Connolly Building

The Pretty Side of Connolly

A little bit off campus is the Connolly Buildings which houses the Archaeology Department, although sometimes other classes take place in the building.  Overall this building could use some serious renovation.  Tiles are missing, blinds don't work, stairs are worn away, paint is chipping, etc., but it has desks and chairs which I generally prefer to the style of bench and one long desk.

The Not as Pretty Side

In this building I've been taking two classes both of which end after this week.  Prehistoric Societies in Ireland and Viking Age Archaeology of Scandinavia and the North Atlantic.  Both of which are pretty great.

I didn't think I'd like prehistory of Ireland, or anywhere in Europe, that interesting to be honest as my preference tends to be the Americas.  However, after doing Early Start I realized how much it fascinated me.  This class is pretty great, although I do wish that the professor, Billy O'Brien, would use Blackboard and put up his powerpoints.  I think I would like this class better if it was scheduled better.  I have it for two hours on  Wednesday, but not consecutively.  There are a surprising number of mature students in the class, I actually believe that they are the majority.  I've written one paper for this class so far about the lack of evidence of people being in Ireland during the Palaeolithic (but absence of evidence is not evidence of absence).  This is the class I had a field trip for, but I'm still annoyed that we had to pay for it considering it was 10% of our grade.

The Viking class is actually one of the classes that I picked prior to coming and stuck with.  John Sheehan, our professor, is pretty great.  He's really friendly and knowledgeable, but he does like to go off on tangents (especially about other archaeologists).  However, his tangents are always interesting.  When we spent a good chunk of a class period talking about how the term Viking Age is problematic because the term Viking is a modern construct, I felt like I was back at Swat.  I have a test for this class tomorrow so I'm actually going to go back to studying for it now.

Sunday Morning Fire

The Fire Brigade (Photo Totally Stolen from Kyla)

This morning I, and I assume most people on my block, were awoken by the fire alarm at about 7:45am.  I think we all at first assumed, as we shoved shoes on and attempted to find a jacket while half asleep, that someone had burned toast again.  After waiting outside for a good chunk of time with no staff members coming, a few of us eventually learned that there had actually been a fire but that it was out.  However, one of the people putting out the fire had burned herself in the process.  People went and knocked on the warden's door and called him to no avail, then my roommate Kyla called 999 (Ireland's 911).  I was most amused when I heard her go "Uhhhh," which she then explained was her response to being asked if we wanted the garda, fire department, an ambulance, or the coast guard.

The warden did eventually show up just ahead of the fire brigade.  All in all it took us about 45 minutes to get back inside.  I was most concerned that a) it looked like most people hadn't left, b) people kept going back in, c) we still needed to press the door release to get out while the fire alarm was going off, and d) c) means that the fire department has no way of getting into the building or any rooms without a warden (who took a long time) or without breaking down every door.

But the girl with the burns went off to get treatment and the rest of us were okay except for having our sleep interrupted.

When we could finally go back inside I think a lot of us went back to sleep...and I know a few of us slept far too long...oops.

Cobh (C O B H)

Cobh

While we only ran into the elderly man on the first train ride, he told us several times how to spell Cobh, because it is pronounced cove.  Cobh is a beautiful city.  It's right on the water and all of the houses are painted bright colors.  There are a bunch of fun shops, pubs, and cafes.

The Platform that Led to the Titanic

Because of it being a port, Cobh has a long history with ships.  Cobh's most significant historical note is that it was the last port of call for the Titanic.  123 passengers boarded the ship there.  We didn't see any stats on how many would return, but it is more likely than not that very few did.

Inside the Cobh Heritage Centre

The Steamship Chicago

Sadly, there have been many boat tragedies that have hit close to Cobh's shores.  In Cobh there is also a statue dedicated to those who died and those who aided the wounded from the Lusitania called the Jerome Collins Peace Memorial.  There was also a small exhibit on other ships that had sunk at the Cobh Heritage Centre.  There was even named Chicago, all the causalities of that ship were cargo.

