Obama happier in Ireland than anywhere else

Top New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd has written that Barack Obama appeared happier in Ireland than anywhere else he has been as president.  ‘As J.F.K. and Bill Clinton discovered before him, Irish love is all-encompassing, a mother’s milk for needy politicians,’ she wrote.  ‘On the streets and at the pub in Moneygall (still smelling of fresh paint) and again at his big speech in Dublin when he offered the Gaelic version of ‘Yes We Can’ ‘Is Feidir Linn’ Obama was transformed’ she wrote  ‘He dropped his diffident debutante act. He liberally offered all the Irish charm, wit and warmth that he had lacked in working-class bars and neighborhoods when he lost primaries to Hillary in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana in 2008.  But, she says the Irish are uneasy it was all just a one day stand.  ‘Swaddled in the afterglow, the Irish are trying to figure out: Was it true love or merely a one-day stand?  ‘The tall, dark stranger who bewitched an island didn’t say when he’d be calling again to help out with Ireland’s $100 billion debt.’ She referred to Irish leader Enda Kenny being so enamoured that he ‘offered an odd homage, a near-carbon copy of the opening of Obama’s victory acceptance speech in Grant Park in Chicago in 2008, changing the word ‘America’ to ‘Ireland’ and ‘founders’ to ‘ancestors’: ‘If there’s anyone out there who still doubts that Ireland is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our ancestors is alive . . . today is your answer.’ She stated Obama¹’s trip will help him domestically in America.  ‘Funnily enough, Obama had to take a foreign trip to seem less foreign to Americans. Even though he did a best-selling memoir about his roots, he has had a persistent and puzzling problem coming across as rooted. But with American reporters swarming Moneygall to examine and show off the long-form birth records of Obama’s ancestor Falmouth Kearney, a shoemaker who immigrated to Ohio in 1850, the president suddenly seems more rooted in an ethnic working-class persona that even his critics can recognize.’

Volunteering in Uganda

by Erin Byrne (Dublin Alum, Spring 2011)


Hey everyone,
          SO I have officially been in Uganda for 1 week. It has been one of the most interesting, long, crazy, difficult and awesome weeks every. I feel like I am basically learning how to be a person again. Almost everything we take for granted is different. I am relearning how to take showers, eat, use the bathroom, talk to people, walk, communicate, and function in the world.
            I arrived Friday evening to the airport in Entebbe. Luckily my bags were all there and I eventually found the two other interns in my program and the person who was to pick us up at the airport. We were taken to the airport guesthouse where we spent the night in what is most likely a Ugandan resort. The only thing odd about the hotel was that we slept under a bed net. I got a good night sleep after 2 days of living on a plane or in airports and woke up the next morning to meet the other interns. There are a total of 10 other people living in Masaka and working for the Foundation for Sustainable Development this summer. On Saturday we were met by the FSD staff. We went to Kampala to buy phones and exchange money. That place was crazy. Insane. It is like Masaka but on steriods. We were just there for the afternoon and then we began the drive to Masaka town. It is about a 3 hour drive, but we stopped at the equator to take pictures. It is literally just a sign on the side of the road! Its not a big deal here.
       We spent the first two nights in a hotel in Masaka which was great for group bonding. The other interns are from University of San Fransisco, Emery, and Gettysburg. It is great having other people here going through the same things I am. We moved in with our host families on Monday. I really really lucked out. My host family consists of a young mother and father (probably both under 30) who are a postman and nurse. They have a 2 year old daughter named Blessing who is pretty
much the cutes thing in the world. She doesnt understand me much but she imitates everything I do and is full of energy. 
        Since Sunday we have gone through training. We have had several lessons on Luganda (the language of the region), safety and security, living with a host family, culture, government, political issues, sustainable development skills, and more. We also took field trips to see an organic farm and blanket making from tree bark. The sessions are sometimes overwhelming, but over all have been extremely helpful. We begin work on Monday. I will be working for a microfinance group called South Buganda SACCO. I am really excited to learn first hand how these groups which give small loans for poor people in the region work. There will be more on my work in later emails. Between now and then I have a Ugandan wedding to attend! Should be interesting.
        For now I would say the really good things are the weather (about 80 degrees every day), beautiful scenery (yes just like all the movies and  pictures... but a lot more green than I thought), my very welcoming host family, the unbelievably cheap prices, the delicious fruit, and the other interns. The not so good things have been the food (it is relatively plain and I like the meals but is pretty much the same thing every meal), being stared at and called a muzundu (white person) about 50 times a day, not having real toilets, and not
being able to communicate back home.
      I look forward to writing more. There is so much to talk about, and hope to get to a computer again soon. 
Erin

Marathonin' around Kraków

by Joe Maciuba

So for the past 3 months or so, I have been training for my first marathon.  I thought that it would be a good (and free!) way to stay in shape--all I would have to do was slip on my shoes, put in my headphones , and go, go go.

