Our 2nd day in Northern Ireland started out with Tim picking us up bright and early to head to the Saint Patrick's Centre in Downpatrick, Co. Down - the main reason why we are here. Let me start off by saying how impressive the Centre is... the building, 'St. Patrick's Confession' exhibit which illuminates both the story and the character of St. Patrick, and the people. You never would have thought the building was opened in 2000, I know I didn't.
As an American who is profoundly proud of my Irish heritage and takes every chance I get to celebrate with friends and family on St. Patrick's Day, I didn't know much about St. Patrick himself before today. His message of community and togetherness among people that may have very little and often differ in many ways from one another is something I believe is often undervalued at our celebrations of this great Saint today. Tim made me think a bit harder today after talking to us about St. Patrick... Why is it that the Irish famine emigrants to America celebrated St. Patrick with these great parades among fellow Irishmen and women and didn't emulate his belief of giving back (and especially because they so recently had so little).
After our tour of the centre, we walked up through the garden to the top of the hill to St. Patrick's burial site and the Down Cathedral. We then hopped in the car to the site of the oldest church in Ireland where across the way you could see the largest monument of St. Patrick on the top of a giant hillside - which we proceeded to speedily drive to and see an absolutely beautiful view of the surrounding countryside. The last stop on our unexpected tour was Inch Abbey (which has been used for filming scenes in Game of Thrones - Northern Ireland is actually where they do the majority of their filming).
You'd think the day would be close to being over, but everything is so close in proximity to each other here that it was only about 330pm, or half past 3 rather in "Irish lingo." We got to make our first YA family dinner together, head to the Crawfordsburn Country Park just down the road with Tim and his wife, and the local pub (Crawfordsburn Inn) which so happens to be one of the oldest pubs in Ireland.
Placements start tomorrow, so another bright and early day ahead of us!
As an American who is profoundly proud of my Irish heritage and takes every chance I get to celebrate with friends and family on St. Patrick's Day, I didn't know much about St. Patrick himself before today. His message of community and togetherness among people that may have very little and often differ in many ways from one another is something I believe is often undervalued at our celebrations of this great Saint today. Tim made me think a bit harder today after talking to us about St. Patrick... Why is it that the Irish famine emigrants to America celebrated St. Patrick with these great parades among fellow Irishmen and women and didn't emulate his belief of giving back (and especially because they so recently had so little).
After our tour of the centre, we walked up through the garden to the top of the hill to St. Patrick's burial site and the Down Cathedral. We then hopped in the car to the site of the oldest church in Ireland where across the way you could see the largest monument of St. Patrick on the top of a giant hillside - which we proceeded to speedily drive to and see an absolutely beautiful view of the surrounding countryside. The last stop on our unexpected tour was Inch Abbey (which has been used for filming scenes in Game of Thrones - Northern Ireland is actually where they do the majority of their filming).
You'd think the day would be close to being over, but everything is so close in proximity to each other here that it was only about 330pm, or half past 3 rather in "Irish lingo." We got to make our first YA family dinner together, head to the Crawfordsburn Country Park just down the road with Tim and his wife, and the local pub (Crawfordsburn Inn) which so happens to be one of the oldest pubs in Ireland.
Placements start tomorrow, so another bright and early day ahead of us!