Pamela Louderback, Day 26

I awoke (several times throughout the night) to gale-force rain-pelting weather -- finally to drag myself out of bed after hitting the snooze button at least a dozen times.  I think it's a record for me...  I had planned, (mind you EXTENSIVELY planned) out my bus, walking, bus trip to St. Mary's University College on Falls Road the evening before but scrapped all of those plans with the realization that even if my umbrella made it in one piece, there was no indication that I would actually make it to St. Mary's in a presentable fashion given the weather.  So, after bolting across campus to the School of Law to hand in the digital recorder that, after 20 minutes and eight staff member's opinion, was pretty much useless -- I decided I needed to call for a cab.  Although the event left me late for my meeting at St. Mary's, it made me feel a bit better about my "techie" skills in that nobody ELSE could figure the darned thing out either.  As I was once again bolting - this time out the door to catch my cab - Nuala, the techie in-house quickly shoved a microcassette tape recorder in my hands and said, "this one's old but it works!" 

The cab ride was pretty uneventful over to Falls Road save for the small bit of conversation fueled by my realization that the cabbie had a small dreamcatcher hanging from his rearview mirror.  Now, keep in mind that over here, you sit in the front with the cabbie, not in the back like in the U.S., so I had a good vantage point for spying such things.  Some Irish are quite fond of "Indian" items here and when I told him of my heritage, he immediately became animated and very friendly.  We had a good chat about America for the next couple of minutes and he deposited me in front of the college.

St Mary's is a college that places great emphasis on learning and teaching the Irish language and on support for Irish Medium Education so I figured this was a great place to start - and I was not mistaken.  Irish has been a "subject" on the curriculum since 1900.  And this is where teachers go to receive teacher education through the EEd and PGCE programs to teach Irish in the schools (K-12).  With the support of Foras na Gaeilge, An tAisaonad lan-Ghaeilge produces learning materials for the Irish Medium schools.  And when I say "produces", I mean from scratch!  There's an assemblage of books, mostly in English, that are reconstructed similar to storyboarding or setting out a newspaper where Irish words are pasted over the English words.  Its an impressive process they've figured out here - ingenuity at work.  

Jill Garland ushered me into what I think was a faculty lounge but the sheer size and beauty of the room was unrivaled by anything I've ever seen.  Of course, we started out with coffee (tea for me) and scones!  Lovely culture, this is...  I was introduced to all sorts of people Sean Mac Labhrai, Gabrielle Nig Uidhir (administrator interested in forging relationship with NSU via study abroad), Ciaran O Pronntaigh who puts alot of teaching aids together for teachers to use (Resources Department) , and Colm Mac Aindreasa who integrates alot of the materials through multimedia.  Interestingly, Colm's parents were the first to create/offer Irish language learning.  He's quite the character and knows the language (as well as technology).  The staff in the "resources" section take books in English and reformat them into Irish language books, ship them off to the publishers in modified state, and receive the final product to turn around for use in the schools.  Pretty impressive process to address the challenge that there just aren't very many books in Irish for primary school students.  I must share this with Les for the Cherokee immersion school in Tahlequah. 

After visiting St. Mary's, I had lunch across the street at the Culturlann, an Irish cultural centre with Ciaran, Colm, and another gentleman who teaches science courses (whose name escapes me - sorry).   I was one of very few who spoke English and I enjoyed listening to the conversation though I only picked up a word or two here and there.  I've been invited out for an evening of real Irish music at a bar somewhere for next Tuesday by the guys so I'm looking forward to that since so far all I've had the opportunity to attend is the ceile at the Presbyterian church. 

Tonight, I dine with Professor Stannard and his old friend Brian Lambkin who was one of the first Headmasters of an Irish Medium school years ago.  I sure wish I had a decent tape recorder as the one I borrowed lasted all of about five minutes at St. Mary's before the tape gave out.  There's always the "old school" method of paper and pen...