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My classmates and I were in Ireland from 4^th to 11^th of April. It was a funny, interesting and beautiful stay although we had to go to the school it wasn‘t upsetting because the teachers were very friendly and funny like the teachers in our school. Near our school and also in the center of Dublin is a picturesque park with many different flowers, trees and trimmings. There are also two ponds and due to them many ducks, seagulls and doves live there you have to be careful while you eat your lunch because the birds aren’t shy. They came next to us and waited until they got something from our lunch. The park is called the St. Stephens Green Park as well as the shopping center next to the park. In this text I want to describe the history of the Park from the former times until yet, the economic benefits and in the end I would like to describe my impressions.

The History:

In former times the St. Stephens Green Park wasn’t a park. In the Middle Ages there was a boggy region which was used as a meadow land. In 1663 the Dublin Corporation, which is something like a city government bought the land, used a part of the land as a park and built a fence around the park. The other part was sold as land for building. After that upsetting things such as the executions in the 18^th century happened in the park. In the 18^th and 19^th century the most buildings were built. These buildings still exist today. Only a few were demolished and replaced by new ones. Since the foundation of the park, it has been an official and governmental case. In 1814 the Neighborhood got the control. Only people with a house next to the park were allowed to go inside. In 1880 Sir Arthur Guinness made the park accessible to the public again and he also paid for a new decoration of the park. In the St. Stephens Green Park the Irish people fought against the British empire. They occupied the park and made funk holes. Unfortunately the British army was placed on the top of an hotel next to the park and so they could see across the entire park and so they could easily shoot the Irish people. Today the park is decorated with lots of flowers in the middle and growing trees around them. The ways you can go make two big circles in the middle of the park. To cross the pond you have to cross a beautiful, little bridge. There are also some monuments to look. For example to remember historical people such as James Joyce or to remember periods such as the hunger crises of Ireland.

The environmental benefits:

As I mentioned above the park was a meadow land so the environmental benefits were that the animals like cattles, sheeps and goats ate the grass and the farmers got milk, meat and wool. Now the park has no environmental benefits except that maybe tourist take a look at the park and buy next to the park anything to eat, drink or clothes. And the plants also produce oxygen so it is good for the environment.

My impressions of the park:

I really like the variety of garden and parks and I am a person who who likes to spend my time in nature. I have already seen a lot of different types of decorated parks. The St. Stephens Green Park is a really charming park because you can see that there is a lot of work in the park. For example the flowers have to be planted and there is a huge variety of flowers in the park. With the ponds the park has everything what a park can have a little forest, ponds and a free places to enjoy the sun. The only thing I can blame is that it is not as big as others and when you are in the park you can hear the noise of the traffic but that is how it is in a city.

Dublin is a really lovely place for a holiday but not more than for one week. I enjoyed it but in Austria the landscape and the buildings are prettier than in Ireland. I wont go to Ireland a second time it is a beautiful country but it is nothing for me in particular Dublin is a chaotic city. I hope you are satisfied with my blog. The next time I will write from a warmer country where I can relax at the beach.

Trinity College is one of the most significant tourist attractions in Dublin.

Although often referred to as Ireland’s oldest university, Trinity wasn’t the first established in Ireland.

Originally Trinity was established outside Dublin in the buildings of the Catholic Augustinian Priory. During the eighteenth century Trinity College was seen as the university of the Protestant Ascendancy. Trinity College opened up attendance to Catholics in 1793, during the Emancipation. From 1871 to 1970, the Catholic Church in Ireland in turn forbade its adherents from attending Trinity College without permission. Women were first admitted to the college as full members in 1904.

Trinity College is surrounded by central Dublin and is located on College Green, opposite the historic Irish Houses of Parliament. Parliament made generous grants for building. The college occupies 190,000 m² (there´re also two playing fields). The iconic granite campanile – or bell tower – in Trinity College’s front square was added in 1853, standing over 100 feet tall. The college also owns a large set of residences four kilometres to the south of the college on the Dartry Road, in Rathmines, called Trinity Hall.

