10/26/2024
Thank you Alire for your leadership. Your delegation to Ireland sure looked fun and filled with professional learning! Thank you Anne Marie Casey for your excellent journaling and for all the delegates for your many wonderful pictures! IRELAND Library & Information Services Journey with Dr. Camila Alire
Here is Anne’s journal which gives a succinct overview of the 9 days in Ireland.
Nanda Journeys
Tour of Ireland with Dr. Camila Alire
October 6-13, 2024
October 6, 2024Day OneDublin
Most off the group met at Dublin Airport and were escorted to our bus by Des O’Brien, our national guide. After loading our luggage, we headed off for a panoramic bus tour of Dublin, picking up two of our group. Des was a wealth of information on the history of the city, pointing out numerous significant buildings and monuments. We stopped in Phoenix Park for a rest break and the opportunity to stroll through a walled garden. Around lunchtime, the tour group was dropped off on Nassau St near Trinity College to eat, visit museums, or shop. Among the tour options were the Museum of Art and the National Library of Ireland, which was hosting an exhibit on W.B. Yeats.
In the afternoon, we visited the Museum of Literature Ireland (MOLI), housed in the original buildings of University College Dublin (UCD). Our tour guide, Simon O’Connor, offered a wonderful tour of the building where UCD began in 1864 for middle-class Catholic boys. One of the most famous graduates was James Joyce, who received his degree in 1902. Simon gave us a tour of the building and showed us some books, including a first edition of Joyce's Ulysses.
We checked into the Iveagh Garden Hotel and enjoyed dinner in the hotel restaurant.
October 7, 2024Day TwoDublin
After breakfast Bernard, our driver, took us to EPIC, the Irish Emigration Museum. Before the museum opened, Des walked us to the Sean O’Casey Footbridge and pointed out some other bridges over the Liffey. He took us to a series of sculptures depicting the people who emigrated during the Great Hunger in the 1840s. In the museum, we did self-tours in the rooms that illustrated different aspects of the Irish Diaspora.
We traveled to Temple Row and walked around a bit to see some of the historic buildings before having lunch at Lundy Foot. After lunch, we traveled to Trinity College. Once there, we had a private tour of the Book of Kells display from Anne-Marie Diffley. She explained that the book had been created by monks on the island of Iona in the 8th century and moved to Kells in Ireland after Iona had been attacked by Vikings. We moved from the Book display to the Long Room, which had housed the oldest books in the library. They are now being “decanted” prior to a building renovation to protect against fire and to add air conditioning. Following this tour, we met with Peter Dudley, Head of Reader Services and Space, in the Henry Jones Room to discuss the building renovation and library services in general. He told us that there are five modern libraries at Trinity. They have about 500,000 books on open shelves and the largest part of their collections are housed in two offsite storage facilities. Trinity acquires about 60,000 print volumes a year and the number of new books is now being capped. The library is a government document repository and they see themselves as a national library of sorts. Following this discussion, the group attended an interactive Book of Kells display.
The last stop of the day was at the Chester Beatty Library, home to a large collection of texts related to some of the world’s major religions. Dinner was on our own.
October 8, 2024Day 3 Dublin
Driven by our new bus driver John, the first stop was at Marsh’s Library built in 1707. By Bishop Narcissus Marsh. It was the first library for the public in Dublin. Librarian Jason McEllicott welcomed the group and turned us over to Amy Boylan and her colleague Olga Taranova, who gave a phenomenal tour of this unique library and let us handle some unique books from the collection. The library has not changed in its 300 years of existence. Jason is the 19th in a succession of librarians, all of whom live on the bottom floor. Books in the library are sorted according to a classification system developed at the time the library opened. While we were there, we were able to view their current exhibits devoted to incunabula. The library is currently in the process of digitizing and transcribing their collections. Among those who came into the library to read were James Joyce, Bram Stoker, Sir Walter Scott, and Jonathan Swift. We also were delighted to see Lego in various parts of the library and learned the staff has a scavenger hunt for children who may be accompanying adult readers. We also saw a bullet hole in a book from the last fight of the 1916 Uprising.
The group had a free hour for lunch before heading to the James Joyce Library at University College Dublin (UCD). Michelle Dalton presented on the organization of the library and their strategic plan. She explained that they had involved stakeholders in the development of this plan. She answered questions about the library and toured us around. Two floors were very crowded and utilitarian while the third was very welcoming. As the largest university in Ireland, with an enrollment of 35,000, the library is planning a renovation to make more space attractive and available to students, At UCD, we also met with Phillip Russell, who presented on the sensory rooms the library has recently developed.
October 9, 2024Day 4Dublin/Co Down/Belfast
We checked out of the hotel and headed north to Tracey’s Farmhouse Kitchen in Co. Down in Northern Ireland. Tracey showed us how to make traditional Northern Irish soda bread cut into fourths and known as farls. Several members of the group successfully made their own. After a delightful lunch at Tracey’s, we drove to Belfast.
