Because both English classes offered by the NUIG summer program correspond to classes I have already taken at Villanova, I am unable to take any literature classes while I'm here. But that doesn't mean I can't stowaway on their field trips! I joined the Literature and Film students on a trip to Coole Park, which was the estate of Irish literary icon Lady Augusta Gregory. Lady Gregory was a key figure in starting the Abbey Theater Company which essentially gave Ireland its own theater tradition. Her estate was a gathering place for the likes of George Bernard Shaw, John Synge, and Sean O'Casey. W.B Yeats was a particularly frequent guest and friend to Lady Gregory and even dedicated many poems to Coole Park. The original house was torn down long ago, but we got to walk around the grounds and see the tree where Lady Gregory's most esteemed friends carved their names. There were so many trees in general, and we definitely climbed a few of them. We were up in one when a few older Irish women asked us if it was the Autograph Tree-- there is nothing that can make an English major stutter than to ask her if she's scrambling up a tree that JM Synge signed. The grounds were very beautiful, like something out of a Jane Austen novel, which inspired quite a few "turns about the garden."
We then visited the ruins of an early monastic site (this seems to be a common theme for our excursions) and saw the tallest round tower in Ireland. The Irish must have heard about the tactics of Italian tourism, because this tower is leaning quite significantly. There was actually an unsettling optical illusion when you stood looking up at the tower as it seemed to be falling toward you. You couldn't get into the ruins of the churches, which was kind of a bummer, but the graveyard was cool.
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