress, and nature was the best medicine. The gardens had a greenhouse with lots of succulents and flowers, but what really calmed me was the rose garden. A little farther into the gardens was a section devoted solely to roses. While roses are not my favorite flower, it sure was a beautiful sight. It was rather relaxing to waltz through the aisles of varied roses taking pictures.