Tuesday, December 21, 2010

My Ireland


by Becky Sees

The phrase seems simple enough. It’s tossed around nonchalantly, this notion of an Ireland that belongs to me and me alone. I’ve been asked to keep a piece of it with me, not only by the people I’m leaving, but by those to whom I’m returning. But what are they really asking for? What does it really mean, MY Ireland?
This entire semester has been a journey and an adventure. I’ve scrambled over the blue-gray rocks of the Burren to the stone ring fort at the top. I’ve been tossed around in a small boat on the Atlantic as we tacked and rolled towards the Cliffs of Moher. I’ve explored the rich culture of Dublin, the gorgeous scenery on the Ring of Kerry, the religious ruins of west Cork, and the majestic terrain of Connemara. I’ve gazed at the stars on the beaches of Ballintoy, scaled cliff faces on Giant’s Causeway, walked along the Bogside in Derry, and reflected on the murals in Belfast. I’ve trekked through Yeats country on horseback, visited the ancient sacred sites at Newgrange and the Hill of Tara, and strolled down piers to the Irish Sea in Howth and Dun Laoghaire.

All these things I’ve done have been marvelous experiences in themselves. But when I think about coming back to Ireland (as, let’s face it, I’m bound to do), these aren’t the things I look forward to revisiting. Something in them will be different. Something in them will be missing.

The Burren will be missing the trailing line of students, with Kevin urging us to be more like the famed Macedonian phalanx. The Cliffs of Moher will lack the echo of our nervous laughter along the cliff’s edge, trying to get a group picture. Kerry and Connemara won’t provide me with partners with whom I can take a series of ridiculous pictures; Howth and Dun Laoghaire will be wanting for my fellow explorers who have no idea what there is to do or see. The beaches of Ballintoy will be empty without my collection of talented singers, and no pub in all of Dublin would be complete without a friend to share a story and a pint.
So what is my Ireland, then? My Ireland isn’t the landscape or the history or the culture. My Ireland is the very special group of people with whom I shared all of that. My Ireland is the family of students and staff that I’ve acquired, this group that has laughed and cried with me, that has stuck together through the brightest days and the darkest nights. This family is my most precious souvenir from my time here. This is MY Ireland. And this is something that I will keep with me always.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Closing remarks Fall 2010


by Professor Kevin Whelan


Thank you for your superb commitment: We asked you when you came to share your gifts as we walked this journey together. ‘Is ar scáth a cheile a mhaireann na daoine’. Together we were able to make a life-giving community: you came here as strangers to each other, but you return as friends. 

Book of Sirach: ‘A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure’.

At our initial orientation, I may have puzzled some of you when I said that the person that you would meet here in Dublin was yourself. I believe that all of you streteched yourselves here in Dublin and that as a result that you grew and matured in ways that will only become fully apparent to you when you are back on campus.

Here at O'Connell House, we strive to lay out a green carpet for you. We hope that anytime you came in our blue door, you were greeted by a welcoming word, a smile, an invitation to a cup of tea and a chat ... Joe, Eimear, Aoife, Denise, Bébhinn: I as Director and you as participants are lucky to have such a great staff who are so genuinely committed to your welfare here, just as we as a staff are lucky to be able to serve such a wonderful group of students.


Six comments


1 To make yourself interesting, you have to do interesting things and meet interesting people [Don Keough]

2 Do what you love doing. Work with the very best people you can find: be inspired: Don’t ever sell yourself short: Never stop trying to be the person that you want to be: Nelson Mandela quoting Marianne Williamson.


Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented,and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." 


3 Give until it hurts. Share your gifts. And always know that whatever you give, you will receive back so much more. And remember that no act of kindness, no matter how small or apparently unrecognised, is ever wasted.


4 Embrace an ‘Attitude of Gratitude’: the less entitled that you feel, the happier you will be. 


Remember that your parents, your family, your teachers, your friends, your community, your university, your country, your ancestors - made you who you are: your character and accomplishments are not uniquely your own, but the cumulation of many people’s efforts, time and commitment. Remember that you really know yourself best through the reactions of people around you:


Gils Scott-Heron: ‘The way you get to know yourself is by the expressions on other people’s faces, because that’s the only thing that you can see, unless you carry a mirror about. But if you keep saying ‘I’ and they’re saying ‘I’, you don’t get much out of it. They’re not really into ‘you’, or ‘we’, or ‘they’; they’re into ‘I’. That makes conversation slow. I am the person I see least of over the course of my life, and what I see is not accurate’. 


5 We are called, each of us, with our unique range of gifts and our unique limits, to share a common journey, and yet one that is distinct for each one of us else. Realising that frees us to rejoice in the gifts, graces and accomplishments of others. We are augmented by others’ talents rather than being diminished or threatened by them, each of us contributing to the common good at our points of strength, each of us drawing from that common good when we needed help, support, fellowship, guidance. Even as we experience our gifts as gracious, we should think of our limits as gracious, because they free us to recognize the gifts of others. And embracing that perspective can free us from anxiety - the curse of the 21st century. Seek only to do your best, but not to be perfect: seeking perfection promotes unhappiness: 


Leonard Cohen: Anthem [1992]: 



Ring the bells that still can ring,
forget your perfect offering,
there is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.



The relationship between grace and gravity:


We as human beings are anchored between the physical and material world and the metaphysical or spiritual world. 

