Now that students are (mostly) recovered from their jet lag, we have them navigating Dublin like seasoned pros. They really stand apart from the hordes of visitors who crowd the capital city on weekends, and we couldn’t be more proud.

Every workshop group has now visited our neighborhood art gallery, the Hugh Lane, which houses an eclectic collection, including a temperature-controlled reconstruction of Irish painter Francis Bacon’s original studio, and an exhibit to honor humanitarian Roger Casement, as part of the city-wide 2016 Easter Rising commemorations. Students were challenged to distinguish content from context, to compose ekphrastic poetry and prose, and to consider the historical significance of the Irish Revival to the collection.

Some students hit photography galleries, others shored up at Trinity College to find some great characters about campus, still others visited The Little Museum–a crowdsourced archive that boasts an entire room dedicated to U2 (swoon).

This afternoon, we gathered at the Saturday-only Temple Bar Food Market to forage for lunch from various local food stalls. Oysters, crepes, tacos, gelato: the food market is a delicious reflection of Dublin’s diverse offerings. We left stuffed, and eventually rounded out the day by taking in a performance from the historic Abbey Theatre’s Peacock stage.