Donegal Days

June 6, 2025

Donegal is both a town and a county on the northwest coast of Ireland, the area in which we are spending the bulk of our study abroad trip. We are based in the surf town of Bundoran where locals come for a weekend away but which is quiet during the week. It is just across the border from Northern Ireland, which we will visit in a few days.

We did travel briefly to the famous Belleek Pottery in a border town where the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland are separated by a bridge crossing the Erne river. This place used to be central to the conflict, but Ireland has changed dramatically in the last 50 years, and it is quiet and peaceful now. Belleek's lovely and delicate, handcrafted Irish porcelain is known the world over for its high quality, made using an exacting and laborious 16-step process.

Otherworlds; this was the topic of our first class today on the connections between mythology, culture, and the environment, a subject we in Hawai'i are intimately familiar with. Our instructor, Niamh Hamill, is a skillful orator, capturing our imaginations and keeping us focused on learning as we hike in the rain to examine ancient sites and consider what it must have been like to live in this fairy landscape.

Cavan Burran (above) is a place that brings us close to otherworldly connections with carved rocks that were portal burial sites from the ancient past. Did you know that part of the Appalachian Trail is here in Ireland? When the continents split apart, part of this mountain chain was left in America and part in Ireland (don't ask me how geologists came to know this).

Evening found many of us continuing our lessons in mythology during an art class where we had the opportunity to experiment with traditional symbols, practice the ancient Gaelic tree alphabet called Ogham, and search through books for fairy images to paint onto bookmarks.

June 7, 2025

Perhaps the best history lesson I've ever had the opportunity to hear was today, on Ireland's Gaelic roots and the influences and changes over time. The enduring message is that Ireland held on to those roots through a series of accidents combined with sheer will, resulting in the rich culture we experience here today. Outside of Hawai'i, it is the place most connected with the land that I have ever been.

Ireland was Britain's testing ground for colonialism before moving on to North America: "going somewhere, taking what doesn't belong to you, and systematically deleting all the native aspects of language, culture, and society." As with Ireland, Hawai'i has held onto its language, and Hawaiian culture is thriving. Although Viking and Norman people often came to Ireland with the intent to pillage and plunder, they ultimately assimilated, adding their own flavor to society rather than deliberately obliterating everything Irish.

In the afternoon, we visited Donegal town and toured the renovated castle, the remains of the abbey, and the graveyard where we searched for our family names on the headstones. Susan and I had a quiet lunch at The Blueberry Tearoom, and we shopped the afternoon away.

June 8, 2025

On Sunday, we took the ferry to Arranmore Island, an island off the Atlantic coast where Gaelic is still widely spoken. The first thing we saw were the Irish and American flags on the Beaver Island Monument commemorating the link that was established with Beaver Island in Lake Michigan when, during the Great Famine, many Irish people emigrated from Arranmore to that locale.

This day proved to be a highlight of the trip for many with its expansive views, fresh sea air, and exhilarating hikes. We stopped to look closely at peat bog bricks (extremely dense and heavy) and take in an outdoor lecture on the history of the island and its use during WWII. The lighthouse was built in 1798.

The land in this area is boggy, so it's very spongy to walk on, but the peat gets packed down and is still harvested for fuel. It's easy to see the effects of glaciers' paths carving out the landscape and leaving behind random boulders called erratics. Stone walls are everywhere, and at the end of this one (below right), 151 steps lead down to the sea.