Culture

First, I have an academic update (I am in school, remember.) I have an adviser for my MA thesis! Dr. Lionel Pilkington will be supervising me for the next six months or so. I met with him on Friday, and he seemed very excited about being my adviser. I still don't have an actual thesis question, but our meeting helped me refine my nebulous "something to do with Irish theater and colonialism" to "something to do with late 19th century Irish melodrama and colonialism," so at least I have a bit of a focus now. He gave me a list of authors and books to look at, which I've been doing this weekend, and we'll meet again in a few weeks, at which time I will hopefully have a stronger sense of an actual topic. Exciting!


In non-scholarly news, this week was one full of culture for me. For starters, this week held the Múscailt arts festival at NUIG, so there were many events for that.

Tuesday night, I went to the Múscailt poetry slam. I got to see some terrible poetry and some great poetry. Notably, one of the best readers was a boy who looked to be about ten or eleven years old. By objective standards, his poetry was good, though not great; given his age, however, he was awesome. (One of his poems involved the words "shit" and "fuck," which didn't appear to shock anyone in the audience, including his mother; the Irish have what I feel to be a much more sensible attitude toward profanity than Americans, and no one really cares about swearing in front of children or if children swear.) The winner of the slam was actually this boy's mother, a woman named Mags Treanor, and she was excellent. I also got to see Stephen Murray, who I have seen on a couple occasions; he is still one of the best readers and slam poets I've ever seen, and it's always worth watching him read.

Thursday night, still a part of Múscailt, our class had tickets (that were graciously provided by the Centre for Irish Studies) to the Traditional Music concert. "Traditional Music" is really just the start of what we saw: a band with a fiddle, accordion, and classical guitarist; a sean-nos singer; an Uilleann piper; a storyteller; two sean-nos dancers, one a 14-year-old boy and one a pregnant woman (accompanied by the fiddler and accordion player from earlier); a contemporary singer (accompanied by the fiddler, accordion player, and guitarist); and a grand finale with the all the instrumental musicians and the dancers. Everything was absolutely excellent, and it was a lovely evening.

Friday night, I went to the "Over the Edge 2007 Poetry Showcase." This was a reading from the 10-or-so Galwegian poets who published books in 2007. It took place at Sheridan's wine bar, which is a wonderful classy little bar/store. There is a cheesemonger's below, and the wine bar upstairs is about the size of a kitchen, with three walls devoted to racks of wine. The "kitchen" atmosphere was highlighted by the long wooden tables and blue tiled walls. When the room was packed with well-dressed literati, all of whom were standing around holding glasses of wine, it made us¹ feel like we were at someone's fancy dinner party. The mayor of Galway was there, as well, wearing his mayoral chain, and he gave an address. Each of the poets read three poems, so it was almost like a poetry sampler. Mags Treanor, from the slam on Tuesday, read, as well as my friend Neil McCarthy. After the reading, Brianne, Quincy, and I went with Neil and a couple of the other poets to Freeney's, one of Galway's top old-man pubs, and I managed to get a signed copy of Neil's book for the price of three kisses on the cheek.


In conclusion, I love Galway's art and poetry scene. It took me a while, but I finally feel like I have an established "social circle." The fact that it's comprised mainly of poets and academics makes me happy.




1: I went with my friends Brianne, Meredith, and Jen; we met our friends Quincy and Stephen there, as well as seeing our Irish teacher. It was quite a social event.

Bonus update!

I know it's not Sunday, but I had an experience that deserved to be recorded in ye olde 'blog today.


One of the interesting things about living in Ireland is the attitude toward religion. No one here seems to feel the need to proselytize or make a big fuss about saving your soul, and overall everyone seems very religiously tolerant. Of course, that's easy enough when 90% of the country is Catholic. No one cares, or makes a big deal, if you're not Catholic, but most people are. There is a tacit assumption in the culture that you will be familiar with Catholic culture. When talking about religious symbolism in poetry in one of my classes, the lecturer said "Now, if you remember your catechism..."