We stopped at the Linen Hall Library, whose formal name is the Belfast Library and Society for Promoting Knowledge. Set up in 1788, it is the oldest library in Belfast and the last subscribing library in Ireland. The Society purchased the current building in 1892 after 90 years in the White Linen Hall. Library Assistant Judith gave us a tour before we met with Librarian Samantha McCombe, the 22nd librarian and first woman in that position. The library is renowned for its Irish Studies collection and information on Irish traditional music. It also houses an extensive collection of materials related to the political struggles in Northern Ireland from 1968. They have collected everything related to civil rights activities from all parties including ephemera and oral histories. They also have a collection of materials on Travelers, especially Traveler women. Samantha admitted that staffing is low, and funding is a challenge.
We checked into the Ten Square Hotel in Belfast and dinner was on our own.
October 10, 2024Day 5Armagh
John drove us to Armagh where we visited four libraries. We started at the Cultural Heritage Service Library where we met Eileen McVerry, Catherine Gartland, and Elaine Told. Over tea and coffee, Catherine told us about the library. It is part of the Libraries Northern Ireland (NI) network. They have 80,000 volumes, 35 % of which are periodicals. They collect on all aspects of Irish life at home and abroad focusing on the local area (Armagh, Tyrone, Down, and some cross-border counties). They have strong collections on religion, early Ireland, sports, trade unions, and women’s history. They also have a big collection of pamphlets dating to the 1800s, travel books, postcards, government documents, and Ulster directories.
The second visit was to Armagh City Library accompanied by Catherine and Eileen. Cathy Donnelly, the branch manager, gave us a tour of the library. It was a lively community space with a crafts group on one floor and people playing scrabble on the other. Another branch of the Libraries of Northern Ireland, the Armagh branch provides frontline and community services, including activities for children with a staff of nine. Cathy is the only full-time employee. After our visit, we split up for lunch in Armagh,
After lunch, we visited the Cardinal O Fiaich Library and Archives. Director Roddy Haggerty told us the library was named for the late Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Prelate of Ireland. Tomas O Fiaich was a scholar who wrote in Irish and English. He also taught at the University and seminary at Maynooth. After he died, a trust was created as a living memorial that led to the formation of the library. They have about ½ mile of shelving with over one million documents. They focus on the Irish diaspora to Europe, sports including road bowling, and some materials about the political unrest in the late 20th century.
The last visit was to the Armagh Robinson Library. Assistant Keeper Carol Conlin gave a wonderful presentation on this, the oldest public library in Northern Ireland. Founded by Anglican Archbishop Richard Robinson in 1771, it was originally housed in the Keeper’s House, which was enlarged in the 1870s to the current space. Robinson paid for the original collection and also left many items in his collection to the library. It is an independent library and still collects rents from properties Robinson left.
Books are shelved by size with largest on the bottom and smallest on the top. Each book has its own unique location number. The library has a first edition of Gulliver’s Travels owned by Jonathan Swift and corrected in his own hand. It also contains an area for children to play while their adults are reading in the library.
The Keeper of the library lives in the library building and is required to be ordained clergy in the Anglican Church. For the last century, the Keeper has also been Dean of the Anglican Cathedral. The current Keeper, Canon Shane Forster, came to meet us.
Near the end of the visit, Cathy, Catherine, and Roddy joined the group at the Robinson Library for a group photo under the banner of the City Chapter. The four libraries work very closely together. We returned to the hotel in Belfast and had dinner together in the hotel restaurant.
October 11, 2024Day 6Belfast/Derry
Des and John took us on a driving tour of Belfast highlighting the areas of most profound conflict during the political unrest of the last century. After the tour, we drove to the Seamus Heaney Homeplace, a museum of the writing of Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet, Seamus Heaney. The museum hosts an interactive display on the life of Heaney and his writing. We also met author Kwame Alexander from the US. Two fan girls in the tour group got selfies with him.
We headed out to the Ponderosa Restaurant, the highest restaurant in Ireland, for lunch. Then we drove to the Giant’s Causeway where we had time to hike around the amazing geological structure. We stopped on the way to Derry at another scenic spot overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
We arrived in Derry, checked into our hotels, and headed out to dinner on our own, with a brief stop at the Derry Girls mural.
October 12, 2024Day 7Derry/Northwest counties/Galway
We were joined on our tour bus by local tour guide, Tony, who regaled us with funny stories about Derry and an intimate history of the political troubles in that city in the last century. He took us on a walking tour of the city on top of the city walls. Derry is the only city in Ireland with intact walls.
After the tour, we drove through the countryside to Atlantic Sheepdogs in Co Sligo, where owner Martin Feeney demonstrated the skills of sheepdogs in herding sheep. Using whistles, he had border collie, Ben, herd a flock of sheep in several different ways.
We continued driving to our hotel in Salthill Galway where we had time to walk on the Promenade before a group dinner in the hotel.
October 13, 2024Day 8Galway
We were up and out early to visit the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare. After an hour of climbing up to the top of the cliffs on a very cold and windy day, we drove to the Doolin Music House where we were entertained by Christy Barry and his friend Michael, who played old Irish dance tunes on flute, tin whistle, and fiddle. In between songs, Christy entertained us with stories about the history and tradition of the music and dancing, particularly in Co Clare. We enjoyed the music while nibbling on canapés.
We headed back to Galway City Center for some time to shop followed by a walking tour of the city led by Des. After a final dinner at McSwiggin’s, we went back to the hotel and said farewell to each other, offering our special thanks to Des and John.
Prepared by Anne Marie Casey
