May 20: Irish Parliament Tour and Guest Lecture
Today was the day we got to see the parliament building. I did not exactly know what that meant, since I do not understand government at all. Turns out this building is very important. We were not allowed to take any pictures which is kind of sad since I could have proof of my bragging rights. We got a tour of some of the rooms and hallways of the building while learning some history of the family who used to live there. Oh yeah, the building used to belong to a huge wealthy family. The woman of the house had 21 children. Absolutely insane if you ask me. She had an affair and ended up divorcing her husband for the affair guy. It was cool getting to sit in the room where they make decisions. We sat at the top where people from the public can sit and watch. The blue carpet was so beautiful and caught my eye the second we walked in. We also got to go into what once was a dining room. It was so big. It was really cool getting to walk through the Irish Parliament, but I was excited to leave since we didn’t have much time to eat lunch.
Our guest lecture of the day was an author. I did not know how much I would enjoy this lecture, but I was so engaged the entire time. She told us about some experiences she has had working in journalism and being an author. She trained in England and has done a lot in her career. Since she has been in the field for so long, she also explained the shift she has seen. She realized people aren’t as eager to read stories anymore. She sees all around her how people just like to scroll on their phones rather than sit and complete long-term activities. She tries to grab people’s attention at the very start, rather than slowly getting to the main point. Being a journalist is also very difficult in many ways. Martiana experienced a time when she was writing an article about a prisoner. He had wanted an article written about him because he felt like people forgot about him since he didn’t have a release date. He loved the article so much that he started sending letters to her house. That is obviously very terrifying that he somehow found her home address. She told us that we don’t always want to use fancy words since it could put a barrier on comprehension. The thing that stuck out to me the most was how the heirs of a person own the right to anything the person ever wrote. So if something is unpublished when the person dies, their heirs own the right to what happens with it. She also keeps little objects on her desk to inspire her writing. For example she had a witch on her desk when writing her novel of the witch trial.
Today was a lot of fun even though we didn’t get a lot of time to relax, and I was tired. It is hard to believe we only have 3 days until I am back at my house.
