Thursday, 12.06.2008
Non Language Summer Schools
Ireland is a country that has much more to it than Riverdance and U2 (although you should know that there is no such thing as leprechauns). An Irish accent usually brings an international stereotype to mind and while the reputation of having a fondness for the ‘craic’ and the Guinness may be well earned; there are many other and better reasons for spending a summer here...
Courses offered in Irish international summer schools usually involve a wide scope of subjects. The International Summer School of NUI Galway focuses on various themes of the Irish identity such as emigration and religion. Much discussion includes the way Ireland is represented on a global level and how films such as ‘The Quiet Man’ can lead to certain preconceptions about areas of Ireland that may not necessarily be valid.
Irish literature is a huge part of the culture and has provided the world with works of much celebrated authors such as Oscar Wilde and James Joyce as well as four winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature; W.B Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett and Seamus Heaney. The impact of Yeats and Joyce has been such that there are two specialist summer schools existing in dedication to their life’s works; the Yeats International Summer School and the James Joyce Summer School which focus on the respective writings of the authors and involve daily lectures as well as excursions to places of interest.
The College of Humanities in University of Limerick (UL) runs a number of options in its Summer School. The courses available to choose from in 2009 will be Irish Life & Literature, Law in Ireland, Sociological Perspective on Irish Society, Ireland in Film & TV and Visual Culture in Ireland; summer school students will be permitted to use the extensive facilities of the university which is located on a sprawling campus on the banks of the beautiful river Shannon in the West of Ireland.
Or, if you have your heart set on the capital there are a considerable amount of programmes on offer in Dublin, for example Griffith College Dublin (GCD) provides two separate courses; one is four week long and the other is six weeks in duration. A wide curriculum is covered spanning over subjects like Irish culture, music, film, theatre and politics. Field trips will be an intrinsic part of the time and students are provided with on-campus accommodation.
Right in the hub of Dublin city lies Trinity College (TCD) which, in conjunction with USIT (the Irish student and youth travel service) provides an Irish Studies Summer School over a seven week period which is catered specifically for North Americans (also this is not absolute). The course will focus on all elements of Irish culture and literary works.
There’s no doubt that participating in a summer courses and learning about a country’s history, culture and society will give you a true and colourful picture of life in Ireland. Don’t worry that it will be all work and no play; there’ll be plenty of time for practicing your Irish dancing/singing/drinking at night!
Slán go Foill (Bye for now)
