A Very Busy Week (Week 4)

It always seems that just when you start to get settled in somewhere, things change. There's never time for a "normal" week. That's how last week felt. Just as I was starting to get into a routine, we had one of those weeks where there's something going on every day. As I've said before, I'm here in Dublin as part of a fellowship through the University of Washington. The professor in charge of the fellowship, Professor Walsh, needed to come over here at some point to do a site visit. Basically, he had to come and make sure we were actually here and working at real places. We knew he was going to do that, but we had no idea when. Then we got an email the Thursday before last telling us he would be here last week. We had no clue what that would entail.

On Monday morning we awoke to a very long email from Prof. Walsh telling us about the details of the week. He told us that he was working with people from a different program through Kansas University and teaching a class for them this week. On Monday he wanted us to join him and the KU people for dinner at a restaurant in South Dublin.

Now we live in the Northeast part of Dublin, and getting from North Dublin to South Dublin is not exactly easy. But by now Kendra, Megan, and I are all pretty accustomed to finding our way around town. Megan wasn't feeling well so Kendra and I headed down to the restaurant. There we met all the KU people. There were 9 students and 1 professor. They were doing a three-week course, two weeks of which were in Limerick and one week in Dublin.

In lots of comic books there is often a story arc where the hero(es) meet people like them from a parallel universe. I can't name any examples off the top of my head, but it's a thing, alright? Anyway, that's what talking to these students was like. They had also just finished their first year of law school and were telling us about their teachers and their classes and their peers. Listening to them talk made me realize how similar law school experiences are across the US. Even though I didn't know any of the people or places they were talking about, they were still discussing the same experiences that I went through last year. It's a comforting feeling, I think.

On Tuesday we went with the KU people on a tour of Kilmainham Gaol, an old jail in Dublin where lots of revolutionaries were imprisoned and killed. It definitely reminded me that most of Irish history is pretty sad stuff. Lots of death and plagues. But the weirdest part is hearing about failed revolutions. In America we take it for granted that we had one revolution, it went pretty well, and that was it. Not so here. They've fought many times against the British and against each other, and in some ways the fighting is still going on today. Our revolution is historical; theirs is still an open wound.

Wednesday we went to the KU class at University College Dublin and listened to the students give talks, and gave our own. It was awkward because they were all giving talks about research they did on the International Criminal Court and genocides and war criminals, and we gave a talk about the work we were doing in Dublin. It felt very... disjointed. But at least everyone was friendly about it.

Thursday and Friday I got to go to the courts in the city center. Thursday we went to the Criminal Court of Justice and got to sit in on a murder trial, which was really interesting but also very sad. Friday I got to go to the Irish Supreme Court and hear them rule on a motion I helped draft last week. THAT was pretty surreal. And by the end of Friday I was exhausted. Every day had been something extra besides regular work.

I just hope things return to normal... whatever that is.