Tag Archives: election
Apologies
If I attempted to have a conversation with you today (and for some reason, I was very talkative), I need to apologize for making little to no sense. I stayed up ’til 5am watching election coverage, and caffeine only caused me to lose my breath when I spoke.
And to Kevin Barry, who kindly read short stories and spoke to the English Department about Doing Writing: I’m sorry I started crying during your reading of Across the Rooftops.
O Say Can You See?
A few things I wish I had pictures of so I could post them here:
- The Book of Kells, which I saw for the second time yesterday
- The first three books printed in the Irish language (I have to make a special scholarly request so I can go back to Trinity’s library and see them myself)
- The bookcase at Marsh’s Library in Dublin that was hit by machine gun fire in 1916. One bullet traveled through a book, ricocheted off the back of the bookcase, and passed through the book again. It was an incredible thing to see.
- The two elderly gentlemen I saw on my walk home, sitting side by side in a book-lined study and working on their laptaps. I imagine it was some scholarly collaboration taking place in the house near campus, overlooking the canal.
- My absentee ballot (it never showed; must have requested it too late)
Today in Irish for Beginners, we learned Amhrán na bhFiann, the Irish national anthem. It was taken up by the rebels in the GPO during the 1916 Easter Rising, and is always sung in Irish. The chorus includes lines like Tonight we man the gap of danger and ‘Mid cannons’ roar and rifles’ peal…
Sounds familiar, right? And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air… Funny how both our national anthems are about fighting the British.
Happy election night, y’all!
The Galway Train 