Harvey Scholar Travels - Allison in Ireland and Scotland

For two and a half weeks over the winter break of 2018-2019, I took a solo trip across the pond and bounced around Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland. (I still can’t believe that I can write that sentence and have it be true - what an opportunity, what an experience!!)

First off, the grass is SO GREEN. Irish poets with more talent and practice than I’ll ever have have already written beautiful lines about the Irish landscape, so I won’t try to find new words. The countryside is so, so, so green. It was maybe one of my favorite parts of the trip.

(maybe take a listen to "Green" by Ben Rector)

After having studied the Troubles of Belfast through a semester-long independent study, I hopped on a plane to explore some of the places and history that I’d learned about. Because of the timing of my major-related classes and my job, I wasn’t able to spend a semester studying abroad. This was the first time, then, that I had traveled independently and internationally and oh. my. goodness I was terrified about 80% of the time. Even though I was in English-speaking places (well, sort of - Irish accents can be pretty thick), I was kind of absolutely overwhelmed with a feeling of isolation and of knowing that I alone was wholly responsible for myself.

So yes, I was outside of my comfort zone the entirety of the time that I was across the ocean. But it is because of this that I believe that the whole experience was rich and full, suprising and rewarding. And if you’d let me, I’d love so much to share with you some of the life-impacting experiences I had in Northern Ireland. Here we go!!!  

(Edinburgh)

Most of the trip I spent exploring in and around Belfast. Every day, I asked myself to do one thing that made me *incredibly* uncomfortable. For some context, the first day that thing was getting out of bed and taking the bus into the city center. But for me, on that first day, that was a huge accomplishment and even though it might not seem like a big deal, I’m really proud of that moment because of all the growth that came out of this. Because of this, too, I’m starting to notice that sometimes in my life I minimze this sort of stepping-stone-accomplishments because they seem too small to celebrate, and I think because of this it’s harder and more frustrating for me to accomplish bigger goals. So here’s one of my challenges to you: notice and acknowledge your achievements in life, no matter their relative scale.

 

(This photo was taken the sunset of my second full day in Belfast, outside the Titanic museum and facing the Belfast skyline. This moment is special to me because it’s the first moment that I felt comfortable in Belfast)

Because part of my travel was for my McBride practicum, I spent some time in Northern Ireland visiting places that were relevant to the Troubles. I spent a day on a tour with a man named Joe who’d lived in Belfast throughout the Conflict, and while we drove around the city and stopped at murals and memorials he explained some of the history and the atrocities that occurred.

One of our last stops along the tour was at the Peace Wall. Built in 1969 as a temporary structure, the walls still separate Protestant and Catholic communities and are still locked at nights and on the weekends. Joe spoke about how the government wanted to tear down the walls, but that those that lived on either side of the walls were afraid for them to be taken down.

(Cave Hill, Belfast)

Joe told me at the end of the tour that everything he speaks about is extremely personal and important to him. He told me that he gives tours because he wants to show visitors what has happened in Belfast’s past and how the city is moving forward, and because he doesn’t want anyone to forget the conflict that happened in Belfast and throughout Northern Ireland.

(Peace Wall, Belfast)

Even so, there were so many moments on that tour when I strongly felt  that I was intruding on someone else’s story, turning the deep and fresh pain of other people into a tourist attraction for myself. You can see in the above photo that I didn’t know what to do with my face - smiling felt wrong, but so did everything else. I believe that it is everyone’s responsibility to bear witness to the world, and to travel while ignorant of the historical, political or modern context of where you travel to is in violation of this effort. However, it is crucial to allow those who have experienced tragedy to speak for themselves. Let us encourage their voices and sign our names as signs of support, and let us not ever overshadow their voices with our own in an attempt to seem knowledgeable or righteous.

(City Hall, Derry/Londonderry)

To me, then, visiting and remembering the Peace Wall is a promise to remember the Troubles, a promise to use my platform to advocate for others, and a promise to fight for reconciliation between seemingly irreconcilable ideas and identities.

So there definitely was some heavy stuff on this trip, and rightly so, but it was also a freaking wonderful adventure and some memories that I will never ever forget. I got to spend a lot of time sight-seeing in nature, and to go on a pub crawl in central Edinburgh and to be in Dublin for New Year’s Eve.

(Cliffs of Moher)

I learned more about the Titanic than I thought there even was to know, and I learned how to taste whiskey and poured a pint of beer at the Guiness storehouse. I was able to be at the Newgrange monument on the winter solstice and was able to ask some druids some questions about their spiritual practices, and I spent an evening in a bar listening to traditional Irish music with some friends that I made.

(Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland)

One night, when I was eating alone at a restaurant (which I would highly recommend to anyone who hasn’t tried it) the waitress gave me a mini bowl of ketchup, and I used exactly that amount of ketchup. Like a goldfish that grows only as big as the tank it’s in, we often grow as big as the space that surrounds us will allow, and no bigger. So if you can, travel! If you can’t travel far, go to a nature park in the middle of the night and go see the stars. Just do something to shake yourself out of your mold and your habits, expand your horizons, and when you come back to your life, shake the ground and see the world change for the better.