Jerome Collins Peace Memorial

Despite this seemingly tragic history, Cobh seems dedicated to honoring those who died and those who helped the survivors, which says more about the town than it being the last port of call.

"Jerome Collins Peace Memorial honours the memory of those who helped in the rescue, gave aid & hope to the survivors and buried the dead."

Fota Wildlife Park

So I promised I'd have some more interesting posts today.  Kayla, Kyla, Montana, and I headed to Fota Wildlife Park and then to Cobh.  We took a taxi, kindly paid for by Kyla, with a particularly nice driver to the train as we did not feel like walking all the way there and then walking around all day.  At the train station we met an older man with a particularly strong Cork accent so he was a bit hard to understand but we learned a fair bit about his life on our short train ride to Fota (only 13 minutes).  The view was really great, but the tide was out so it was a different view on our way back.

Me and a Kangaroo

A Mara

Since we got there only 13 minutes after the park opened, we pretty much had the place to ourselves...well ourselves and the animals.  A lot of the animals at Fota roam around the park.  This includes peacocks, kangaroos, and maras (one of my new favorite animals).  The park was very reasonably priced, especially considering how nice the park was.

Mom and Baby on a Small Island

Yes They were that Close

Now not all animals were roaming free.  The larger and more dangerous animals, like the eagle that stared into our souls, were contained for safety reasons and most of the monkeys were on small islands, probably because visitors would grab at them or vice versa.

The park was a ton of fun, and it was really cool to get that close to the animals.  After the park it was back on the train and onto Cobh!

Civil Engineering Building

Civil Engineering Building

Oddly enough it was the Civil Engineering building that my Early Start class was in.  Probably because archaeology's normal building is off campus.  My Early Start is probably one of the best courses that I have ever taken.  I learned so much and our professor was a great lecturer and very approachable after class if we had any questions.  Of course it didn't hurt that we took beyond amazing field trips every week.

I didn't like the building itself so much.  There is a style of room here where there is essentially a long bench with then one long connected desk for students to sit in.  Rows of these make up the classroom.  In this classroom the desk part was too far forward, so a lot of us held our notebooks in our laps or had to hunch over to write.  Each space for a student also had a number on a little metal plaque.  Mine, I discovered later, gave me a bit of a bruise.  But it was a small price to play for such an awesome class.

Also in this one room in Civil Engineering (110 to be exact) I had the first few weeks of my history course Religion and Magic in Reformation Europe: Witches, Demons, Jews, and Heretics (it takes a while for classes to settle down in terms of location and lecture time).  This is probably my favorite class that I'm taking now, but I'll write more about it when I write about the building it's in now.

I promise tomorrow my blog post will be more interesting as we're headed off to Fota Wildlife Park and Cobh!

Boole Library

Boole Library

So overall the Boole Library at UCC is good.  It's a beautiful building with lots of books, including some rare ones.  However, there are several things I find annoying with it.  The first thing is that everywhere is a quiet space, except for private study rooms but you have to book those in advance.  I think of libraries as a study space so there should be some areas where people can casually study together or exchange ideas.

The hours are the next sort of annoying thing.  The library is hardly open on the weekends (although this is likely due to the fact that most Irish students go home) and isn't open very late during the week.

Their website also has some issues with typos and with not having books that they claimed to have (it claimed that there were two copies of one book I was looking, but it turns out one was thrown out and one went missing).

Honestly though, the biggest thing that bugs me is that there is a limit (six or something like that) on the number of books you can check out.  I'm not sure if I can remember in the states writing a paper with fewer than six books, and I am often working on more than one paper at a time.

That being said, the staff is (with one exception of a rude man in Special Collections) very nice and very helpful.  I have also found some very interesting books and I look forward to writing my paper comparing the experiences of female orphans and the families of convicts who were sent to Australia during the Irish Famine.

Pretty Photos

On Monday I had some time to kill before class so I wandered the campus a bit taking photos.  I'm going to post them slowly when I talk more about my classes, but I just wanted to include these three photos as simply some pretty things on campus.

