Day 6, Dancing Under Duress

Tim discovered a great bakery across the street from CEA called Krust (the Irish love a one-word-descriptor name for restaurants as much as Americans do). At Krust there's pastry galore and decent coffee. I didn't get a picture of the delectables, but here's a picture of our CEA building across the street. Next door, is The George--we haven't been there, but it looks like good craic. Today is our busiest day yet, so I prepared with multiple cups of tea and coffee.

The sunshine has been relentless since we arrived--check out these blue skies! (Taken from our CEA classroom).

And, the students are still enthusiastic. We're moving at a really fast clip, but they continue to impress.

After class, we reconvened at our place and mobilized for our trip to the Kilmainhaim Gaol. This is another place we wanted to visit during our last trip. I was here a little more than 10 years ago with Eleanor. It's lost none of its grimness. Across the street is the Modern Art Museum we visited earlier in the week. I took a few shots of the entrance to the museum and of the face that I'm most likely to get from Peyton when I have a camera aimed at his face. 

Once we get inside we meet our tour guide. This is one of those tours where it's useful to have some background knowledge about Irish history. The tour is chock full of information, but the larger context(s) for imprisonment require a bit more background. On the whole, it's a wonderful tour and mercifully short. Only two students decided to do the tour with us, but one student booked a tour with us and the other for a time later in the day. I coached them on how they might wrangle their way onto the same tour and it worked. Our students are getting savvier by the minute!

I found myself drawn to the various forms of graffiti around the jail. These forms of textual resistance leave a lasting impression of the hands, bodies, and pens that have been here before us. 

Every now and then you're in a truly terrible place with truly beautiful spaces. The wrought iron throughout the jail disguises the misery within.

Our tour guide gave a brief review of panopticism once we entered the main room of the jail. 

One of the female prisoners smuggled in paint and brushes and painted the walls of her cell. This photograph is taken through a small hole in her cell door.

After a dark, albeit educational, hour in the jail we had a bit of time to kill and we all desperately needed a drink. We ended up getting both a drink and a bite to eat at O'Shea's Merchant. I've really been into sampling the seafood chowder around town and this one was really good. It had bits of sea grass called samphire in it--I loved it. 

Next, we had the Jameson Whiskey Tasting Tour. We were all really impressed by the gorgeous cocktails they whipped up for us. 

As far as touristy things to do, Jameson is a good time. We didn't do the actual distillery tour because at this point, we know how whiskey is made. But, we did want to do a tasting. The tasting tour had us in the oldest part of the building and drinking some potent potables. This really was a full day and we could have been done, but we still had an evening of Irish dancing ahead of us. 

After Jameson, we got on the Luas red line and headed to the DART station. One of the activities that CEA arranges for us is an introduction to Irish dancing. Now, this isn't the River Dancing type of dancing that most Americans probably associate with Irish dancing, this is more like folk dancing. We've been told that it's pretty easy, but that we should wear comfortable clothing and shoes and that it's going to get warm. Tim and several students tried to get out of going, but I held firm that it was mandatory. (Below: Sign on the DART.)

The coastline of Ireland is breathtaking. There will be many more photos of this to come.

Once we reached our stop, Francis (CEA Director) and Damien (CEA professor) show up and drive us up to the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann.

I wish to god I had photos of us dancing. Imagine about 50 sweaty American college students and a few awkward faculty being shouted at by an angry Irish dance teacher. I can honestly say that we tried our best, but our best was definitely not enough. Regardless, we had a great time. The best part was that at the break we were all served cups of hot tea and scones by a room of Mrs. Doyles. We left before the dance was finished--everyone was absolutely exhausted. The evening was completed at Fallons for one last pint before bed. If we maintain this pace I'm going to be a limp noodle by the time we get home.