Academically, it is divided into three faculties and also offering degree and diploma courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. In spite of its connection to the Protestant Reformation in Ireland, several prominent Irish nationalists were Trinity College graduates.

The Library of Trinity College contains over 6.2 million printed volumes and significant quantities of manuscripts, including the Book of Kells. It`s the largest research library in Ireland.

The Hamilton Mathematics Institute in Trinity College, named in honour of William Rowan Hamilton, was launched in 2005 and aims to improve the international profile of Irish mathematics, to raise public awareness of mathematics and to support local mathematical research.

Back in Austria, I am writing my blog about Irish music. I can definitely confirm that it’s really true that music is important to the Irish. I have never been to a city that shows so many street musicians. It seems that there is someone at every corner, usually playing guitar and singing, but there were also several saxophone players, which I found a bit surprising.

The greatest surprise, however, was the fact that during my entire stay in Ireland I didn’t hear a single song by U2. Neither on the radio nor on the streets (there was plenty of Ed Sheeran though); I am really astonished because U2 are such a famous band, who have often integrated the political situation in Ireland into their songs. Their political activism is well-known, and it’s also well-known that politics in Ireland have been complicated, which is due to the turbulences in Irish history.

I would like to say something about the Irish history: For centuries, there has been a fundamental conflict between the British, who originally treated Ireland as their colony, and the Irish local population who were oppressed. The conflict also has religious roots: On the one hand there are the Protestants, on the other hand the Catholics. The long-term conflict has left many dead, especially on the Irish side. U2 have addressed this long-term conflict in a number of songs, including “Sunday Bloody Sunday”. The song deals with the incident “Bloody Sunday” in Derry, Northern Ireland in 1972. That day British soldiers shot unarmed civil right protesters, bystanders and children. That incident represents the peak of a period called “The Troubles”, a period of repeated wars and tension between the Irish and the British. The period began in the late 1960 and lasted until the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. In their song U2 reject hatred and violence as a response to the British shooting. This is expressed in the line “There’s many lost, but tell me who has won”. …..

The song “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” has helped make U2 famous. It turned the band from a local club band in Dublin to a world-famous group. The song has been played regularly in U2’s Live concerts for many years and will be played in the future. It has become a symbol of an Anti-War Song. This can be seen by the fact that U2 have used the song to protest against other political incidents, such as the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Finally, I would like to give you some facts and figures about U2: The band consist of four band members who are named Bono (vocalist), The Edge (lead guitar), Adam Clayton (bass guitar) and Larry Mullen Jr (drummer). The band was formed in 1976, while the members were still attending Mount Temple Comprehensive School. Their musical style has developed throughout the career and is characterized by Bono’s high voice and special guitar riffs. U2 have released 14 studio albums, making U2 the world’s best-selling music artists in history, who have sold about 150–170 million records worldwide. Moreover, they have won 22 Grammy Awards, more than any other band.

On Friday we took part in an impressive guided tour through Dublin, where we visited the life-sized statue of Oscar Wilde. The imposing statue is located in Merrion Square in Central Dublin. On the corner opposite there was his childhood home number 1. Take a brief look at Wilde‘s face. You’ll see that the left side of the face is happy, while the right side looks sad. That stands for his unterstanding of both sides of the paradox, the tragic and comedic. The monument is a three-part sculpture – a big stone, where Wilde is sitting in a relaxed position and two other pillars, which are decorated with famous quotes of him. It’s said Wilde was obsessed with stones. Because of that his statue was made of exotic materials, such as green nephrite jade from the Yukon.

Want to know something about Wilde‘s life?

Oscar Wilde was born into an Irish family on 16^th November 1854. His Mum was a writer and his dad a well-known doctor. As a juvenile Wilde attended the Trinity College in Dublin and afterwards he studied literature at Oxford University. At the age of 25 he moved to London and lived with Frank Miles in an apartment. He was used to live a flamboyant lifestyle and he represented his personal views in publicity. A few years later he travelled through USA, where he delivered countless lectures and met loads of various writers. In 1884 Wilde got married with Constance Lloyd, a children’s book writer. After the marriage he published the novel „The Picture of Dorian Gray“, which was the cause of a social scandal. Wilde became known as a playwright and he wrote mostly commedy of manners. With the play „The Importance of Being Earnest“ he achieved his breakthrough. Wilde was denounced because of his homosexual penchant. After his imprisonment he died in Paris on 30^th November 1900.

