“Trip Documents” houses handouts about literature and history that are relevant to our trip to Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. All documents can be downloaded and/or printed. The most recent post will appear at the top. (If you want to see documents from the first alumnae trip to Ireland, scroll down.)
THE POETRY OF ROBERT BURNS
Many of Robert Burns’s poems maybe found online, and of course you may own or purchase a book of his complete poems. Here is a selection of some of his most famous poems along with a few of my favorites. I have also included a side-by-side translation of Burns’s famous long poem “Tam O’Shanter.”
The Poetry of Robert Burns
I love the musical versions of Burns’s poetry. YouTube has a vast selection of versions of the most famous poems. Check out, for example, this stunning version of “Green Grow the Rashes O” by favorite interpreter of Burns, the inimitable Jean Redpath.
“Green Grow the Rashes O”
THE TWO SIDES IN NORTHERN IRELAND POLITICS
The politics of Northern Ireland are very complex. This chart will help you remember the difference between Unionists and Nationalists, Loyalists and Republicans, and more.
The Two Sides
ALUMNAE TRIP TO IRELAND JUNE 2016
YEATS AND FRIENDS IN GALWAY AND SLIGO
Yeats Country includes the landscape of County Galway,where he lived with his family in a restored Norman tower near the home (Coole Park) of his friend and patron Lady Gregory, and the landscape of County Sligo, where he spent summers as a child and young man, learning the myths and legends that inspired his first poems and the Celtic Renaissance he founded with Lady Gregory.
GALWAY AND SLIGO HANDOUT Poems of W. B. Yeats
POEMS ABOUT DERRY AND BLOODY SUNDAY
Here are some poems about Derry including one attributed to St. Columcille; poems about Bloody Sunday; Prime Minister David Cameron’s report on the Saville Inquiry and apology for Bloody Sunday; and reading questions about Seamus Dean’s novel Reading in the Dark, which takes place in Derry in the 1940s and 50s.
DERRY LONDONDERRY HANDOUT Poems About Bloody Sunday
CASTLE RACKRENT BY MARIA EDGEWORTH
This short (60 pages), satirical novel critiques the absentee landlord system the English imposed on the Irish and “rackrenting,” the practice of charging extortionate rent to tenant farmers with the goal of ousting them from the land. Edgeworth was a member of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, the class she mocks in her novel, but her family was noted for relatively fair treatment of tenants. This novel is considered the first “regional ” novel (depicting regional settings, customs, accents, etc. in the United Kingdom) and was praised by Sir Walter Scott, who was about to become a famous regional novelist.
Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth
WRITING THE LIMERICK, THE SIX WORD ESSAY, AND THE HAIKU
Guidelines and examples for our daily (voluntary) writing of these forms while traveling in Ireland.
Limerick, Six Word Essay, Haiku
“I AM IRELAND” POETRY HANDOUT
For those interested in looking into the phrase “Mise Éire” or “I am Ireland” and related concepts in poetry through the ages.
I Am Ireland Poetry
BLASKET ISLANDS, DINGLE PENINSULA, CO. KERRY The Blasket Island Writers
In this handout you’ll find information about the Blasket Islands and the writers who made the islands famous, along with some discussion questions for those who’ve read The Islandman or The Autobiography of Peig Sayers.
BLASKET ISLANDS HANDOUT The Blasket Island Writers
Cathleen Ni Houlihan, a short play by William Butler Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory
This allegorical play was one of the first to be produced at the Abbey Theatre, founded by Yeats and Gregory and others to serve as Ireland’s national theatre. The “poor old woman” is Ireland, and her “four green fields are Ireland’s four provinces, Ulster, Leinster, Munster and Connaught. As you read, consider why Yeats, at the end of his life, wondered “Did the play of mine send out / Certain men the ENglish shot?” (Man and the Echo, 1939).
Cathleen Ni Houlihan
DUBLIN Easter 1916 Poetry and Prose
Here is a selection of poetry and prose relevant to the Easter Rising of 1916, our literary and historical focus for Dublin. While the poems and speeches can be enjoyed on their own, reading a summary of the Rising will help you understand names and other references.
DUBLIN HANDOUT Easter 1916 Poetry and Prose
Study Questions for The Course of Irish History
These questions will help you get the most out of the history book I recommended. HANDOUT The Course of Irish History Study Questions
An Account of the Easter Rising by a Witness
James Stephens witnessed the Easter Rising in 1916 as a young man and wrote this important account of what he saw.
THE INSURRECTION IN DUBLIN, by JAMES STEPHENS