Berkley Center

With less than two weeks left in Ireland, now is a perfect time to reflect on what I have learned over the past three and a half months here. I arrived with many expectations and can honestly say that each and every one of them has been changed in some way as a result of what I have experienced here.

One concept that has been a major part of my time here is religion. I came to Ireland knowing that it was considered to be a very religious country and that many of its conflicts (many more recent that you would expect!) centered on religious ideas and values.

I decided that I wanted to get a firsthand look at religion in Ireland and started attending religious services at a church in my neighborhood. Accompanied with one of my roommates, we took in a Sunday evening Mass. From the moment I walked in, we both noticed many distinctions from churches in the United States. While reciting routine prayers, I would suddenly be caught off guard by the addition of an unknown phrase or Gaelic portion (the Irish language) of a prayer. There were several other cultural adaptations that were evident throughout the ceremony. Additionally, I was actually surprised by the informal clothing of some of the church-goers and how low overall attendance was. I began to think that perhaps I had overestimated the dominance of religion in this community.

This all changed when I was given the chance to escape from Dublin City and visit the countryside of Ireland. My parents flew over to Ireland in early November and rented a car so that we would be able to explore more picturesque areas of the island. Things are much slower and simpler on the western coast of Ireland. Growing up 30 minutes from New York City and attending university in the nation's capital, I am a stranger to the idea of a slower pace of living. On our journey to visit my mother's distant relatives in the small town of Tullagh in County Clare, buildings turned into green fields and traffic consisted of the occasional sheep and cows. We pulled into “town” and began to walk around what appeared to be a ghost town. After walking down the few streets that comprised the neighborhood, we suddenly came across what had to have been almost the entire town's population outside Tullagh's church. The Sunday morning service had just finished and the residents were returning to their homes. This was quite a sight to witness as the energy of Tullagh seemed to emerge from within the church.

Returning from this family trip, I started to wonder if what I saw was the universal trend of religion in Ireland. Causally speaking with my fellow classmates who were residents of Dublin City, the topic of religion was approached. It appeared that my suspicions were true in the sense that, similarly to America, the overall dominance of religion in daily life was declining in major cities. It was much more of a major aspect of life in the countryside.

However, this was not entirely the case. The prevalence of Christianity is still a major force all over Ireland. As the month of December approached, the Christmas decorations and nativity scenes sprung up all over, even on the campus of the public University College Dublin, reminding me once again of the country I am in. Ireland's religious conflicts are not exactly ancient history. During a school trip up to the Northern Ireland capital of Belfast, I was able to see just how deep the Catholic-Protestant tensions once were. Fences and gates remained from where the city was strictly split between the two sects. Homes near the border still even had iron bars covering their first floor windows for extra protection from bombings and explosions. While, our tour was assured that the violence is over, it is hard to forget the tensions that existed not too many years ago.

Back in Dublin, it is hard not to get in the Christmas spirit with the end of classes and a plane ticket home in sight. Attending my local Christmas Eve Mass will definitely not be the same after my experience abroad and education about the troubles that once controlled life in Ireland. Seeing the different ways religion can be explored in one's life and culture in a necessary and rewarding part of being abroad, and I feel so fortunate to have gained this experience during my time overseas.