After our journey I watched the comedy „The Importance of Being Earnest“. It’s all about two men and their mistaken identities. The two gentlemen use the same pseudonym „Ernest“ for secret activities. The chaos is enormous as they both fall madly in love and have to explain who they really are.

The movie was quite fun, though I was really confused cause of all the different names at the beginning. I’d highly recommend it for every age class.

Let me tell you my favourite quote of Oscar Wilde:

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist. That’s all.”

What about you? Take matters into your hand, make things happen. Begin to live more! Discover Ireland and feel the magic!

The GAA or the Gaelic Athletic Association is an Irish international amateur sporting and cultural organization, which primarily focuses on promoting traditional Irish sports such as Hurling, Camogie and Gaelic football.

On the 1^st of November 1884 a group of Irishmen met at the Hayes’ Hotel billiard room to create an organization to foster and preserve Ireland’s unique games and athletic pastimes. This organization was about to become the Gaelic Athletic Association. Since then the GAA has always been closely associate with Irish nationalism. Many people of Ireland could identify themselves through the GAA to be part of the Irish people and not to the English. So the GAA also helped fighting against the British government which consistently tried to capture Ireland.

As I mentioned earlier the GAA is an amateur sporting organization, so no player, no matter how good he is, isn’t paid for their work. In addition the clubs also have little money compared to professional soccer clubs in Europe. Hence things are a bit different than we are used to from our sports in Austria.
For example there is no transferring from one club to another, which means you can’t be bought from a club because you’re a very good player. Therefore the club which you firstly got to will be yours your whole lifetime.

But what are the traditional sports I’m talking about the whole time?
There are two main sports the GAA promotes and preserves Hurling and Gaelic football.

Hurling:
Hurling is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic and Irish origin. As it’s one of Ireland’s native games it shares a number of features with Gaelic football such as the field and the goal. There is a similar game called Camogie, the only difference it’s played by women.
The aim of the game is to either score a goal or to pass the ball over the crossbar. Scoring a goal equals three points and hitting the ball over the crossbar gives one point.
The players use a wooden stick called hurl to transport the ball, which is called sliotar to the opponent’s goal.
The ball can be kicked with the foot, slapped with an open hand, carried the ball, but not more than four steps, balanced on the end of the stick or stroked on the ground with the hurley.

Rules:
The pitch is 130-145 meters long and 80-90 meters wide. At each end there’s the H-shaped goalpost. Such as at soccer in Europe youth teams use smaller goals and pitches.
The teams consist of fifteen players: a goalkeeper, three full backs, three half backs, two midfielders, and three half forwards and three full forwards. One game lasts for 60 minutes (30 minutes per half) and every player has to wear a helmet.

Gaelic football:
Gaelic football is very similar to Hurling or Camogie, as there are also two teams consisting of 15 players each and the point-system is the same. Players transfer the football up the field with a combination of carrying, bouncing, kicking, hand-passing, and soloing.

Rules:
Gaelic football  is played on the same pith as Hurling, also the structure of the teams and the duration is similar to Hurling.
There are mainly three different types of fouls:

• Technical fouls
• Aggressive fouls
• Dissent

Technical fouls are mostly traveling, passing the ball in a wrong way or treating the ball wrong, like picking it up from the ground.
Aggressive fouls physical or verbal fouls committed by a player against an opponent. The referee can then ether cautions the player by a yellow card or order him off the pitch by a red or black card,
A dissent foul is a foul where a player fails to comply with the officials’ judgment and/or instructions.

I hope I could give you a short view about the GAA and its traditional sports, what do you think about these? Would you try them out if you have the chance to? Share your answer in the comments below!