A Bird Watching Over the Main Quad

I Really Want to Know What Type of Bird This is

The River

Care Package

Tuesdays tend to be my worst days.  I have five hours of class, and my last class gets out at 8:00pm.  Last night I also wasn't feeling that well so I didn't get the best night's sleep.  But my day got instantly awesome when I went down to check my mail and found out that my care package had arrived!

Yum

The best part about the care package was honestly when I opened it, it smelled like home.  That being said I"m incredibly excited to eat everything inside it.  Although I'm hoping that I can wait to eat some of the chips until the election as I plan to stay up to watch it.

Pat the Hat

Today there was a storytelling event for two folklore classes (including mine).  I went with my friend Montana (even though this meant getting up earlier than I normally would on a Monday).  It was great fun and I was glad to hear some stories.  It also made me feel more productive about my day.

Pat the Hat

The storyteller's name is Pat Speight (Pat the Hat Speight according to his website).  He was funny, easygoing, energetic, and a great storyteller.  I highly recommend visiting his website: http://www.patspeight.com/

I'm now going to tell two of the stories that I can remember him saying.  The last story he told was about a king who had four daughters.  The king was going out into the world for some adventure, but before he left he told his daughters that he was going to give them each a gift.  The eldest daughter held out her hand and he gave her a grain of wheat, she promised him that she would take good care of the grain and bought a very ornate box to keep it in.  The second daughter held out her hand and he gave her a grain of wheat, she promised him that she would take good care of the grain and she hid it deep in her wardrobe so that no one would take it.  The third daughter held out her hand and he gave her a grain of wheat, she promised that she would take good care of it, but knowing that he had bad eyesight threw the grain away thinking she'd just get another one when he came back.  The youngest daughter held out her hand and he gave her a grain of wheat and she promised that she would take good care of the grain.  Years and years later the king returned and asked his daughters to show him the precious gifts he'd given them.  So the eldest daughter went and got hers out of the ornate box and showed it to him and he told her she'd done well.  The second daughter reached into the back of her wardrobe and showed it to him and he told her she'd done well.  The third daughter went into the kitchen and got a new grain of wheat and showed it to him and he told her she'd done well.  He asked to see the youngest daughter's grain and she told him she didn't have it.  The king was angry with her and began to yell at her for losing the precious gift he'd given her.  She explained to her father that at first she wasn't sure what to do with the grain, but then she decided to plant it.  The next year she had nine grains, so she planted those and so on and so on through the years.  The youngest daughter drew back to the curtain to show a field of wheat and told the king that she didn't have the grain, but it was out there somewhere.  The king hugged his youngest daughter and told her that she is the only one who understood that a gift isn't meant to be locked up or hidden away or replaced with something new, it is meant to be shared.  This is why I have decided to share this story, and one other, with you, because Pat asked us to honor him by passing on any stories that we liked.

Another story I enjoyed was about a magical monkey paw.  There was a young man who had moved far from his home, but whenever he went back to his parents house they would know he was coming because he would always whistle the same tune and he was a poor whistler.  One night his parents hear him coming up the driveway and they run to greet him.  His father asks if the young man has brought them any presents, because he often brought them beautiful things.  He gives his mother a beautiful scarf and his father a handsome coat.  While he's getting their gifts a hairy thing falls out of his bag.  His mother asks what the horrid thing is and he explains that it's a magic monkey paw that will grant three wishes.  He said he won it in a poker game, but the he was told never to use it, so he put it up on the mantle.  The young man then said he was going out to collect his wages, so his mother knew that he would do that and then pop down to a pub before coming home for dinner.  The young man says goodbye to his parents and leaves.  His mother begins to cook dinner and then complains to her husband that the kitchen is too small and that they should build an add on.  Her husband asks how much that would cost and she says 20,500.  He asks where they would get that kind of money, and before he could stop her the woman grabbed the monkey paw and wishes for 20,500.  Just then there is a loud knock at their door, which was odd as people in those days used to just come in on their own.  They opened the door, it was their son's boss.  He tells them that he has terrible news.  When their son had come to collect his wages, there was a terrible accident and their son had died, but that the boss had insured him.  He presented the wages and insurance to the parents and it totaled 20,500.  The woman screamed.  Years went by and the woman still missed her son terribly.  One snowy night she couldn't take it anymore so she grabbed the monkey paw before her husband could stop her and wished that her son would be in the kitchen with her.  Then the couple heard their son whistling.  The woman began to run to the door, but her husband grabbed the monkey paw and wished that his son would return to his restful grave.  The woman opened the door and could see foot prints that led from her son's grave, but they stopped five feet before their door.

