Our Final Day in the City

On our last day working in Ireland, John and I took the day off to spend the afternoon in Dublin (picture at left of the River Liffey at sunset). We took the city bus tour and made a few stops. It was supposed to be pouring rain all day. But when we got to downtown Dublin, the sun broke through the clouds and we had a great early afternoon with blue skies and nice fall temperatures. In fact, I was starting to re-think my choice of outerwear.

We made a few stops along the way today. The first was at Trinity College to catch a glimpse of The Book of Kells a beautifully illustrated set of the Gospel created in the sixth century and on display in the library.

We walked from Trinity to Grafton Street which really set Dublin apart from our trip into Belfast. There were people everywhere and from all over. There were street musicians, singers and those "statue people" who stand frozen and scare little kids to death. Dublin is bigger and more cosmopolitan than Belfast. While Dublin has seen it's share of rebellion over the centuries, it doesn't have the remnants of the recent violence that Belfast has dealt with.

Back on the tour bus, we stopped at the National Gallery before visiting Christchurch Cathedral (picture at left) for a quick stop before they held a late afternoon prayer service. We got to go down to the Crypt which was very interesting. There's a gold plate that was given to the cathedral by King William I (William the Orange) after winning the Battle of the Boyne.

Both Christchurch and St. Patrick's, just down the street, are Protestant cathedrals. We thought it interesting that Dublin does not have a Catholic cathedral, at least according to the tour bus driver.

Because it was late in the afternoon and the rain had returned, we didn't get to stop at the Guinness Brewery or Jameson Distillery. John did some shopping and we went started back for Hillsborough. After dinner and some evening tea, we're back to pack and get ready for tomorrow. Pattie's flight gets in at 9am; and John flies out at about 11am. The three weeks went quickly as everyone said it would. We've met some really great people, seen some unbelievable sights and hopefully have shot enough interviews and video to produce an interesting television program.

I'll try to keep posting on our next week's activities as Pattie and I explore the south of the island. I'll let you know what the Missoula 12 are doing today. And I'll also give my best and worst moments of our production. Hope you'll keep checking back.

Royals, Ruins and Rain

Well we got in late last night from Letterkenny and didn't realize we had a house guest of sorts. Just down the road in our home village, the Queen of England spent the night at the Hillsborough Castle.

I went to drop off my laundry today. Normally we have to drive by, go up the hill and do a u-turn to get to a place where we can park. The spot where we do the u-turn was blocked off by members of the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland). When I got to Jeeves, the dry cleaners and laundry service for Hillsborough, I asked who was in town. The woman behind the counter said, "The Queen." My great reply was "THE Queen?"

Well I found out the Queen would be leaving in about 30-minutes. So we walked to the top of the hill, watched the policemen and military personnel get into position and following a trumpet fanfare and military salute, the motorcade departed. I didn't get the best picture (see the Queen waving at us above), but I got something.

Why was the Queen in Northern Ireland you ask? She cut the ribbon and toured a Coca-Cola bottling plant near Maze. Click here to read the story.

After our royal blessing, John and I went in search of the series of ruins near Drogheda, Ireland. We stopped at the Monasterboice Ruins first. Built in the late fifth century, the site now is protected and is surrounded by a cemetery. (See picture of the Celtic cross and the Round Tower that's more than 100 feet high.)





From Monasterboice, we went in search of the Mellifont Abbey. Compared to Monasterboice, the abbey is relatively new having been started in 1125. The place was huge. The visitor center was closed for the season so we just walked the grounds. More and more was added to the site over the centuries. The abbey closed in 1539 after King Henry VIII decided to close all the monasteries and abbeys (a nice way of saying it) after the reformation of the Church of England. (See picture at left)

After a quick trip to see the spot of Ireland's largest military campaign, the Battle of the Boyne, our luck with the weather finally ended just before out final shoot of the trip. It rained and rained hard as we made our way to interview Seamus Carr.

Seamus was great, as always. The other night, he took us dinner at the Monasterboice Inn near the ruins we toured today. Tonight he took us to the Bronte Steakhouse near the Bronte Homeland area of County Down. Seamus loves to tell stories of his trips to places like Moscow, Australia, Europe and of course Missoula, Montana.

Tomorrow, we put away our camera, lights and gear and become tourists for John's last day in Ireland. We'll take the bus down to Dublin and visit the capitol city of the Republic of Ireland. Then it's back to pack and get ready for John to go home.

An Artistic Day In Letterkenny

In 1997, Sean Barr (center in photo at left with girlfriend Maureen and friend John) was the only one of the original 12 Montana visitors from Ireland and Northern Ireland who had started going to "university." He was 23 years old and had an interest in media and art. Now more than 13 years later, Sean's artwork was on display for the first time in the northwest town of Letterkenny, Ireland.

Sean grew up a Catholic in a small down near Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland. He graduated from the University of Ulster in Belfast in Media Studies. He took a year off after college and moved to Australia where he worked on a banana farm and in construction using skills he learned while helping build a Habitat for Humanity house in Missoula.