You are in Ireland and want to spend your time in the best possible way? Then Glendalough is the best place for you.

On Saturday we visited Glendalough and even before we travelled to Ireland I was fascinated by the magical landscape and the quiet-looking environment. Did you know that in Glendalough shepherds can be seen working with their dogs and depending on the time of the year you will also have the opportunity to hold and feed a little lamb? Or did you know that there is even a small whiskey distillery in Glendalough? I did not know that before. I thought Glendalough would be just a place to do sports, have a picnic, walk or just relax, but Glendalough is much more versatile than it seems.

The Glendalough Valley is located in the Wicklow Mountains National Park, about 40 kilometres south of Dublin.

I will briefly give you a historical review about Glendalough.

Saint Kevin retired to Glendalough in the 6^th century and lived in seclusion with nature, but his hermitage quickly became a bouncing area. It is said that already in the 12^th century, more than 3.000 people have lived in the valley, 7 churches were built and there was even a school. Kevin is said to have died in 618 at the age of 120 years. Every year on the 3^rd of June, St. Kevin’s Day is celebrated and pilgrims from all parts of the island come down to the valley.

Although several times Vikings and English troops raided the monastery and largely destroyed in 1398, it could still hold up to the dissolution of all Irish monasteries in 1539 by the English King Henry VIII. Ok, that’s enough history.

Well, what can I see in Glendalough?

The most striking monument is the 33-meter-high round tower, which was built around 1066 during the Viking invasions to protect the religious relics, books and goblets.

The most striking monument is the 33-meter-high round tower, which was built around 1066 during the Viking invasions to protect the religious relics, books and goblets.

The 11th-century St. Kevin’s Church chapel was also called St. Kevin’s Kitchen because its tower is like a carmine.

There’s also a Celtic cross, St. Kevin’s Cross.

Near the shore of the second lake there are a few more building remains from the early days of the monastery as well as the remains of a mine.

What can i see in Glendalough if i am not interested in history?

If you are not interested in history, you can still do many things. Hiking is one of the most popular activities in Glendalough and it’s a pretty easy hike, only taking between 2 and 4 hours to do the full loop around both lakes. Make sure you enjoy it at the top with a stunning view before making your way back down.

After the hike, you’ll have worked up a hunger, or at least a thirst, and the pub in the Glendalough Hotel, at the entrance to the park has some of the best pub grub you’ll get. The food is simple traditional Irish food.

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You can also visit the village of Annamoe located at the foot of the Wicklow Mountains, where you get the unique chance to experience a Shepherd at work with his best friend the Border Collie Sheep Dog. The dog, listening to the whistling sounds from the Shepherd, will herd the sheep across fields, through gates and fencing into corrals. This is an experience not to be missed.

Last but not least, you can see Glendalough whiskey distillery. This whiskey isn’t as old as Glendalough itself but is, in fact, one of the many new Irish Whiskey Distilleries that are leading the recent whiskey revolution in Ireland. It’s still a small distillery and so has the advantage of allowing visitors to actually see the whiskey being made, rather than simply being told, or seeing it on a screen.

Why is Glendalough worth a trip?

So, I hope you have now convinced yourself that Glendalough is worth a trip. If I am in Ireland again, I will certainly come back to Glendalough (of course to view the whiskey distillery), but I really enjoyed the current visit to Glendalough.

On Wednesday, our last full day in Ireland, we visited the Guinness Storehouse after our school lessons. We took the bus to the nearest station and then walked the last part. What first really caught my eye was the big wooden gate with the white “Guinness” inscription and the well known logo of the golden harp. Before the whole group could go in Mr Eichhorn bought the tickets. As we entered the storehouse a friendly lady gave all of us a a leaflet about the storehouse and a green bracelet with the inscription “I love Ireland”. She then took us to the “Merchandise” Area and a guide told us some informations about the storehouse. We then were free to explore the storehouse.