The Simpsons Monkey Paw

After this story he asked us if we'd heard it before.  I knew of a Simpsons episode where there was a magic monkey paw, but I didn't want to say anything for fear that he was referring to another traditional Irish story. Turns out the Simpsons episode is what he was referring to.  Oh well.

I could go on and on and write more of his stories but that would probably fill a short book.  I hope you enjoyed those two stories as much as I did (feel free to ask me to tell you more of his stories).

Bandon Trip: Part II

The Bandon Mural

Me on a Seesaw Polar Bear

After looking at the river for a while, we crossed it and headed to an adorable playground.  In it there was a great mural that said Bandon and had other things like "Empowering Youth" written on it.  Kyla and I had fun being kids for a while using the swings, going down slides, and riding the seesaw animals.  Some of the parents probably thought we were a bit odd, but we had a good time.

A Nice View of Bandon

It was after the playground that we really talked about the benefits of our little trip.  Sure there wasn't a ton to do in Bandon and we had trouble finding a lunch place that was open on a Sunday afternoon (pretty sure there was only one restaurant open actually), but it was cool to get out of Cork, be somewhere not touristy, explore a really residential part of Ireland, and just find our own fun little things to do (like the playground).

Statue Dedicated to Irish Patriots

There were two statues in Bandon that I took a photo of.  One was dedicated to Irish patriots.  I loved the quote on this statue: "They rose in dark and evil days, to right their native land, and kindled there a living blaze, that nothing shall withstand."

Sean Hayes Statue

The other statue was specifically dedicated to one Irish patriot, Bricadier-General Sean Hayes who fought for Irish freedom and died in battle in 1922.

The Shambles

One of the last things that Kyla and I saw before we caught the bus back to Cork (we actually ran a bit because we hadn't thought we'd make it) was The Shambles.  It is a 15 sided building which makes it fairly unique.  However, we are still unsure as to what it is...or why its end date appears to be 2007 (or its foundation date as 1817 when the Bandon website says it was made in 1754).

All in all a pretty good day...but now I have to go work on a paper.

Bandon Trip: Part I

Today me and my roommate Kyla decided to go out and explore the town of Bandon as a few of our friends were in Paris and wouldn't get back until the afternoon.  I was a little nervous as I kinda randomly picked the place and we were going on a Sunday so I wasn't sure how much there would be to do.  But we had a pretty fun day.  Just the ride there was gorgeous and it's really starting to feel more like fall (although the temperatures haven't really changed).

Bandon's Catholic Church

Bandon's Protestant Church

When we got to Bandon one of the first things we noticed was that there were three churches.  This didn't include the Methodist church of the Jehovah's Witness church (although that one was for sale).  Sadly we couldn't get a good look at one of the churches because it was chained up.  We wondered if it was condemned or otherwise dangerous.

A Well Cared for Grave

We were pretty sure that one of the other churches was Catholic and the other was Protestant.  We spent the most time at the Catholic one as we wandered through the large graveyard.  It was really interesting to see the differences between graveyards in the US and in Ireland.  The plots in Ireland seem to be much more separated.  There also tended to be more permanent things left by the graves.  I think in the US you're more likely to see bouquets of flowers while in this graveyard there were potted plants, small statues (including one of hands which I found creepy), toys, and plaques.  Also by some of these graves were little ledges that said things like "Sit and Talk a While."

Anyone Know What These Are?

After the first church Kyla noticed some odd road markings.  We're still not sure what they're for, but our current theory is that they're to make you slow down.

The Bandon River

The Bandon River was gorgeous (if not very deep).  We saw lots of birds (mostly ducks and seagulls, but at least one swan!) and the trees and stone work on either side made it perfectly picturesque.

