How about a pint of Guinness?

Staying in Dublin you just have to visit the Guinness Museum. Spending too much time in Victorian galleries and museums or admiring Georgian doors and St Patrick’s Cathedral makes you feel dizzy after some time. Then you should head for Guinness Storehouse (which is its official name) and get yourself a three-hour tour of the highest quality. Lots of foreigners I met in Ireland were saying to me they didn’t like porter beer. But it’s not only about beer, but much more about the Irish spirit! The museum itself is situated in an industrial district, in a brewing factory. The whole point is explaining the production of Guinness from every angle. Adequately we get to know step by step how the beer is brewed, which machines and techniques are used in this process, how it’s advertised and where Irish pubs in the world are located. The exhibition takes place over 7 floors. And in the last floor we get our free pint of Guinness we are entitled to with the purchase of the ticket. I made the most of it and even poured my pint by myself and got a certificate for this crowning achievement;). What is more, the panoramic view from the 7^th floor was majestic! It’s just that you have to be able to appreciate the beauty of industrial buildings and smokestacks…;) Anyway, I can honestly say that it was one of my brightest memories from Ireland and my boyfriend even claimed that Guinness doesn’t taste the same outside of Ireland.

http://www.guinnessstorehouse.com/

The Aran Islands, September 2006

If you visit the West Ireland you must go to the Aran Islands. They are like the source of the traditional Irish way of life. An excerpt form Irish history: the Catholics were made to flee from the Green Island in the XVII century and settled the Aran Islands. They learned to be self-sufficient, to breed cattle and sheep, to grow potatoes and construct boats. The Aran Islands of today struggle for their sense of identity. One the one hand their inhabitants still speak Irish in their everyday life and are a closed community where everybody knows each other (no wonder if there live only around 180 people on the most sparsely populated island;), but on the other hand they experience a great migration of the young generation off the island and they are highly dependent on tourism which makes them a kind of sell their “traditions”. David Monagan mentions himself Aran Island hand knitted sweaters made in China;) Well, that’s probably the way it has to be in our modern commercial world…

Anyway, I spent one beautiful, unforgettable day in early September on the largest of three islands, namely Inis Mór. A comfortable ferry from Rossaveal brought me and my boyfriend there. We decided to take our time and get to know the island by bike. There are no problems with renting a bike; actually you even don’t know where to go, because the choice is sooooo wide. Right from the beginning you are surrounded by commercial stuff, from Aran Island sweaters and small tour buses to Spar grocery and to my distaste McDonagh's! McDonagh's is like the Irish version of McDonald’s which is the last thing an ambitious and at least a little culture interested tourist would like to see in the centre of indigenous Irishness. Well, but the further and the deeper we went, the better it became. To travel around the island by bike is the best and only sensible idea to my mind. In this way we were able to see the mind-blowing wild coasts, contemplate the beauty of the ruins of the ancient seven churches, climb on a strange stone elevation from which we admired the lighthouse and nearby pastures, have a close look at the old thatched cottages and take a rest on a quiet sandy beach. Even modern-style show-off concrete islands and American tourists weren’t able to spoil that sunny day. I just hope that the Aran Islands will be able to save their identity…

http://www.aranislands.ie/

My Irish adventure, part 1

I found it an outstanding idea to put focus on Ireland in this semester as I spent the whole last summer there. In a few entries I’ll try to write a bit about my cultural observations I made while my stay in Galway, at the west coast.

David Monagan often mentions how much Ireland has changed since he first got there in the 1970s. The reason is the Celtic Tiger – the economic boom that suddenly caused a rapid growth. The Irish people unexpectedly found themselves having money after decades of living in poverty. The picture of the house above is actually one of the symbols of the new wealthy Irish society. That’s one of those new mansions (it’s a mansion at least in my eyes considering the size and shape) purchased on credit with high interest rates, the owners of whose will have to pay back the loan the next 30 years or more keeping working hard for every monthly instalment. The truth is, as Lisa Joyce mentioned herself when she had a class with us, that the Irish can’t deal with their sudden wealth and therefore make investments they can’t really afford in the long run. In the suburb where I lived there were only houses like that and among the owners there weren’t only executives, but also simple people from the lower middle class I’d say. The point is that they all wanted a new house, because everybody was getting one. And the price of land was getting unaffordable, so you had to make a quick decision. All in all Ireland of today is no more old-fashioned colourful postcard-like houses, but rather the kind of houses from my picture that people want to have.