Moving to Letterkenny, he started his own video production business and produced wedding and festival videos around Letterkenny. He said most of the business started to dry up when the economic recession hit Ireland. He said he decided to go back to his first love, art. He started painting landscapes in watercolors. Then he moved onto acrylics and an inspiration he first got while visiting Montana--Native Americans.

One of the most impressive pieces at the "Totems to Townlands" art exhibition tonight at the ArtCo Gallery in Letterkenny was Sean's portrait of Sitting Bull (see photo at left). Sean's style is varied. He has an expressionistic Wild Bill Hickok and a realistic watercolor of the cathedral in Letterkenny.

We spent the full day with Sean. We were going to start yesterday but he and his girlfriend of four years, Maureen, had trouble getting a flight back from a quick trip to London. He walked from Maureen's flat this morning. He's hoping to learn to drive a car someday but for now he bikes or takes the bus.

Sean had to make and paint a few last minute frames (see photo at left) for his nearly 15 works that were displayed at ArtCo. We helped him tranport his last few pieces to the gallery where he and the other two artists in the show decided where to hang everything. After an interview with us, home to changes clothes and off to the bus station to pick up a friend, he made his appearance at his first art exhibition.

About 40 family, friends and patrons of the three artists were on hand. Some pieces sold and some might sell over the three weeks the show will be displayed. Sean posed for pictures and talked to a few people. But mostly he just smiled because he's getting to do what he's always wanted.

"Brilliant" in Derry, Letterkenny and the Northwest Coast

We had a bit of free time today due to continuing changes in our schedules with some of our interview subjects. Sean Barr, who we had hoped to catch in final preparations for his art exhibition on Thursday night, got caught in a travel snafu and wouldn't be in Letterkenny until late Wednesday night.

After a really cold night, we woke to bright blue skies. So we decided to stop in Derry/Londonderry and Letterkenny to get cover video of both places. Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland's Walled City, has two names. The Unionists (mostly Protestant citizens) use the more British sounding Londonderry. Looking over the southern wall of the city, you get to see the last working class Unionist neighborhood on the west bank of the River Foyle. There are two murals that really stick out to those walking the walls. (See picture above.)

Similar to Belfast, the two neighborhoods are very close together. Over the west wall, the Republican (mostly Catholic) segment of the city uses the name Derry or Free Derry. (See picture at left.) There are many murals showing their thoughts on "The Troubles." In between the buildings that have the murals painted on them is the Museum of Free Derry that takes patrons through the strife from the Republican point of view. There are a number of historical panels, pictures and items from the civil rights marches, newspaper clippings and other items including audio from "Bloody Sunday."

On January 30, 1972, British troops killed 26 unarmed people who had gathered to march for civil rights. The British military said that some in the crowd were armed and needed to be controlled. The event has continued to be controversial. This past summer, more than 38 years later, the Saville Report into the shootings was released saying that the marchers were unarmed and condemning the actions of the military. The report brought an apology from the British Prime Minister. Click here to read more about the report.

After a morning reliving the sectarian history of Derry/Londonderry, we headed off to Letterkenny to get a view of the town from above. We checked into our hotel and headed for the rugged Irish coast of County Donegal. John, as navigator, found a series of great roads that took us around the mountains and next to the cliffs where we could look out at the storm brewing over the north Atlantic.

We got to travel through little wind swept hamlets with names like Dunfanaghy and Ballyboe. We crossed the River Ray and through Falcarragh and Gortahork. In the Republic of Ireland, all of the road signs, street signs, and buildings are in both English and Irish. But in this part of Ireland, everything is just in Irish.

It was cold and windy along the coast. Many of the houses had smoke coming from their chimneys. We saw bags of coal and peat pellets for sale. And while you would think these little places would be closing down for winter, we saw many tour buses stopping at B&B's for the night.

We motored back to our new home base (for one night) in Letterkenny, transferred our footage and ate way too much food again. Now it's off to bed before a busy last three days in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Clanrye Group Training for Success

In what used to be the corrals for a rich homeowner outside Newry, Northern Ireland, the Clanrye Group prepares young workers and people with learning disabilites for placement in the area workforce.

The 11,000 acre national forest Slieve Gullion (view from the top of the forest at left) and the Courtyard buildings are home to the training center. General Manager Liam Devine oversees a wide range of training programs. Through their Wider Horizons program, twenty-one people aged 18 to 28 are currently working in Toronto, Ontario. It's one of five trips that Clanrye has in the planning for this year--two to Toronto, two to Boston and one to Montenegro.

These programs are similar to the Building Bridges program that brought 12 young people from the area around Newry, Dundalk and Belfast to Missoula in 1997. Devine said Clanrye decided to try an international program in 1996. He said he called Dennis Mulcahy from Project Children, the group that had been bringing young Irish children to the U.S. during summers. Habitat for Humanity came on board and the program was underway.

Missoula and Jacksonville, Florida were the first two places selected for the program. "It was through the hard work of Jon Agner that made it work," Devine said. Jon Agner was the Montana coordinator of Project Children. Agner traveled to Newry to help interview and select the original 12 students. In his free time from his work at the U.S. Forest Service, Agner found host families, dealt with all of the planning and worked with local Habitat leaders to make sure the program would be successful, Devine said.

