Ireland: Day 11

Day 11 was a day complete dedicated to Dublin, Republic Culture and the Ireland government processes. Kate had offered the previous night to make breakfast for everybody this morning. Sure enough...Kate had scrambled eggs with freshly shredded cheese ( I don't really know what kind it was...but it was awesome...I'm a cheddar guy so I don't know much else ;-) ), toast, juice, milk, and cereal. She came to get the boys and of course we're all scrambling to get ready, like always, and I then walk into the girls apartment with a set table and hot food. It was great!

Then we all loaded up again in a shuttle van around 8:45 AM to begin our journey to the Republic's capital city. Our first adventure was getting to the Leinster House...the home of the Irish parliament. The house was originally built by the Duke of Leinster in 1748 and is now the home of the 166 TD's in the Dáil Éireann (Gaelic for House of Representatives of Ireland) as well as the 60 Senators in the Seanad Éireann (Gaelic for, you guessed it, Senate of Ireland). It's evident in the nomenclature of the houses alone that the United States government had a very significant impact on how the legislative bodies were created. Although the 166 member "House" has significantly less members than the US house, it has much the same power as most amendments made to legislation are observed and acted upon in the lower house (aka Dail Eireann).

We arrived at the building and first went to the House chamber to see business in session. They were debating and discussing the child abuse report that was released by Ireland's Commission to Inquire About Child Abuse. Many Americans probably remember this being released, as it made headlines on that side of the Atlantic as well. Here is a link to a news story on the topic from Yahoo News: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090520/ap_on_re_eu/eu_ireland_catholic_abuse

As we were leaving the chamber, some of the other Young Ambassadors in the group said that they witnessed visitors crying in the gallery. As we entered the estate, we saw protestors outside with signs regarding abuse from religious child services. Earlier in the week, protestors marched a silent march throughout the city of Dublin to show their dissatisfaction with the institutional abuse experienced by children throughout the 1900's.


We then went on a tour with our tour guide Pat and saw the rest of the house including the Senate chambers, famous paintings within the house, the flag of the 69th Irish Brigade (regiment of the Union during the American Civil War 1200 men fought of which only 200 survived) given to the People of Ireland by John F. Kennedy and the reception room of many famous dignitaries including Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.


After our tour, we went to lunch at an Irish pub where the popular lunch seemed to be another course of Fish & Chips. I'm trully getting spoiled here as it seems like "Friday Fish Fry" is everyday with Fish & Chips. Some of the group enjoyed a cold Guinness brewed only miles away.

We then went on to meet up with Dr. Campbell, Mr. Jack Ferris and the other two Ambassadors that spent the morning with the Ulster Scotts Agency. We met them in the main square at Trinity College and then headed up to meet with the Taioseach and Minister Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. Talking with these two very distinguished and prominent politicians in Ireland was a great experience. Not too many times can a visitor to Ireland get to meet the leader of the country! The Taioseach is basically the Prime Minister of Ireland, appointed by the President and required to maintain confidence by a majority in the lower house. The current Taioseach, Brian Cowan, talked at length with us about his views on Ireland's role in a global economy as well as the role that the country of Ireland plays to help America. He told us that the Irish want to be able to help America and the US shoudn't always be expected to cater to everyone else...other countries need to cater to Americans as guests of foreign countries as well.

We then headed downtown to visit some of the stores in Dublin and then drove back to Dundrum. Waiting for us at the apartmentn was Maynard and Mark from the Ulster Scotts Agency and Jack who is a professional conflict mediator. We received a little lesson from Mark on the Fiffe and the Lambeg Drum; both traditional Ulster Scotts Instruments that Mark uses for the work he does with reconciliation within the schools in Northern Ireland. Maynard provide us with tremendous insight into his experiences and observations of the processes that have taken place here during and after the Troubles. Lastly, Jack helped us understand his work mediating conflict that arose with the Troubles especially for youth and their parents. As you can see...on the way back some of us were just a wee bit tired! Jim gave me permission to put these on...I wouldn't be that mean to do it without him knowing ;-)





After these presentations Jack and Maynard stuck around until almost midnight and talked with us about Northern Ireland, Ireland and American politics. We had a very interesting discussion on foreign affairs with Maynard to see how someone in a foreign country views the American culture and political world.