For the first part of the trip we explored Dublin. Dublin is gorgeous- it has beautiful buildings with a big canal running down the heart of it. It was a great place for our introduction to Ireland and it's people.
One of the stops on our tour was to the famine memorial. It was later on in the day and the lighting gave the statues an eerie glow. Our guide told us that if you were silly enough to crack a joke about the famine, you might get punched. Here in Ireland they hang on to their history in a way I've never seen. The famine was over 5 generations ago, and yet our guide told us that his mother would never let a visitor leave her house without something to eat- a scar left from the famine neither she nor anyone she knew lived through. Our guide also told us that Ireland also gives more charity (not just per capita) to famine causes each year than any other country. Again- their history is very real and very raw even after generations. Paul made a great point- at the recent Oscars someone joked that "Daniel Day Lewis was the best actor to get in Lincoln's head since John Wilkes Booth." That crack (from the same era as the famine) didn't create a stir or cause any controversy that I know of. Very different.
During our second day in Dublin we went to the UN Peace Training School. Ireland can't deploy troops except for for UN Peace missions. Again, so different from back home. They have a tiny country and yet they've been involved in most peace operations since the 1960s. The next day we went to the University of Dublin and got to meet a professor who's running "We the Citizens" which is a national constitutional referendum. The crazy thing is that it's made up of 100 people, 60 of whom were randomly chosen citizens. I can't help but think that that would never work in the States. But, Ireland is tiny! 4 million people total. Between these experiences I learned about the benefits of a small country, and also that though small they can still have a global impact.
On our last day in Dublin we went to Parliment and got to meet with members of Shinn Fein- formerly the political arm of the IRA. The minister we met gave us a tour and then sat down and told us about Irish history. While you'd expect him to be staunchly partisan (being a republicanist) he gave what I think was the most unbiased presentation on the Troubles I heard during my entire time in Ireland. He then took us to Prime Minister question hour- where we saw the head of Shinn Fein Jerry Adams) go toe to toe with the Prime Minister about getting cochlear implants for a little boy. Now Jerry Adams caused a scandal in the 90s because he came to America and met with Clinton, even though we was considered a terrorist at the time. But look now- a decade later and this formerly militant man is fighting over... health benefits. Amazing how far Ireland has come.
After our time in Dublin ended, we went to Derry which is half in northern Ireland and half in the Republic of Ireland. It was the location of Bloody Sunday. While there we heard lectures from a former Protestant guerrilla fighter, a former IRA militant, a journalist who covered the troubles for the BBC, two police offers who started their careers during the conflict, and a scholar. What I came to learn was that all sides were exhausted by the conflict and that they're glad to live in a world where their children just have to worry about school. But, they all acknowledge that peace is tenuous. The police offer said something I thought was quite powerful: "peace is relentless, you must just keep sitting at the table."
One memory I'll have forever is sitting with Big John at an IRA bar. Big John is a former militant in the IRA. As a young guy in the 1970s he must have been terrifying he's so huge. John gave us a waking tour of location where Bloody Sunday took place. It was quite powerful. He was there. The night after that tour and his lecture we found ourselves in Sandinos bar with Big John. Sandinos is named after the Sandinistas movement and the inside is covered with propaganda from all anti-imperial causes: Native Americans, Sandinistas, Basque movement, Palestine, Free Syria, and tons of Che. I guess until this point i'd forgotten that a non imperialist power existed in Europe! I had to pinch myself at this point- it was such an incredible experience!
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