RCSI and Belfast

This week was very relaxed. Monday and Tuesday I was back in Dundrum and Wednesday and Thursday I was in the City Centre at Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. RCSI is located right next to St. Stephen's Green which is perfect when you take the Luas. I believe it was the second pharmacy school in the Republic of Ireland - there are now 3, one at Trinity College (also in Dublin) and another in Cork. RCSI has had a medical school for a while now but the pharmacy school is only about 10 years old. There are only 50 students per class so each year the entire country only has about 150 pharmacy graduates.


I was shown a quick tour by Judith Strawbridge, a professor who studied at Queens in Belfast. RCSI was a stronghold for the Irish rebels during the 1916 rebellion and I got to see bullet holes in one of the rooms! On Wednesday I sat in on a lecture with 4th year students (final year of pharmacy school with one to go in internships) about drugs in lactation. It was a nice review because we haven't had that topic in a while. After the lecture we watched 1st year students give presentations on various topics (I think they were assigned by a professor) but one was about immunizations so Judith gave me a quick introduction to the class and I was able to briefly tell them about how it works in the states. It's really cool to see how different things are (what works, what doesn't) and to see different levels of student knowledge.


Both Wednesday and Thursday were half days for me (yay!) and Thursday was very similar - a few presentations by 4th year students and then a tutorial in the afternoon where they went over some mental health cases. Since I got done early I was able to do a little more shopping in the City Centre without the crazy night/weekend crowds. 


This morning I got up early to take a day tour from Dublin to Belfast in Northern Ireland. NI is part of the UK but there's an open border and Catholics tend to want a united Ireland (the 6 counties in NI to be reunited with the other 26 in the Republic of Ireland) but Protestants want to remain part of the UK. On the way we stopped in Drogheda to go into a church and see the head of Oliver Plunkett - and honestly I can't remember much of what happened to him except he was drawn and quartered and then never given a proper Catholic burial. His head has been preserved there for about 300 years. We also stopped at Monasterboice, a little monastery, but the one I saw at Glendalough was definitely more impressive.


We drove about another hour or so to get to Belfast. Once we arrived, some of us took the famous Black Taxi tours that go through the political issues between Catholics and Protestants. There are numerous murals all through the city depicting heroes or victims of the violence that has taken place. There is a wall called the Peace Line that divides the Catholics from the Protestants and we were all given Sharpies to write whatever we wanted on it. I found it interesting that the city has taken sides on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and Catholics are for Palestine while Protestants are for Israel. The Good Friday treaty was signed in 1998 or 1999 and has helped promote peace in Northern Ireland by giving Catholics and Protestants the same rights. Belfast City is in the top 5 for safest cities in Europe (oddly enough) but the suburbs can still have skirmishes and so the police drive in armored Land Rovers with bulletproof glass. It kind of blows my mind that stuff like this still happens.


I spent about an hour outside City Hall where there was a Continental Christmas market featuring food and booths from all over Europe. I had a French Le Croque de Monsieur (toasted ham and cheese sandwich) and some Swiss mulled wine to keep me warm as I roamed around. There was even an exotic meats booth selling ostrich meat! Well actually the ostrich was sold out so it must have been good. I walked around a few blocks near City Hall but didn't venture far because there was a free tour of City Hall at 2pm. Inside was gorgeous - Italian and Greek marble everywhere. Apparently in the late 1880s - 1890s when it was built it cost 369,000 pounds - something like 140 million today, which would still be a bargain for what you get. We sat in one of the "courtroom" areas and the tour guide explained to us about how nationalists (those who want NI to reunite with ROI) sit on one side and unionists (those who wish to stay in the United Kingdom) sit on the other - again, Catholics vs. Protestants. 


One of the ballrooms is Titanic themed since the Titanic was built in Belfast (the largest port in the British Commonwealth at the time) and it was the last stop before heading out to sea. There were about 85 people from Belfast who went down on the Titanic and there is a memorial outside City Hall for them - it's being revamped because the centennial of it's voyage is next year. Apparently the last remaining living survivor of the Titanic passed away earlier this year. I wish we had time to see the Titanic museum (makes me want to watch the movie again!) but we did get to see the Titanic Quarter which is basically a shipyard but has the dry dock where the Titanic was built. It was HUGE! When you see the pictures, keep in mind that the only part of the ship that even fit in the dry dock was the part that would have been below the water line - so it's really even bigger than you think.


After the Titanic Quarter we headed back to Dublin and everyone slept on the 2 hour drive. It was nice to see for a day but I think Belfast didn't seem as tourist-y to me so I wouldn't have needed much more time there. I will be back in Northern Ireland on Wednesday to go to the Giant's Causeway, Carrick-a-rede, and Derry (Londonderry) to hear about Bloody Sunday. Then it's off to Scotland with Carolyn for a day and a half, then more Dublin, the Galway and Aran Islands, and then home. Whoosh.