By the way this is my 50th post!

Prehistoric Societies in Ireland Field Trip: Part IV

Lough Gur Wedge Tomb

After hopping back on the bus we went to another wedge tomb.  This one was much smaller than Labbacallee.  The most interesting thing about this one was that, for a time, there was an old woman living in it.  This is not a rumor or legend by the way, it is actually recorded that a woman lived there in the 19th century.

Grange Stone Circle

Our final stop was Grange Stone Circle.  This was much larger than Drombeg and the stones formed a continuous circle.  It was also a much closer perfect circle.  It is quite likely that they did this by putting a post in the center and dragging a rope around it in a circle and marking the spots for the stones.

Offerings at Grange Stone Circle

Here, as at Drombeg, there was also a spot for people to leave offerings.  I was kinda shocked when some other students made a move to take things from the offerings.  In the end they didn't, but I still found it a bit odd.

UCC Excavation

There had been some debate as to the date of this site, so UCC actually did a partial excavation of it and determined that while it was used in the Bronze Age, it was constructed earlier.  The hole has been left open because the person who was going to use the equipment to fill it in had to go fill out more paper work.

A Photo Snapped Really Quickly

One thing I wish had gone differently on this field trip was that we got a chance to explore the sites more on our own.  At every site it we: walked up, gathered, listened to our professor for a while, turned around, and got back on the bus.  I really liked how in my Early Start Program we were given at least a few minutes to explore and take photos.

All in all though, seeing archaeological sites and meeting more people in my class was pretty great.

Prehistoric Societies in Ireland Field Trip: Part III

The Visitors' Centre Modelled after a Neolithic House

After some confusion as to whether the Visitors' Centre was open, we went inside to hear a short lecture and watch a short movie.  Honestly though, the most amusing part of it was the guide and our professor having some banter about Cork vs. Dublin.  But the woman was very nice and had some cool stories to tell us.  Although I found it really unprofessional to say that the prehistoric people at Lough Gur worshiped false gods and were devils for throwing items in the lake for the symbolic act of ritual deposition.

The Shield Replica

I loved learning about this Late Bronze Age shield.  They only have the replica as the original is in the National Museum.  However, the original has two holes, that have been somewhat patched over, in it as it was found when two brothers were marking their long jumps with their sickles.

The Only Non-Replicas (Besides, as she said, Our Guide)

In fact the only originals that the place had were two metal flataxes.  These were actually found somewhat by mistake by a teacher who was fishing at the lake.

Lough Gur Model

To give you a sense of the scale of this site here is a photo of the topographical model of it.  There are so many sites that we didn't see and I wish we had, but we only had so much time and we had to bus to the different sites we were seeing.

Prehistoric Societies in Ireland Field Trip: Part II

Lough Gur

Our next series of sites were all at a place called Lough Gur.  This is, of course, after we stopped for lunch, although most of us just awkwardly ate our packed lunches in a pub and didn't order anything.  The most interesting thing about Lough Gur, in my opinion, is that it has been continuously used for settlement from the Neolithic to the Medieval (although there was a possible gap during the Iron Age).  Thus at this site there are remains of Neolithic houses as well as two castles.  It isn't hard to see why Lough Gur would be an ideal place.  Besides its beauty, the ground is fertile and the lake is rich with fish and water birds.

If You Look Carefully You Can See Both Cashels

On top of one of the hills are the remains of two cashels.  We only went to one of them as they are not prehistoric sites so our professor didn't want us to spend too much time on them.  I do kinda wish we'd seen the other site because there was once a Viking silver hoard there, which is something we actually just talked about in my other archaeology class.

I Kinda Want to Live on a Crannog

Besides for sustenance, the lake also provided an opportunity for a relatively unique type of settlement.  Crannogs are small artificially created islands.  The ones at Lough Gur I believe are thought to be prehistoric.  I find it interesting that these are either believed to be defensive sites as being in the water would cause attackers to have to bottle neck onto the site or religious as there is evidence of ritual deposition.

