Spring
Term in Ireland
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St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin
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Ben Bulben, viewed from Yeats's Grave
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When We Go, Where We Go
Professor Marc Conner of the English Department leads
a Spring Term Abroad to Ireland every other year. The first trip
was in the Spring of 2000, when 12 W&L students participated in the
six-week program. The second trip was in the Spring of 2002, also with 12
students.
The program is primarily designed for English majors, although non-majors
have participated and are quite welcome, if space permits. We spend the first four weeks in the west of Ireland, based
in Tralee, Co. Kerry. Each week we make two day-trips to various
sites and important landscapes throughout the southwest and west of Ireland,
including several overnight trips. We also study a range of
works of Irish literature and history, as well as receive instruction in
basic Irish (ultimately translating several medieval Irish ballads and
poems). While in the west, we use the facilities of the Irish College of
the Humanities, an outstanding Irish institute that offers classroom space,
dormitory space, computer facilities, and instruction to American colleges
abroad. The College's director, Professor Michael Kissane, also
serves as our principal guide on all of our tours and site visits.
The last two weeks of the term we spend in Dublin, the capital of
Ireland, in hostels or efficiency apartments located in the middle of the city. Here too
we take several day-trips to numerous sites that are prominent in
Irish literature, history, and even myth.
What We Read, What We See
Readings are closely coordinated with the site visits,
so that we study Yeats's poems and tour his famous Tower, Thoor Ballylee;
we read Synge's Aran Islands and then go on an overnight stay to
Inishmoor, the largest of the islands; we read the Blasket Island Storytellers,
then visit the Blaskets; we study Joyce's Dubliners and A Portrait
of the Artist and then tour the numerous Dublin sites associated with
these writings. In addition, we examine sites linked to Irish antiquity
such as the Hill of Tara; sites from medieval Irish history such as the
High Crosses at Clonmacnois or the Rock of Cashel; and a wide range of
Irish castles, monasteries, abbeys, and landscapes.
The links below offer more detailed information
on the program. Explore these at your leisure, particularly the Spring
Travel Log from 2000, which gives a pictorial and narrative "diary" of
all the sites explored by the 2000 Irish Bunch, and the Spring Travel Gallery
from 2002, which offers a complete itinerary and slide-show of the 2002 trip. Questions may be
directed to Marc Conner at connerm@wlu.edu.
Links for Spring Term 2002
Links for Spring Term 2000
Links for Irish Studies at Washington
and Lee