In terms of training plans, I used Hal Higdon's novice training plan (http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/Mar00novice.htm) and actually stayed pretty true to it.  As a beginning plan, it only increased mileage across the three months--there was no strength training (like I could afford a gym anyways), no hills, and no speedwork.  I think that next time I run a marathon (which there will be a next time!), I will try to incorporate everything in order to have a more balanced experience.

The marathon itself was such a great time.  I had been battling knee pain for the past couple of weeks, so I thought I was going to be dealing with that the entire race, but my knee ended up pulling through for me. The weather was also perfect, as it was not too cold and too warm, and the organizers of the race provided water, powerade, bananas, and oranges throughout the length of the course.  When I started to get a pit in my stomach, I would just stop and get my electrolytes and carbs back up, so I really never quite boinked.  In terms of the route, we got to run by some of the best places in Krakow: the Rynek,  Wawel, and all up along the Wisla river.  There wasn’t ever a boring part—it was Palm Sunday and we even got to run by a church where the priest was blessing the palms.  Question: does that count as me going to church?

One of the better moments was when we were running along the Wisla and a choir that was on one of the restaurant boats just started singing to the runners.  That was a bit unexpected.  I also enjoyed it when the homeless people started cheering with us—giving us high fives with one hand while holding their bottle of liquor in the other. 

But hey, just a word of advice to all you international marathon runners: a marathon is NOT 40 kilometers, but is actually a little more than 42 (42.195 km, 42.195).  I was budgeting my energy for 40 km, so I pushed it hard through the 35-39 kilometers and then kind of ran out of juice at the end. Whoops!

After the marathon was over, I got some fatty, greasy pea soup with a nice, cold beer all for free.  I suppose that’s one way (or the Polish way?) to get your calories back.  There was also a tent set up giving massages, which I thought was going to be awesome.  It just ended up hurting a lot, but I think it helped with my muscle soreness in the long run (haha, get it?).

My time, according to my watch, was 4:00:10, which was right on goal with how I wanted to do. I think I could definitely run it faster.  And if I were to run one, say, 55 minutes faster?  Heck, that'd be a Boston qualifying time!  We'll see what happens.  

Adriana Taylor reflects on her role as volunteer with a Community Based Learning (CBL) project in Dublin city.

This semester has been an eye-opening one for me in many ways.  My eyes have been opened to the troubled past that is Irish history, to what Irish culture is like today, to the importance of being flexible, to the appreciation of time, and to Irish hospitality.  Thanks to my participation in CBL my eyes have been opened to homelessness, how it affects children specifically, how to better love others, and how social problems can be right around the corner and easily ignored.  Had I not participated in CBL I would walk down O’Connell Street to shop or grab some food and never think about the people that live in the area.  I would not know that there are agencies working to eradicate social problems in Dublin right around the corner.  Every time I participate in service I gain something out of it and learn something about myself; this time was no exception.  I learned that the most important thing you can do for a child is reassure them and love them.  It was important for me to not label these children as “homeless” or treat them differently than I would any other child.  I still encouraged them when they got stuck on a math problem and pushed them on the swing as high as they wanted to go.  I didn’t instantly categorize them or box them in my mind as someone who had barriers.  Regardless of the population I serve, I think it is important for me to approach them with an open heart and mind.  Simple love is the most vital ingredient to successful service and I think the children at my CBL showed me that this semester.  The first few times I was at my site I was unsure and not confident about what I could do to help.  The children noticed I was someone new and didn’t pay much attention to me.  As my visits became more regular, certain children opened up to me and I became an older person they could talk to, play games with, and ask for homework help from.  The opening up of the children coincided with my personal opening up and my increase in confidence which made my experience more worthwhile.  I know my attitude going into my site visit has an impact on how I interact with the children and what I get out of the experience.  My CBL will always be an integral memory of my study abroad experience and I am very glad I did it.  Notre Dame has taught me the value of serving others, even in everyday life, and I’m grateful I got to develop that in a foreign country.  It contributed to my growth as a person and gave me a deeper understanding of Irish culture.  No country is immune from social issues and although some tackle them differently, they need compassionate hard working people to help resolve them.  Participating in CBL during a great time of growth in my life made me excited to commit myself to a year of service after college and continue this type of growth.  Homelessness is a problem that I will continually acknowledge and have a special place in my heart and prayers for.