But before I tell you about my experiences in the Storehouse you need to know something about the history of Guinness and its founder Sir Arthur Guinness. Sir Arthur Guinness lived from 1725 to the year 1803. His father brewed beer for the workers of the archbishop of Cashel. Sir Arthur Guinness inherited 100 £ from his father and leased with it a brewery at the St. James Gate. He had 21 kids from whom only 10 survived. At the end of the 18th century his brewery was the world’s greatest Porter and Stout brewery. The Storehouse itself is a museum about the long history of Guinness and its core is a big pint glass which reaches from the ground floor to the attic.

The tour began with a big pool of what seemed like wheat or barley. We were in a hurry so there was no time to read all description fields. I went up some stairs and entered a room with a smell of toffee. In the room there were some machines what seemed like old brewing machines. I went on and came to the mid layer of the storehouse. If you don’t know, the actual storehouse is shaped like a bottle so I was now in the middle of the bottle. In this layer you could buy some snacks and check your knowledge about alcohol. I tried it with a friend of mine and together we actually got a decent percentage. We bought some snacks and sat to the others to talk and rest a little bit. After that we decided to hurry to the last layer due to the lack of time we had.

It took some time to get to the top layer but it was worth the effort. The top layer is a big sky lounge with a bar where you can order beer and enjoy the beautiful view. Unfortunately we are not eightteen yet so we couldn’t order some beer. Anyways you could really enjoy the view despite the whole bunch of people which were up there. After that we took the lift down to the Merchandise Area and bought some merchandise.

To put it in a nutshell, I was a bit disappointed of the Guinness Storehouse. We had not so much time and without the area where you could taste the different sorts of guinness and the area where you could brew your own beer the storehouse really lacks in experience. The merchandise was cool but if I just wanted that I would not have drove to the storehouse.

I’m really looking forward to visiting Ireland. Of course, we will see as many of the amazing sights in Ireland as possible. One of them is Glendalough, which is also known as the “Valley of two lakes”.

Glendalough is a glacial valley in County Wicklow, Ireland, and famous for a monastery founded in the 6th century by St Kevin.

Saint Kevin is an Irish saint, known as the founder and first abbot of Glendalough. His feast day is June the 3rd.

Glendalough is also an area for picnics, for walking along and also for rock-climbing.

Stay turned and follow me through this week!

I am really looking forward to my trip to Dublin tomorrow. Trying to get to know Ireland better, I did some Internet research. As I found out, music has always played a great role in the lives of the Irish. There is a long tradition of folk music, often played with the fiddle, the Irish harp and the Irish drum (bodhrän). Also, the are many Irish singers, like Van Morrison or Sinead O’Connor. Ireland’s most famous band is U2. My favourite song is “Moments of Surrender”.

Who else wants to experience Ireland?

I’m really looking forward to visiting the beautiful isle with its idyllic landscapes, well known pubs and warm hearted people. Above all, there are so many gorgeous Irish authors I would probably fall for if they were still alive. One of them is Oscar Wilde. Although he wasn‘t the handsomest guy, all the more amazing are his quotes, which touch me deeply in my heart.

Stay tuned! Some information about him are coming soon.

Tomorrow we’re starting our tour to the beautiful capital of Ireland, Dublin. There we’ll do some fun stuff like visiting Glendalough and Bray, the Guinness Storehouse, Croke Park, walking through the city with a guide and even some Irish dancing.

However, in advance of our journey everyone of our class had to pick one topic. So I picked Gaelic sports, or rather the GAA and Hurling.

The GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) is an athletic union, which supervises and promotes irish sport. Back in the beginning of the 20^th century sports were only available for the upper classes of the society. The GAA enabled all segments of the society to do sports. Combined with to irish culture the traditional sports Hurling and Gaelic football became very popular.

Hurling or Camogie (=played by women) is a team sport, which is played with a racket, called Hurley and a ball, called Silotar. 2 teams, each has 15 players, play against each other on a field. The aim is to score a goal, by hitting the Silotar between the two goalposts. After 60 minutes the game ends and the team with the most points wins the match.

I expect from the language week, that I can improve a bit of my English skills, learn about the Irish culture and I’d love to get some more information about the GAA and Hurling, as we visit the Croke Park.

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