Travelogue
Borrowed Identities - we are back again! Ar Ais Aris
40 learners from 9 different countries spending 12 days in 13 cottages and a hostel in Dublin working together with local inhabitants of Achill Island on a European-funded ERASMUS Intensive Programme
…the sun is shining, the sky is blue and we are back on Achill Island. A beautiful place where people are friendly and kind and go a long way to make us feel at home. It has become a yearly routine to come here in February - we said we would be back and here we are. We had promised it to ourselves, our partners at Achill Tourism, the Achill Cliff House and all those who had worked with. Not only is it lovely to meet the friendly residents of the island again but it is also good to see our good old friends, the majestic Slievemore, the Minaun, the Keel Beach and all the other familiar sites. They all bring back memories of previous years’ projects. The stones in the Deserted Village are still standing in the same place, the beach is just as inviting, and yet something is dramatically different: There has not been any rain for the whole week and the sun is shining as if it was early summer! What a difference the sun makes!
But the most important thing about our return is to make more friends and to continue with what we started in previous years. This year’s projects started off very ambitiously and with many interesting ideas which were carried out with energy and enthusiasm. We had a “Global Responsibility” workshop which involved some local people, a “Cultural Artefacts” workshop, a “Media Workshop”, a workshop that looks into the implications of immigration and emigration. One of the main objects of the workshops was to bring the international groups in contact with Achill community, to find common ground and to produce something together as a group. The European visitors were able to learn a lot from the local community but strangely enough, the locals also learned from the visitors who saw the island from a different angle. "It was fascinating to look at something so familiar from a different perspective" said Kieran Sweeney, who took part in the Media Workshop. The intense focus that the European group bring to the community encourages the local people to look at the cultural heritage that is theirs in light of the greater European Community context.
"Be brave enough to live life creatively.
The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can't get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you're doing. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself".
American Actor Alan Alda
The final presentation of the results in the Keel IT-Centre was a great success and displayed the quality of the week’s work in the workshops. "The participants of the workshops must have worked non-stop during their stay on the island" said Sean Cannon who had helped facilitate our visit. As the evening unfolded and each group presented the results of their stay it became evident that despite the discipline and demands of the various workshops a lot of fun was had by all. As cultural difference was the order of the day in the workshops (a minimum of three different cultures had to be represented in each workshop), one sensed a unity of purpose in achieving the set tasks. It was an evening of celebration - a recognition of cultural differences but more so a recognition of a unifying creative spirit shared by all.
The students seem to be very busy at any given moment of time either interviewing Achill community members on the beach, or climbing the Slievemore, or chatting to the locals in the cosy atmosphere of the public house or listening to Irish music performed by the local musicians. Thinking back it seems unbelievable how much the group have achieved in terms of cultural interaction during the relatively short time they have been here. All in all this journey has strengthened our friendship with the Achill community and has made us determined to come back yet again next year.
Thank you Achill for once again making us feel so welcome in your community. The beauty of the island and the warm reception of the islanders is an experience never to be forgotten. We will return to Hungary, Denmark, Lithuania, England and Germany with Achill in our hearts and our minds!
Please enjoy the following travelogue in which you can follow the workshops activities of the group during their stay.
Laurent Borgmann
Project Leader
