2026 Dublin Spring Seminar

  Today we had a debate against Belvedere after school, and the topic was whether this house would dismantle the monarchy. Belvedere was the proposition, and BC High was the opposition. I was a member of the debate team and I spoke third during the debate. We had all previously done several sessions of prep work and drafting speeches, so we certainly knew our topics and points well and were ready to speak. I was still very nervous to speak because I had never done a debate with an audience before, and it was also our first experience with the Irish debate format. The debate relied less on statistics and facts and more about philosophical and logical reasoning, and we also had to answer questions during our speeches from the opposing team, which was different than debating in America. Everyone made good points and had strong reasoning to back up their claims, but Belvedere was more experienced and came out as the team winner. However, Declan Madden from our team was declared the bes...

  Today, we had the annual BCHigh v.s. Belvedere Parliamentary debate. The motion was that this house (the assembly) would abolish the monarchy. BCHigh took the opposition and, although all four of us had great speeches, Belvedere ultimately proved to be victorious. However, our own Declan Madden won the best speaker award so we didn’t leave empty handed. I found the debate very interesting and I was deeply impressed by the abilities of the Belvedere students who spoke. This experience taught me that logical deductions and critical thinking on a philosophical level have as much of an impact in politics and decision making as facts and statistics do. It was very interesting to see such a different form of debate, even the very nature of the question was different from what I am used to. The process of writing out my speech, practicing it, and ultimately presenting it was also just as formative. Overall, I think everyone involved enjoyed the experience and learned something new from ...

  Today, we went to Glasnevin cemetery. It is truly fascinating and humbling to learn just how many people are buried there, over 1.5 million. It was also really interesting to learn about how many important figures in the history of Ireland are buried there, from leaders of the Easter rising, like Michael Collins, to humanitarian leaders of the 20th century. Additionally we learned about the Gaelic language from Ms. O'Shaughnessy and about important poets and writers throughout Irish History. We learned about how repression from the English fueled revolutionary writings by many writers before, during and after the Easter Rising. It was a very full circle day to learn about writers and leaders of the Easter Rising, and see where they are buried all in the same day.

  The Book of Kells was an excellent trip and an awesome experience at Trinity College. If I am being totally honest, I did not have the highest hopes for The Book of Kells. But the sheer vastness of the meticulous artwork in that Bible destroyed any tainted preconceived notions. The Book of Kells contains the four gospels in the New Testament translated into Latin. The reason why it is so famous is because of the stunning Celtic imagery, depicting common animals to otherworldly portraits and designs. I personally found the first part of the museum to be the best part of the museum. It had a bit of a quiet tone. This part of the exhibition had no music which I actually favored. This is because the silence allowed for me to really take in the artwork in its entirety. The ending of the first part was the grand library, which was sublime. Bookcases lined a huge hall with statues of the great writers and philosophers throughout history. The hall was wood brown and the statues were marb...

  On the morning of Wednesday the twenty-second, we primarily focused on Irish immigrants during the Potatoe famine, or the Great Hunger as they call it. We also learned about immigrants fleeing violence and oppression during various stages of the English occupation in Ireland. First we walked to the Irish famine memorial (seen below) which showed just how emaciated and weary the Irish people were during the famine. Near the memorial was EPIC: The Irish Immigration Museum. EPIC stands for Everyone Person Is Connected and the museum is heavily focused on this key aspect of Irish immigrants. The museum first  showcased the brutality in many points of Irish history, including battles as far back as the fifteen and sixteen hundreds in which English settlers forced many Irish people off their land and out of their country. Exhibits also showcased how far immigrants went with maps showing passages to the US, the UK, and even as far as Australia. Seeing the actual scope of the Irish ...

Today, the day was separated into two parts. The first part of the day was at Belvedere College and the second part of the day was spent around Dublin, Ireland. At Belvedere, we had three teachers that came and taught us about the history of the Irish people, modern Europe, and scientific discoveries. It was pretty interesting. I learned about the history of the ancestors of a teacher and how different it is from the lives of people today - how one of his ancestors fought in many British wars and how when he went back to Ireland he wasn’t welcome nor celebrated for fighting for the British. I also learned about the history of Ireland - how it was named after a goddess’ name and Parnell Park, which represents the resistance and freedom of the Irish people. After the history lessons, we got taught about science by a pretty cool teacher. He taught us about light waves, waves, the camera, lazy glasses, Jacob’s ladder, suction cups, and many more cool things.  After the lesson, we ate l...