Midterm Break

We hope you all had a lovely midterm break! It’s been a cold and wet one, but the evenings are getting brighter, and we are starting to see some more signs of Spring!

We are sure that you all got lots of rest this week and have enjoyed the longer sleeps, spending time with your friends and exploring new areas.

Thanks to those of you who joined our activities this week. Maebh and Michelle had a lovely trip on Tuesday to Dublin’s EPIC Museum. This is the Irish Emigration Museum, located in Dublin’s Docklands, and covers the history of the Irish diaspora and emigration to other countries. It was voted as “Europe’s Leading Tourist Attraction” at the 2019, 2020 and 2021 World Travel Award. For those of you who didn’t join, it’s well worth the visit!

Wednesday brought ferocious weather as our group embarked on a trip to Northern Ireland. Right at the tip of Northern Ireland, in County Antrim, you find the famous Giant’s Causeway. This is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic fissure eruption. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 and a national nature reserve in 1987. Legend has it that the columns are the remains of a causeway built by the Irish giant Fionn mac Cumhaill, who was challenged to a fight by the Scottish giant Benandonner. Fionn accepted the challenge and built the causeway across the North Channel so that the two giants could meet. In one version of the story, Fionn defeats Benandonner, while in another, Fionn hides from Benandonner when he realises that his foe is much bigger than he is. Fionn’s wife, Sadhbh, disguises Fionn as a baby and tucks him in a cradle. When Benandonner sees the size of the “baby”, he assumes that its father, Fionn, must be a giant among giants. He flees back to Scotland in fright, destroying the causeway behind him so that Fionn would be unable to chase him down. Across the sea, there are identical basalt columns (a part of the same ancient lava flow) at Fingal’s Cave on the Scottish isle of Staffa, and it is possible that the story was influenced by this. Thanks to Manlio, Maebh and Ricardo for taking our student group on this trip. Unfortunately, the weather was not very kind…. But we sincerely hope you had fun, nonetheless.

Here are some pictures that you chose to share with us this week –

Sarah, Melissa, Michelle, Maebh and Manlio