Gravity is necessity: grace is what is freely given to us. Gravity is our body, grace is our soul. Gravity is confinement, grace is freedom: Gravity is who we are, grace is what we aspire to be. Gravity is time, grace is the eternal. Gravity is history, grace is hope. Gravity is nature, grace is the divine. We are creatures of both gravity and of grace. And our life is the path we choose between gravity and grace. And the Cross is the intersection between the axes of gravity and grace. The dead Christ incarnated on the cross opens himself to share in our human gravity: the risen Christ opens us to share in his grace.


6 Embrace a commitment to life-long learning not just your university segment; great conversations, great journeys, great paintings, great books, great films, great architecture, great food nourish our lives. And there is an intellectual challenge too: to bring what you learned here in Europe back to the ND campus and to America. I trust too that you learned a good deal about America during your time here. What does she of America know who only America knows? And you more than any generation that has ever lived on our lovely plant live in a globalised world. 

Let me finish by sharing three final observations:


First, we are exceptionally proud of you,and we will follow your futures with a paternal solicitude.

Second, we will always carry warm memories of your time here with us. Thanks for the memories that you gifted to us: I will never forget as long as I live a magic moment that we shared on the beach in Ballintoy, nor your achingly beautiful rendition of ‘The Deer’s Cry’. 

Finally, this week is a sad one for us in O’Connell House. The worst part of our job is that you become so much part of our lives and then ond day you fly back home again, as you have to do, but you leave us lonely for you. We hope that a little corner of your heart will glow indelibly green. And we want to see you back here for the game in 2012.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Notre Dame is ranked No 1. Catholic university in the world


New ranking also rates business school very highly.
  By JAMES O'SHEA


While it may no longer have the No. 1 football team, Notre Dame has been ranked NO. 1. Catholic University in the world according to a new ranking. In addition the South Bend campus has many other achievements to report at this year's end. They include:


1: ND is the #1 ranked Catholic university in the world. (Times Higher Education’s 2010-2011 World University Rankings)
2: The Mendoza College of Business at ND is ranked as #1 undergraduate business program in the United States by Business Week/Bloomberg.
3: ND is the No. 1 undergraduate college for producing CEOs of the 100 largest U.S. financial firms, according to Bloomberg News.
4 Faculty in the College of Arts and Letters have earned 42 fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities during the past 11 years, more than for any other university in the nation.
5 ND’s network of 270 alumni clubs – including 52 international clubs – is the most extensive in higher education.
6: The Financial Times ranked ND as #1 in Corporate Social Responsibility among the top 100 global MBA Programs.
7: Of universities ranked in U. S. News and World Report’s top 20, ND has the second highest percentage of undergraduates who study abroad (58%).

8: In 2008, the Princeton Review ranked ND’s Career Center as the second best in the United States.
9: ND ranks 3rd nationally for its graduation rate (95%).
10: In alumni satisfaction surveys, ND ranks among the top three nationally, a testament to the strong education received at the University.
11: According to the National Science Foundation, ND is one of the top three U.S. universities in low-energy nuclear physics research.
 12: ND is ranked #4 by U.S News & World Report for Undergraduate Teaching at National Universities
13: The ND full-time MBA program was ranked #5 in a worldwide ranking in 2009 for leading the way in integrating issues of social and environmental stewardship.
14: The ND Executive MBA program at the Mendoza College of Business earned the No. 6 ranking in The Wall Street Journal’s “Best Executive MBA Programs 2010,” world-wide.
15: In a recent survey of parents conducted by the Princeton Review, ND ranked seventh in a list of “dream schools.”
 16: According to payscale.com, ND graduates without advanced degrees have a mid-  career median salary of $121,000, which ranks as the eighth highest of American colleges and universities.

17 ND annually ranks in the top 20 of U.S. News and World Report’s national universities rankings (ranked #19 in 2010).
18: Both the MBA program and the Executive MBA program ranked #20 according to BusinessWeek in 2008 and 2009.


Monday, December 6, 2010

Irish gift suggestions...

Here are the  inexpensive Irish gifts as compiled by Irish Central staff for
this year

1. A Christmas gift basket full of Irish goodies from Siopa.com. They will
deliver from Ireland and they are the  best in the business.

2. Susan Boyle's CD. The daughter of Irish immigrants to Glasgow has become
the hottest singer in the world with her new album at No.1. on both sides of
the Atlantic. 'Come all ye Faithful'. 'The First Noel' and other Christmas
favorites make this a must.  That older aunt or uncle will love these
sentimental tunes.

3. A ticket to Ireland at Aerlingus.com. Fares in January and February are
dirt cheap so take advantage. A wonderful opportunity for someone who has
never been to the "old sod" but longs to go.

4. "The Dead" on DVD. James Joyce's incredible short story about Christmas
in Dublin and a husband struggling with his mortality has finally made it to
DVD in the John Huston directed version. Read the short story too. Wonderful
and evocative of a time gone by.

5. An Irish breakfast gift basket. Nothing better than a hearty Irish
breakfast to start the day with real Irish bacon and sausage. You can order
online at tommymoloneys.com

6 Lily O'Brien's Irish chocolates are to die for and beautifully gift
wrapped. If you have never tasted the real thing form Ireland now is your
chance at www.lilyobriens.ie/

7 A Claddagh ring for your beloved. A very special gift that says I love you
and not just for lovers but increasingly for family members too. At any
reputable jewellers.