An Tine Beo Award 2011

Each Semester the Keough Naughton Centre staff collectively choose the person that we believe best embodies the spirit of our programme. We call the award ‘An Tine Beo’: ‘Tine Beo’ means the living fire and the concept is based on an aphorism of the poet William Butler Yeats: ‘Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire’. The staff is faced with the difficult challenge of selecting one student from the entire group, choosing from a field of the brightest and the best that Notre Dame has to offer.

We confer this Award spring 2011 on a person who has consistently made contributions to the programme with her many talents. Her relaxed and even-tempered personality, her unstinting willingness to help others and her good humour contributed strongly to the formation of the Dublin student community this semester. A talented musician, she enhanced every social and liturgical occasion from the Celtic Twilight concert to the peak of Croagh Patrick to the closing Mass. She also gave back to Ireland through Community Based Learning, serving children in the North inner city. While maintaining a clear focus on her academic pursuits, she has constantly shared her many gifts, enthusiastically immersing herself in every programme activity and opportunity. She is also thoughtful about her place in the world, reflected in her double minors in Science, Technology and Values, and Catholic Social Teaching. An Tine Beo award for Spring 2011 goes to Adriana Taylor.

Closing remarks Speech Spring 2011

by Kevin Whelan

Thank you for your superb commitment. When you first came to us, we asked you to share your gifts as we walked this journey together. Our motto is ‘Is ar scáth a cheile a mhaireann na daoine’- we are nourished in a community. Together we made 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’.

‘A brother that is helped by his brother is like a strong city’ [Proverbs 18]. A sister that is helped by her sister is like a strong city.

Observations for the Future

1 Don Keough ‘To make yourself interesting, you have to do interesting things and meet interesting people’.

2 Do what you love doing. Work with the very best people you can find: Never ever sell yourself short. Never stop striving 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 remember that whatever you give, you will receive back so much more. No kindness, no smile, no prayer, no effort, no matter how apprently insignificant or apparently unrecognised, is ever wasted.

4 Embrace the ‘Attitude of Gratitude’. The less entitled that you feel, the happier you will be. Your parents, your family, your teachers, your friends, your community, your university, your country, your ancestors – other people - made you who you are. Your character and your accomplishments are never uniquely your own, but the cumulation of many people’s efforts, time and commitment. 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. 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 need help, support, fellowship, guidance, reassurance. Even as we experience our gifts as gracious, we should think of our limits as gracious, because they enable us to recognize the gifts of others. Embracing that perspective can liberate us from anxiety - the curse of the 21st century. Seek to do your best, not to be perfect. Perfectionism blights happiness and anxiety deprives us of joy in our lives.

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.

Grace and Gravity

As human beings, we are anchored between the physical (material) world, and the spiritual (metaphysical) world. We are equally creatures of gravity and of grace. Our life is the path that we choose between gravity and grace. 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 elevates us to share in His grace.

Gravity is necessity. Grace is free.
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 divine.

6 Embrace life-long learning not just your university segment; great conversations, great journeys, great paintings, great books, great films, great architecture, great sport, great food nourish our lives. There is an intellectual challenge here also: to bring what you learned here in Europe back to the ND campus and to America. I know that you learned a good deal about America during your time here. What does she of America know who only America knows? More than any generation that has ever lived on our lovely plant, you 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. We will take pride in your accomplishments and follow your lives with interest and affection. At our initial orientation, I puzzled some of you when I said that the person that you would meet here was yourself. I believe that all of you stretched yourselves in Dublin and that as a result you grew and deepened and matured in ways that will only become fully apparent to you when you are back on campus.

Second, we will always carry warm memories of your time here with us. Thanks for the memories that you gifted to us. We will never forget magic moments that we shared: at Celtic Twilight, on the peak of Croagh Patrick, in a bog on Achill island....

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 the day comes when you fly back home again, as you have to do, but you leave O’Connell House empty and quiet, and it is lonely for us. Here at O’Connell House, we strive to lay out a green carpet for you. We hope that every time 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 by Joe, Lisa, Eimear, Aoife, Denise and Bébhinn. I as Director and you as participants, are lucky to have such a wonderful staff, who are so genuinely committed to your welfare here, just as we as a staff are privileged to serve such a wonderful group of students.

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.