Dustin: Welcome to "TEMPLE IN DUBLIN"

Hello there! Welcome to the TEMPLE IN DUBLIN blog. This blog will serve as a record of the experiences of the students participating in Temple University’s 2007 Summer Seminar in Dublin. The students will be posting essays, photographs, and videos documenting their journeys through the history, art, and culture of one of the world’s most exciting cities. My name is Dustin Morrow and I am the Director of the program this year.

Dublin is among the fastest-growing, most culturally saturated European capitals. In the last twenty years, it has become one of the world’s top tourist destinations, as more and more people come to the city to search their Irish roots (out of every 1000 Americans, 115 claim Irish ancestry), or simply to enjoy the city’s history, arts, and friendly residents. The Irish are among the most gracious, wonderful people one might ever encounter. The students will meet many larger-than-life personalities, all with a tale to tell - the Irish culture is one founded on the art of storytelling.

In the Seventies, Ireland began to depend less and less on Britain’s economy. During that decade and on through the Eighties, Ireland started to exert an aggressive new political nationalism, fueled by the relentlessly explosive situation in Northern Ireland, the growing cultural popularity of the country throughout the world, the influx of Irish migrating back to their homeland, and the subsequent booming economy, known as the “Celtic Tiger,” which exploded in the Nineties. During their studies in Dublin, the students will come to grasp the modern Irish identity – what it is that makes the Irish who they are today.

The students will take two courses while in Dublin:

“Irish History and Culture”
Taught by two Dublin-based professors affiliated with the program’s host institution, the Institute for International Education of Students, this course will cover the traditions of Irish history and literature. Dublin is the onetime home of Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, and Samuel Beckett, and is to this day a city of writers and artists. The literature of Ireland has been crucial to the formation of the country’s national identity. The history of Ireland stretches back to the Stone Age. The class will study the nation’s history and politics, learning about the Celts, about St. Patrick, about Michael Collins and the IRA, the uprising of 1916 and the formation of the Republic, and Bloody Sunday and the continuing hostilities of Northern Ireland.

“Irish Media Arts and Irish Identity”
Taught by myself, this course will involve the survey and analysis of contemporary Irish media, including television, radio, journalism, theater, and art. As they are my areas of expertise, great attention will be focused on traditional and modern Irish music and Irish cinema. Through the study of the Irish media, students will turn their attention to a modern Irish identity, and how the media contribute to it and stem from it. Through the media, they will look at Irish stereotypes, at the Troubles, at Catholicism, at literary translations, at immigration, and at rural vs. urban experiences.

As part of and in addition to both courses, students will visit sites of historic importance and sites related to the discussions of Irish media. Among the places they might visit are Dublin Castle, Christchurch Cathedral, Trinity College and the Book of Kells, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, The Abbey Theater (backstage tour & performance), The National Museum of Ireland, RTE and TG4, The Guinness Museum, The Irish Film Institute, The National Gallery of Ireland, The Irish Times, Radio na Gaeltachta, The National Photographic Archive, and The Dublin Museum of Modern Art. We also hope to have guest speakers visit us from Dublin’s most prominent newspaper, “The Irish Times,” and from the Irish version of “Rolling Stone,” “Hot Press” magazine.

We may also take day trips that will allow the students to escape the hustle-bustle of Dublin, possibly including Newgrange, the Hill of Tara, and Glendalough and Powerscourt Gardens. There might also be optional weekend trips available, which may include the Killarney/Dingle area, Northern Ireland, and County Clare and the Cliffs of Moher, one of the most breathtaking sites on the planet.

Students can expect to have long weekends free to travel, and are encouraged to do so – Ireland is a small country, and a reasonably-priced bus system will allow for travel nearly anywhere in the country in a matter of hours. Such destinations as Belfast, Limerick, Cork, Galway, the Burren, the Aran Islands, the Ring of Kerry, and the Dingle Peninsula are just a short journey away.

The host institution for the Temple Dublin program will be the Institute for the International Education of Students (IES), which works with many major American universities to provide educational programs and student housing in some 40 countries. Their classrooms are in central Dublin. The apartments in which the students are housed during their stay in Dublin are quite near IES’s campus, in a safe part of the city that is convenient to many shopping, social, and cultural opportunities. IES also provides the students with cell phones for the duration of their stay.

I anticipate an endlessly rewarding month of study and great fun in Dublin. I love the city and I am confident that the students will as well. If you have any questions about the program, please don’t hesitate to contact me at morrow@temple.edu.

Slainte!