Monday, March 20, 2017

Welcome to Ireland - Days 1-3

Day 3 Sunday:  I have just returned from listening to an Irish American country folk band and am sitting in my apartment feeling happy and blessed.  I had a lovely hour chat with two students while taking tea.  I love how various Irish phrases are working their way into our lexicon—lovely, well then, chat, taking tea, throw over, having good craic . . .

After spending a day traveling, the next day at the airport meeting students as they came in, and then sleeping twelve hours, I awoke semi-refreshed and ate croissants, fresh fruit, and cheese for breakfast—so European.  Sixteen of us from AZ met up with community college students and faculty from Omaha, NE and the two groups have lessons and activities together. 
In class we learned Arizona is 4.19 times larger than Ireland and the location of Ireland to the UK is the biggest factor to Irish history.  The population is about 4.5 million in Ireland and 1 million in Northern Ireland.  We raced through time covering Celtic tribes from 4000 B.C – 500 AD.  The key factors in Irish history continue to be water, stone, and wood. 

After learning about secular and sacred spaces, we headed to Caven Burren, where we saw the burial chambers that are 6000 to 7000 years old.  In comparison, the Pyramids are 5000 years old.  These Irish burial chambers are some of the oldest in the world and are found in Donegal country among the forests and bogs of the hilly north country of Donegal county.  The bog was spongy and soft, a verdant carpet, which can be cut away and burned for fuel, though it’s not ideal for the environmentally conscious.  Among the forest where fairies easily could have danced and trolls lurked, we saw stone circles that once were homes—like African rondavels.  People had carved other stones with circles and swirls, which form part of the Atlantic art (all along the Atlantic coast down to France and Spain), which experts now think was actually a language.  The people also sculpted the stone to represent the shapes of nearby mountains as local maps as well as images of the male and female anatomy.  We saw a grave where the bones carbon dated from 2,500 B.C. 

The Ogham alphabet, derived from the shape of trees, is one of the oldest in the world, and forms the basis of Gaelic.  Celtic Ireland, from 800 B.C. to 500 A.D., saw pagan tribes dividing the island into five provinces.  The Taoiseach was the leader, who had a druid and poet beside him.  Names derived from the father and thus Mac is son of and O is daughter of.  My father’s name was Uffe; thus, I would be Karen O’Uffe.  Unlike the rest of the Celtic world of Whales, France, Spain, etc., the Roman Empire never came to Ireland, so the Celtic culture was never blotted out by Roman conquest. 

That night in celebration of our new knowledge, we painted circles and Celtic knots (meaning eternity) on stones and created our names in Ogham with a well-known Irish artist.  And craic means fun, so hopefully, if you have continued reading from the beginning, you are having craic—or at least are somewhat interested!

 








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