Ireland, land of Guinness

I have just returned from a study trip to Dublin, recovery is slow. Ireland is one hour behind in time and then on the day we returned clocks went forward and so I am feeling very much two hours lost. In addition to the time change the downtime that students used for either shopping or resting was spent making sure that everything was where we thought it was and that we knew how long it would take to get there and so much of the walking was done twice to avoid getting lost when trailed by a group of 29 students.

Dublin was in some ways more than I imagined and in some ways what I have come to expect in European cities. My favourite experience was the trip to the harbour town of Howth, a short train ride from Dublin, where we had access to a hiking trail along the coast; this was the Ireland of my mind's eye. There was a convenient pub located along the route (Gaffney's) where I enjoyed fish and chips accompanied by a Guinness, delicious. My other favourite was the Literary Pub crawl where we visited a handful of pubs in the company of two actors who told us about Dublin's rich literary history and performed scenes and quoted from a variety of texts. 

What was also of interest beyond the city was the experience of travelling like this with a group of students, not the same as a trip to the beach with 14 and 15 year olds. One of the most striking differences between here and home has been the different age group I teach, here my students are older, and as I have mentioned before, the drinking age is lower. The result is that most of the students on this trip were legal drinking age (18) so the expectations for student behaviour are formed with this in mind. They are supposed to be functional each morning, they are supposed to be on time, they are given a suggested curfew, and from there we just expect them to be responsible (and given this degree of freedom they were quite responsible). For my part it was a great leap of faith that was difficult to make, and then I found myself with my colleague and three students at KFC at 2:00 in the morning.

The author advises you to drink Guinness and all alcohol responsibly, this is especially relevant when in a town where a pint is never more than 20 paces away (author J.P. Dunleavy).