Anyway, today I was having coffee with a couple friends, and we were talking about how this week is Ash Wednesday. One turned to me and said "So what are you giving up for Lent?" I stared for a moment, then said "Oh, I'm not Catholic!" She laughed and said "Oh, right! Sorry!" No hostility, no judgment, but there was that moment of assumption. Being American doesn't spare me-- most of the Americans I know are Catholic anyway.


(This reminds me of another anecdote related by an American Lutheran friend of mine. He was trying to buy a packet of crisps in a vending machine in Limerick, and the bag got stuck. He spent a few minutes shaking and kicking the vending machine, all the while swearing loudly... then turned around to see a very shocked-looking nun staring at him. He thought to himself, well, in for a penny, in for a pound, and exclaimed "And I'm a Protestant, too!" before marching off.)

An ongoing risk of frost

The weather in Ireland in the last week has been pretty wintry. Temperatures have gotten down around freezing-- I actually saw snow flurrying on Friday afternoon, and the ground actually iced up on Friday night! Of course, this is amusing to someone from Michigan, because everyone was driving about 15 miles an hour as soon as the first snowflake fell. No snow accumulated, of course, but there was frost on the cars and ice on the puddles. I would complain, except I know that the technical term for the weather in Michigan right now is "ass-deep in snow." I heard they even closed highways earlier this week.

So when that's what I'm missing, I can't complain about living in a country where the weather reports will advertise a severe frost advisory. (Michigan pretty much lives under a tacit frost advisory year-round.) Here, I'll quote from the Met Éireann website-- remember, all temperatures are in Celsius:

Today
Further scattered showers this evening - some of hail or sleet or possibly snow on high ground. Showers heaviest and most frequent in western areas. Thunder in places also.

Tonight
Cold and frosty tonight with further wintry showers - some heavy or prolonged, especially later in the night. Clear spells also. Icy stretches on roads. Lowest temperatures -2 to +2 degrees.

Tomorrow
Cold and windy tomorrow, with sunny spells and scattered wintry showers, especially during the morning. Highest temperatures 6 to 9 degrees.

3 Day Outlook
MONDAY NIGHT : Turning cloudy, milder and breezy in most parts, with rain at times, and with any early frost clearing again - but the north and northwest may remain drier and less windy, with an ongoing risk of frost. TUESDAY, TUESDAY NIGHT : Wet and relatively mild weather in places (especially in Munster and Leinster) gradually clearing away southeastwards during the day. Colder conditions spreading to all parts, with clear spells and scattered showers, and with blustery W to NW winds. Frost in sheltered areas overnight, showers turning wintry in places also, risk of snow on mountains. WEDNESDAY : Bright and cold, with scattered wintry showers. Many areas dry throughout. Winds moderating and backing W to SW. WEDNESDAY NIGHT, THURSDAY : Becoming mild, wet and windy. Rain spreading from the Atlantic, turning heavy at times. Strong S to SW winds. Clearer colder weather following, winds easing and veering W. Frost in places Thursday night.

For some reason, the level of detail really amuses me. When I first moved here, I was getting frustrated because I couldn't find a local weather website. "No, not Irish weather, local weather!" And then I realized... the whole country is a bit smaller than Michigan and has a very temperate maritime climate. There's really only one weather for the whole dang island!

It's about that time, eh?

Sunday, which means I should write something here, hmm?


I don't really have much to talk about this week, or at least nothing particularly Irish. The last two weeks have largely been a reminder for me that I really do love Academia. The whole Academic scene is one I feel comfortable with and really enjoy. My social life lately tends to involve going to some lecture or another of an evening and then going for drinks afterward. The past two Thursdays, I have gone to the "Counter-Factual History Series" at the Galway City Museum. (I didn't actually know about the existence of the museum until Thursday last.) These are lectures where a scholar addresses a "What if...?" question. Two weeks ago it was Dr. John Cunningham, my main history professor, talking about what would have happened if Eamon De Valera had been killed and Michael Collins had lived. This past Thursday, Dr. Quincy Lehr discussed the possible outcomes of a Southern victory in the American Civil War.

