Back to Eireann!

The cover photo is one that Morgan just took today. The view is from the front of the house that we will be calling home for the month of August. The house is near a small village called Caherdaniel in County Kerry in Ireland's beautiful and rugged southwest region. In 2003 I first came to Ireland on a 3-month trip that I am currently writing a story about (twenty years in the making!!). During that trip someone took a photo of me kissing the ground (I'll try to find that photo at a later point and share it). I was the first family member back in 7 generations to Ireland. Now that I'm back again I asked Morgan to take a photo of me kissing the ground again!

As I noted above, we just arrived here and we will be staying with our wonderful hosts Phil and Chris and their 9-year-old daughter Aibhlinn. Chris picked us up today in Cork City, but alas, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Here are some highlights from our last week:

Above pic is of me and my good buddy Murray, along with his son Noah. Photo is taken in St. John, New Brunswick, near Murray's wife Jess' home where she grew up. The famous Bay of Fundy is just behind us beneath the fog. It was great meeting Jess' family and friends and learning more about her background. We've known Jess for years, but have only heard about her New Brunswick roots. It was great to put some of those pieces together!

My mum took this photo at the Halifax airport just before we took off for Dublin.

This above pic is from the forest near the beautiful Dephi Resort where we stayed in County Mayo, Ireland. Not too far from here is Croagh Patrick and an Irish Famine monument that I'm hoping Morgan will share on her instagram page. In this picture Clare is entering her geo-caching stick into one of the receptacle. Morgan and I thought that it would be helpful for the girls to learn some orienteering skills and it was a great setting to do so.

Above is a sidetrip that Greer and I took to a beautiful Abbey in Kylemore, Co. Galway. The Abbey used to be a castle built by the Mitchel's. It is now where Benedictine Nuns live. A truly amazing place!

Following our stay, we continued on to Cork City, where we stopped to watch an exhibition women's rugby match between Ireland and Scotland (again, Morgan may have a pic of this).

Above is a photo of the girls at Cobh, Co. Cork. This is the site of the last call of the Titanic before it's infamous maiden and final voyage. This picture is not about the Titanic, but rather a young woman and her brothers, who, like many Irish, traveled across the sea in search of a better life. We talked about the way that she looks back and her younger brother points forward as symbolic of the immigrant's struggle that continues to this day.

Connected to the immigrant/refugee struggle is the prominence of Palestinian flags that we are seeing a lot of in Ireland. It makes me think that countries like Ireland are much more sensitive to the struggles of oppressed peoples because of their own experiences. I think that Canadians complaceny regarding the current genocide in Gaza is connected to our own historical connection with the colonial oppression of Indigenous Peoples.

Above is a pic from within the Cathedral of St. Anne and St. Mary in Cork City. This is the place where one of my ancestors was buried in 1798!

Finally, the above pic made me think about my students and the importance of questioning in the process of learning. We saw this on a door in Cork City.