Ta siad ag teacht! Galway or bust
I'm busy prepping for an Irish adventure. In less than a week I'll get in a campus van and make my way to Logan Airport in Boston. The group will grow as we progress. Two students and my co-conspirator, Professor Paul Constantino, will leave campus, we'll pick an additional student up in New Hampshire, and nine more will round out the group when they meet us in Terminal C near the Aer Lingus counters.
This is the third time Paul and I have offered a course we call Coastal Biology of Ireland. In its first and second iteration we collaborated with colleagues from Sacred Heart University's Dingle campus and many details of the course are derived from their wonderful model. We are profoundly grateful for their hospitality and generosity.
This year we are establishing the Saint Michael's College "campus" AKA, the Kinlay Hostel in Galway. Not so much a college campus as a base of operations conveniently close to rail, bus, food, and the Aran Island Ferry. We learned an important lesson about hostel living last year: book a day early so that when you arrive in on a 5:00AM overnight flight, you don't have to survive until a noon check in. Applies also to hotels, I strongly recommend this small expense to all trans-Atlantic travelers!
We'll spend a day napping, acclimatizing, and getting to know our surroundings in Galway. It's a music-filled coastal town with a lot happening. My nephew Gary works in Tig Coili and has been recommending the best places for food and music. We won't cook on day 1, but will follow Gary's advice and dine at some nice restaurants and take a guided tour to hit the highlights.
From there we have a packed schedule that includes castles, coastal islands, cliffs, caves, museums, an aquarium, dunes, inter-tidal exploration, pony trekking, an ancient monastery, a viking boat, and possibly the oldest pub in the country if not the world.
We'll have a day or two of rest and reflection and you can expect to see blog posts and photos here from students on a fairly regular basis. So please check in and see what we are doing!!
...And Ta siad ag teacht is an Irish phrase for "they are coming". It comes from a TV advertisement from my childhood. The setting is Inishmore, an island we will visit overnight, and there is anticipation building as the residents watch the clock in an island pub. Finally the call comes in from the keenest observer, "Ta siad ag teacht" - they are coming, as a traditional currach is rowed through the waves to land at the beach. It was a TV commercial, so of course there must be a product, and it's Ireland so the product was a keg of Guinness.
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