Nerdy, yes, but these evenings have also turned into almost networking opportunities. I went to the lectures with my friend and neighbor Brianne, a history PhD student here. As it turns out, she actually was a TA for Quincy last semester! He invited us out to a pub after the lecture on Thursday, where I ended up drinking with a bunch of the NUI Galway History faculty, including John Cunningham.

Then, of course, last night I went to The Crane, my official Favorite Pub, with Brianne, where I met several of the other History PhD students, as well as becoming friends with Quincy. It was very fun-- I really enjoyed meeting some new people, as up until now I've only known about four people outside of my MA group. (I do love my MA group, but I see them every day, and sometimes it's nice change things up.) Also, being on friendly terms with the history faculty can only be a good thing. If all goes well, I'm going to be here for three more years after this one. Very few in my MA group are planning on going on for a doctorate, so it's nice to know some people who will be around longer.

New year, new semester

I just want you to know that you're lucky you even got a 'blog entry today. My internet, always slow, is particularly molasses-in-January pokey today, and I got so frustrated waiting for the 'blog page to load that I almost abandoned it.


Anyway, I am back in Galway, and actually have been for about a week now. The break was lovely-- it was wonderful to see my family and friends-- but it's nice to be back, back to my "real life" of school and reading and Ireland. I was tired, frustrated, and travel-weary after the 12 hours it took me to get from Grand Rapids to Dublin, but as soon as I walked off the plane, I was surrounded by an unquestionable sense of Irishness that felt like a sigh of relief. I really do love this country, and just looking out the window or smelling the air brings an enormous sense of comfort.

This first week back has been largely taken up by the normal "first day of classes" type things-- introductions, short lectures, and syllabi, though thankfully the teachers here don't care to spend much time on the latter and are content to simply hand them out. The most exciting thing that happened was undoubtedly a visit from Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill.

Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill ([nu:lə ni ga:nəl] or "NOO-la NEE GAH-nal") is Ireland's, and therefore the World's, Foremost Irish-Language Poet. She is, simply, a Big Deal when it comes to poetry in Ireland. I actually had the opportunity to meet her once before: on my study abroad in Dublin, she came and talked to our class about the history of Irish. That time, however, I don't think any of our class had had her importance and near-celebrity status impressed on us, and while she read a little of her poetry most of the emphasis wasn't on her. This time, she came to do a private reading for the Irish Studies Centre. Louis De Paor, our fearless leader, arranged it-- I think they might have gone to college together, at University College Cork, back in the '60's. That's what my very tiny knowledge of Irish gathered from Louis' introduction, anyway. Nuala was wonderful. She is very funny and had absolutely no ego about her writing, referring to it as something she had to do, in order to keep sane and express ideas that nag at her. As she put it, she gets a bee in her bonnet about something and it won't go away until she writes about it to her satisfaction.

She read her poetry to us, telling us the stories behind each one. She would read the translation first, frequently stopping to compliment the wonderful way the translator (often Paul Muldoon) had put something-- when asked why she didn't translate her own work, as she is completely bilingual, she replied "I'm not a poet in English!" We are working on some of her work in my Irish class right now, and so I (along with most of my class) brought my copy of her book Spionáin Is Róiseanna ("Gooseberries and Roses") to be signed. When she opened it, it fell open to one of the pages I'd been translating, with glosses written on the lines above the words and translations in the margins. "Oh, that's just my clumsy attempt at translation," I said, embarrassed and worried that she'd actually try to read my gibberish. "No, I love it!" she exclaimed. "Writing in books is wonderful."