More than 13-years later, Clanrye has now given more than 100 young adults a chance to travel abroad and work toward a career.

Off to Work with Seamus Carr

Seamus Carr (pictured left) works with wood, drives trucks, refurbishes old tractors and tells great stories. Seamus lives and works out his parent's house near Newry, Northern Ireland, a town near the border with Ireland.

Today he was proudly wearing his Missoula Club sweatshirt picked up on one of his 10 trips to Missoula since first arriving in 1997 with the Building Bridges program. Seamus is still very close with his Missoula host family Skip and Jodi Harden and their family.

In fact the week before John and I left for Ireland, Seamus was in Missoula. He came this time to surprise Jodi on her birthday. He said, "She couldn't talk for about 45 minutes."

Montana isn't the only place that Seamus has visited. He's traveled across Australia in an old bus, still has a 500 rubel note from a trip to Moscow, has been across Europe and hopes to get to Africa soon.

Seamus and his brother Paul (called Bubba by his siblings) are working on a few details at St. Patrick's Church (our fourth St. Patrick's shown at left) in the small town of Loughbrickland. The church was originally build in 1825 but had become rundown. Over the past year, the inside of the church has been complete refurbished in an almost contemporary look with dark wood and intricate tile work.

A few of the doors on the north side of the church have expanded, so Seamus is there to make them fit together better. He takes the doors off their hinges, uses a saw to rip off an old piece of molding and then glues and nails the new molding into place. There's also a problem with one of the new sky lights. Seamus and Paul lift a 30 foot ladder into place being careful of lights and items on the altar. Seamus shakes the ladder as Paul heads up to the top. Brothers will be brothers. Seamus then takes his turn at the top and fixes the problem.

After he takes us to lunch in Newry, a light drizzle begins. Seamus shows that he had slowed down for us. He moves into his normal speed and has the doors fixed and re-hung in no time at all using some of the tools he's picked up on his trips to Missoula where he says tools are much cheaper.

Seamus then takes up a very narrow road to the Flagstaff Viewpoint (see the view at left) overlooking Carlingford Lough, a busy port near Newry between the Mourne and Cooley Mountains. He points out where he lives, where there are castle ruins as well as the flashing light from the lighthouse that's the final point before ships enter the Irish Sea.

He shows us the quarry where he crashed while four-wheeling in 2006 and almost lost his leg. This is where Northern Ireland (on the left of the river) and Ireland (on the right of the river) come together.

He feels at home at this place. He talks about a trail he goes running on, the forest where he takes friends to a little known castle and about the transport ferry taking trailers to Liverpool, England. He smiles when he talks about it. While he loves to tell stories about the places around the world he's visited and hopes to visit, this is home.

Church Services in Hillsborough and Newry

St. Malachy's Church (Church of Ireland) in our "hometown" of Hillsborough, Northern Ireland (pictured left) holds two different church services for their parishioners. Since the beginning of September, they've held a contemporary Christian service with newer music, a rock band and graphics on a screen. It looks and sounds a bit odd in the Georgian-style church originally built in 1662.

Later on Sunday morning, St. Malachy's holds the more traditional service. The church rector, Rev. Simon Richardson, said that reaction to the new service is split. "Some think it's the best thing to happen here in a long time," he said. "Others are wondering why we would do such a thing," he added. Rev. Richardson, an Englishman, has been in Hillsborough for four years. He and Rev. Mike Dornan, the curate, were very generous letting us capture video of today's traditional service.

The Cathedral of St. Patrick and St. Colman (Roman Catholic) in the border town of Newry, Northern Ireland holds one type of Mass but for two distinctly different audiences (pictured left). First up this afternoon was Mass said in Polish before the English version as the last service of the day. Ireland and Northern Ireland have had an influx of workers from eastern Europe and especially Poland since Ireland and England joined the European Union earlier this decade. So the Newry Diocese decided to reach out to the immigrants by holding a Mass in Polish.

Father Stanislaw Hajkowski performed both ceremonies. "It's an Irish name," he joked when he introduced himself to John. Father Stan, as he's known, spent much of the last decade in the United States working in communities with Polish immigrant populations. He was in Chicago before accepting the call to work in Newry. "Everybody in both places thought I was crazy," he said.

The Polish population in Ireland have not been greeted fondly in some areas of the island. With the worldwide economic recession, some in Ireland feel the Poles have taken jobs from local citizens. But the curate at St. Patrick and St. Colman's said there are jobs that the Poles are doing that the Irish look down at. Sounds similar to problems in the United States.

St. Patrick and St. Colman's is a Gothic cathedral built in 1829. It was the first Catholic Cathedral build after the Catholic Emancipation when Catholics could worship freely and legally in Ireland. The inside has ornate tile mosaic work on the floors and walls that took workers five years to complete. The building is beautifully lit up at night. And it's a bit spooky looking with the heavy shadows from tonight's overcast skies.

We had our first rain tonight. It drizzled off and on for a few hours this evening. In between services today, we got to watch a lot of soccer--first the English Premier League followed by First Division of the Spanish Football League.