Day 8: Getting to work

A learning experience

You can't sum up Irish history in an hour. We allocated a class period for a quick overview of Northern Irish history. We didn't get far as students wanted to talk about spirituality, politics and the status of the arts through time.

Instructor Joan Webber works with Jonathan King, left and
James Koblenz in a discussion of Irish  history
at the  Amma center education complex in Armagh, Northern Ireland.

The group also went to the Irish history library adjacent to St. Patrick's Cathedral, which, according to legend, was founded by the Irish patron saint himself. The creative writers looked at literature and the student journalists researched their projects on travels, cultural differences and, of course, the troubles.

The troubles are inescapable, as we're finding out. Even on on a casual walk through suburban Armagh, the flags fly. They're sometimes red, sometimes tri-color, orange, white and green. As we approach the height of the marching season, different neighborhoods fly the colors of their respective affiliations: orange or red flags, or the Union Jack in protestant neighborhoods, and the tri-color of the Irish Republic of the south in the Catholic neighborhoods. Officially, it's illegal to fly provocative sectarian flags and banners in Armagh, but officials fear it would be even more provocative to raise the issue of removing them. 

As I walked by the Republican flags in the Catholic neighborhood,  man walked up and asked me what  I was doing. I explained I was an American educator. "Well, have a good holiday," he said.

A family walks by an illegal Irish Republican flag, left, in an Armagh neighborhood.