Prehistoric Societies in Ireland Field Trip: Part I

Carntigherna Hillfort

So Saturday was the field trip for my Prehistoric archaeology class.  Overall the day was pretty great, although I could've done without getting up at 8:00am on a weekend, but oh well.  Our first stop was a hillfort at the top of Corrin Hill.  The view was quite spectacular from the top.  The hillfort had a rampart of dumped stone and as well as banks and ditches for protection.  If you look carefully at the first picture you can see the ridge of the dumped stone.  Unfortunately, this hillfort is surrounded by a forest which has severely compromised the site.  In fact our professor went so far as to curse forestry as one of the greatest evils archaeology faces.

The Cross at the Top

The Stone Cairn

At the top of the hill today there are the remains of a stone cairn and a large cross.  The large cross was constructed out of stones taken from the cairn.  Inside the cairn there were several Bronze Age cist burials found.  However, they actually believe that those were inserted later and that beneath the cairn there is a Neolithic passage tomb, but an extensive excavation would need to be carried out to find out for sure.  There are also the remains of a watch tower that was constructed in the cairn during World War II, which I found interesting because, as our professor said, what the lone man in the watch tower would do if he ever saw anything seemed vague at best.

One of the Many Crows

Our next stop was Labbacalle wedge tomb, which I visited earlier if you've read all of my posts :P.  This time though I managed to get a photo of one of the many crows that seem to haunt the place.  Also the exact translation of Labbacallee is 'Bed of the Old Woman/Hag/Witch.'  One can only wonder if stories of the decapitated woman who was in the tomb helped name this place.

Voting and Other Legalities

This past Monday I finally sent in my absentee ballot.  Illinois actually sent it to me twice (via email and snail mail).  I guess they really wanted me to vote.  I was delaying posting about voting because I was hoping to have successfully registered with the Garda, immigration, on Thursday.  However when I got there around 1:35 (the place is closed 12:00-2:00), there were about 15 people ahead of me.  The signs around clearly said that it took at least 10 minutes per person and that people would not be helped after four.  This was actually my second attempt to register (the first time I brought the wrong letter), but I decided to try some other time rather than wait around for two hours to be rejected.  I'm not considering not registering at all as the next time they'll see my passport I'll be heading out of the country, but we'll see.

Me Voting Absentee

Back to voting though.  Most of the people I've met here have been liberal-leaning like myself, but I have met a few conservatives.  However, I've also met people who don't plan to vote which I find kind of disheartening.  I know that it is easy to become disappointed in our politicians or even in our whole system (I mean how many of the past Illinois governors have gone to jail?), but staying entirely out of the system and not trying to make any changes to it doesn't seem to be the way to go.  Also when I'm reminded what some people had to do to vote and what is at stake for this election, I can't imagine not voting.

Ring of Kerry Tour: Ladies View & Killarney National Park

Ladies View

Ladies View and Me

Just when we thought that the Ring of Kerry couldn't get any prettier, we went to the Ladies View.  I believe it was called that because that is where important guests were taken to view the area.  Kyla and I ran ahead of the rest of our tour bus so that we could get photos without them, or, as it turned out, members of two or three other buses, in it.  While our pamphlet said it was a leprechaun crossing, I didn't see any.  Although there were a few small trails around it so who knows.

Killarney National Park

Our final stop was Killarney National Park.  It was gorgeous and gorgeous in a way that I didn't quite expect in Ireland.  I've never doubted that Ireland is a beautiful country, but the park reminded me of some places in the US.  It was cool but also a bit odd (for lack of a better word).

Torc Waterfall

The highlight of our stop there was the Torc Waterfall.  Kyla and I again ran ahead of the group to get good shots of it.  I always love waterfalls and this one was beautiful, 18m high and cascading down an expanse of beautiful rocks where it then turned into a babbling stream that begged for fairy tales to be written about it.  Sorry if that sounded weird, but it needed to be said.

Finally it was time to head back to Cork.  Even though the roads were a bit small and twisty, it was a very nice ride back and a very nice way to spend the day with friends.