Today was a life changing day! We started the day meeting 2 more local professors, learning about Irish Literature and absorbing first hand personal stories about growing up during the violent “troubles” of Ireland. Also, we had an interesting lecture about the eye opening murals found EVERYWHERE in Belfast (I highly recommend to click the link and scroll through).
Since our 26 hour flight delay forced us to miss our Day of Service with students at the Donegall Road Primary School, we were desperately trying to reschedule because this was the highlight of our trip. The chances of meeting the students were looking grim after being turned down multiple times because of all the end of the year activities scheduled at the school. THANKfully, we would not take no for an answer, and our persistence paid off. The teacher squeezed us into the schedule this afternoon for a little more than an hour, and it was a complete success for everyone involved! The goal of this visit was to promote peace, hope and friendship. We wanted to help the children realize there are plenty of opportunities outside of the run-down streets of East Belfast. I wanted to help them understand a life lesson that personally took me almost 25 years to learn; Pride is a positive characteristic until it holds us back from achieving personal goals. The school was located in the heart of a struggling Loyalist, or Protestant, neighborhood, so walking in was a bit intimidating. Reassuringly, instinct kicked in and it was easy for me to connect with the students, but I also connected with their teacher Ms. Greer. She confirmed she would send a package of friendship bracelets to IACS in return of our student’s gifts, and our classes are going to Skype next school year! Our group of 12 walked out of that school today on cloud 9 and we knew that we had just experienced a life altering moment. Words and photos do no justification, but I am doing my best. More photos to come!
As if our first two events of the day weren’t enough, on the walk home we stopped for a VIP tour of Friar’s Bush Cemetery with the legendary doctor, author and Irish historian Eamon Phoenix. Now, Eamon has been showing us around Belfast for the last few days, but I think we all truly appreciated his knowledge a little extra today seeing as it was our last day with him. It was an honor to have Eamon as a guide and I truly believe no one on this planet knows more about Irish history/culture than him.
Shout out to my friend Jen Kelley for helping me find my title for this post 😉
mccormackblog 
What did your favorite mural look like?
It’s hard to chose a favorite because there were so many amazing murals to chose from. I’d have to say ALL the peace murals are my favorite. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of violent murals which are preventing the city from moving past the troubles.