I’ve been brushing up on e-Learning tools as of late. I took a workshop on Wikis last Friday and another on Blackboard yesterday. At DIT, these workshops are provided through the Learning, Teaching and Technology Centre (LTTC), where I will be teaching a course in May. Yesterday I met with Orla Hanratty, who has graciously agreed to co-teach the module with me.
Workshop on how to use Wikis.
It’s snowing in Dublin today, an unusual site indeed. Right now the sun is shining. But big, fluffy flakes are falling gently to the ground. Here are photos from my wintery walk to the Learning, Teaching and Technology Centre for meetings and a workshop today.
A dozen and a half owners of antique cars braved the frigid temperatures Sunday to show their treasures on Smithfield’s cobblestoned plaza. Among the collection were a couple cute old Minis and a dozen or so old Triumphs.
The photos below show my favorites from the show. I love viewing early model autos!
Seeing them on Smithfield Plaza, an important industrial hub of 19th century Dublin, is all the more fun.
None of my guest have been able to get into Dublin Castle, although I had the chance to see it last September, on Culture Night. I’ve finally figured out why it’s closed to tourists. This year Ireland is the president of the EU. The Castle is being used for all sorts of formal ceremonial event. Therefore, it’s closed to the public until June 30.
A tourist to Dublin will find the best view of the castle from the mort side, looking south from the garden in the front of the Chester Beatty Library.
The Chester Beatty is still open and offers one of the most fascinating places to visit in Dublin. To access it, you have to go around the west wall of the castle and through the side gate.
Patty, Kitty Lee, and I visited the Chester Beatty Library and saw fragments of the Bible that date back to 150 AD. These are some of the oldest pieces of the document in existence in the world. While at the Beatty Library, we also saw a temporary exhibition of paintings including one that Patty has always admired, The Gleaners. It was painted by Jules Adolphe Aimé Louis Breton in 1854. It’s from the period when artists were trying to record the daily life of laborers and the hard reality they faced in the mid-1800s. We could have spent much longer in the exhibits as we had very little time in the non-Christian collections on this particular visit.
The Library’s website explains:
Described by the Lonely Planet as not just the best museum in Ireland, but one of the best in Europe, the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin is an art museum and library which houses the great collection of manuscripts, miniature paintings, prints, drawings, rare books and some decorative arts assembled by Sir Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968). Its rich collections from countries across Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe opens a window on the artistic treasures of the great cultures and religions of the world. Chester Beatty Library was named Irish Museum of the year in 2000 and was awarded the title European Museum of the Year in 2002.
Egyptian papyrus texts, beautifully illuminated copies of the Qur’an, the Bible, European medieval and renaissance manuscripts are among the highlights of the collection. In its diversity, the collection captures much of the richness of human creative expression from about 2700 BC to the present day.
Admission to the Chester Beatty Library is free!
You’ll recall that the National Library was on the blog post I made for Kitty Lee. It was among the things I wanted to see but hadn’t yet.
My recent visitor, Pam Eddy, used to enjoy going there when she was a Fulbright scholar to Ireland in the spring of 2009. She knew the ropes of getting in and around the place, and that made it easier for me to jump in and enjoy being there. (I’ll admit I’d been a bit intimidated by the place before going there with her.)
We viewed an exhibition of W. E. B Yeats, stowed our bags in the handy (all glass) lockers, and proceeded into the grand reading hall. I’ve posted a host of images to show you the grandeur or the hall and the entry procession leading to it.
Fergus Wheelan is a walking archive of Irish history and politics. He’s a self-made historian who brings complex history to life and makes it simple to understand. Every guest who visits I find reading his book, Dissent into Treason. It’s available from Amazon in the US. I can’t fathom the amount of time he spent in libraries and archives research this book — nor the time it took to understand, structure, and explain the information in such an enlightening way.
It’s no wonder Fergus drawn to the Cobblestone Pub, a place operated by Tom Mulligan (a man with a degree in Irish history and policies himself).
Every visit to the Cobblestone is a lesson in tradition for me.
Last week, I had more friends in tow. Here you see Toni Grey (an English friend who retired to Tunisia many moons ago) and her Italian boyfriend, Toni and Giuseppe Conte.
Incidentally, Giuseppe rents apartments and B&B rooms in Rome. I visited one of the apartments and found it to be quite charming and extremely well located (near Campo de’ Fiori). You can contact Giuseppe at <g.conte@promedinternational.com> for more information.
What a phenomenally Irish weekend!
I didn’t do the things a tourist to Dublin normally does on St. Patrick’s Day (which seems to include a lot of roaming the streets while intoxicated). Instead, I packed my schedule full of St. Patrick’s Day Festival events. My friends an I pooled out ticket allotment so we could see many shows.
I’ve pictured some of the events below (I didn’t even take photos at every event, believe it or not). The photos show how academics enjoy St. Paddy’s! You can see my brainy friends and me enjoying short films in the Examination Hall of Trinity, for instance.
The group that coordinates the St. Patrick’s Day Festival did a fabulous job! I send my heartfelt thanks to them!
Incidentally, you’d be amazed to see the streets of Temple Bar on Sunday night: wall to wall people dressed in green velvet!?!! I elbowed my way through at 7 PM (I don’t even want to think what the place was like by midnight). Even at 7, I was clutching my belongings so tight that I forgot to take a photo!
Kevin Donleavy’s emails are so charming and informative that I just can’t resist posting them in their original form. Here, he discusses some history of traditional Irish music and his plans to play Tom Mulligan’s Cobblestone recordings on his upcoming radio show. Anyone can tune in on April 6 by using the Internet (see below).
Hiya again, Shannon,
News from Charlottesville’s Kevin Donleavy:
Shannon,
A past parade in Dublin, downloaded from Jim Small’s ND Go Irish Blog.
Things are hectic here in Dublin. Almost as soon as Pam flew out two new guests arrived, Toni Grey and Giuseppe Conte. Unfortunately, plane tickets were so costly for travel to and from St. Patrick’s Day that they won’t be staying to partake in all the festivities.
St. Patrick’s Day falls on 17th March. Originally, the day of celebration marked the arrival of Christianity in Ireland. That happened way back in 432. Today St. Patrick’s Day is a big party that celebrates all things Irish.
This will be my first St. Patrick’s in Ireland and I’m excited to be a part of it all. I’ve been lucky to get some tickets for the St. Patrick’s Festival, thanks to the diligence of Tess who handled all the on-line reservations.
The high point of the 17th will be the People’s Parade. It’s to have hundreds of carnival-type floats with people from the area on board. The parade will pass right by my apartment block.
Stay tuned for pictures of this year’s events as they unfold….
Ireland by Chance 