Well everyone, it’s day two in Dublin, the group and I got to see the city, or what I could focus on of the city as the bus zigged-and-zagged quickly down the tiny one way streets of Dublin.
But lets back track a bit to 8:30 a.m. The alarm rang and I sprang up super excited for the day. The theme today was Irish Media. Well that’s what we are here to study, and we got a stimulating lecture about the print media, and broadcast media in Ireland.
We hopped on our Jonathan O’Conner bus, (which constantly reminds me of Terminator, and Jon Conner.. hmm maybe that’s just me. Anyways..) and arrived early to Dublin City University where we met with professor Roderick Flynn. His lecure was full of intersting points about newspapers and broadcast media.
I can give everyone a few fun facts tha hit me during the lecure. Firstly, and interesting fact here is that all the street signs are in English, and the native Irish language. So what’s they point of that? No, it’s no because America is taking over the world slowly and making everyone speak the language. This was an attempt to breathe life back into the native language that most of the Irish don’ even speak nor study anymore.
Now for facts relevant to communications and Irish media. Every 1 in 4 newspapers bought in Ireland are British newspapers. City papers aren’t in circulation in most cities. What’s that? You ask why? Well, Dublin has a population of about 2-million, and of course has the most popular newspaper. The next largest city is Cork, with a whopping population of 130,000! That is miniscule compared to Dublin! I jus wouldn’t make sense to have smaller papers in circulation, there just isn’t a market for it.
Oh yeah, and another fun fact. Those of you who enjoy your morning coffee and that short, brisk stroll to the end of your driveway to pick up the morning paper, you can just forget about that here in Ireland. Home delivery just doesn’t exist!
The lecture went by very quickly so I’m happy we get to meet with Dr. Flynn again on Thursday. So onto the next bit of the day, where I can say I almost froze to death on a city bus tour.
Yes that’s right, FROZE. Here in Ireland, the summer weather is brisk to say the least. The wind was blowing my hair, and I fell over a few times on the top of the open deck of the bus trying to stand and take pictures. But I can’t complain the sites were great, and the our bus passed by the zoo, the Guiness Factory, and the Irish “White House.”
After a relaxing lunch at the Guiness Pub, and quick round of breakfast grocery shopping, and the tour, we all got dressed up for a live taping of “The Frontline” on RTE ONE. The shows contents covered the decline of the economy and the housing market. I found that a lot of the problems Ireland is facing in the economy are similar to The United States. Our professor Bob O’Gara was all set to be on speaking about the housing market and the economy, but there wasn’t enough time sadly.
My apologies that this blog is so long but this day was jam packed full of fun and exciting things. I hope everyone was able to read most of it, or atleast skim to the parts you found most interesting. Believe me, if you were in my position, you wouldn’t know where to start or end writing about the things you’ve seen!
I am keeping a tallied list of all the things that I have found interesting, and quirky little side notes that I will post at the end of the trip. So keep a look out!
Great blog. Sounds like you have hit the ground running.
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