Disappointment!

Tomorrow is my last day at FLAC, and I was supposed to go to court to hear a judgment on a big case FLAC has been working on, but it has been postponed until September! So, that's too bad. It's a pretty landmark case (FLAC only does strategic litigation), brought by a transgendered doctor who wants to have her gender changed on her birth certificate. Apparently Ireland is one of only 3 countries in Europe where this can't be done (I could be wrong about that, but I think that's what I was told). So, it's pretty exciting and I was looking forward to hearing the judgment, but they promised to send it to me in September when it comes through! Now, I'm just scrambling to finish my report; they just told me I have to present my research to everyone tomorrow. Yikes!

I have been reading so much this summer, and I just finished a really wonderful book called "They Would Never Hurt a Fly," by Slavenka Drakulic. It's about the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia, and the author is a Croatian journalist (James and I are travelling to Croatia, Bosnia, and Hungary in September, so I am reading up!). She does a really good job of walking the fine line between trying to empathize with and understand the war criminals on trial without justifying their crimes. It was so thought-provoking, and reading her discussion of the propaganda used by the nationalists to justify the war and dehumanize the "enemy," I couldn't help but think about our own government's use of "The War on Terror" and "Al-Qaeda" to justify the killing, displacement, and abuse of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I found that really disturbing. (Is that statement a little too radical for this blog? Maybe. Is my dad going to admonish me for comparing genocide in Yugoslavia to the current conflict? Probably - Dad, believe me, I can see the distinction. But did you know that killing civilians in Iraq is actually not accidental but part of our military strategy? You should read these, if you haven't already: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/07/30/collateral_damage/ and http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070730/hedges.) I also wondered how her psychological analysis of the indicted men and women, particularly those who took their commands from above, could be applied to the "bad apples" at Abu Ghraib. So, anyway, it gave me a lot to think about, and there's my book report and polemic of the week. Now, back to work.

The beach

Well, I think there have been over 50 consecutive days of rain in Ireland now, but the last week or so has been mostly sunny with just some showers in the afternoon (although we had a crazy thunderstorm right after lunch one day that frightened all of us!). Yesterday, I went out to the coast again, this time on a literary pilgrimage to the James Joyce Museum. I took the DART (the suburban train system) out to Dun Laoghaire (pronounced dun LEER-y), and walked along the beach to Sandycove. Right on the water, there is a Martello tower, which was built in preparation for Napoleon's invasion. He never came, but Joyce stayed there when Oliver St. John Gogarty was renting it in 1904, and it is the setting for the opening chapter of Ulysses. One has to feel sorry for Gogarty, because he actually lived there, and Joyce only just stayed there, and left in a huff in the middle of the night, and now it has been turned into the James Joyce Museum. It's a fantastic museum, though: it is such a unique setting that it was really wonderful to see where that great scene took place, and the building itself and the view are worth the visit. The main room is furnished as they think it was when Joyce stayed there, and on the ground floor they have amassed a collection of Joyce memorabilia, first editions, letters, etc. I spent over an hour in there! I loved it. I spent the rest of the day walking down to Dalkey, the next town on the coast, and I was going to go to Dalkey Castle (I have posted a picture), but once I got there I wasn't really in the mood to do a tour (I think you have to be in a particular state of mind to want to go into castles, at least I do), so I just wandered around. All of those towns are pretty typical coastal suburbs, a lot like you might find in Northern California, so I had a lot of fun looking in the galleries and shops, and just walking around. I visited all the bookshops in all three towns, I think, but I didn't buy anything (I can't buy any more books while I'm in Ireland, I have decided, until I read all the ones I have, which might take awhile. I still can't help going in the shops, though.).

I walked back to Dun Laoghaire just as it started to drizzle, and so I hopped back on the train and came back to Dublin! Today was mostly spent grocery shopping, cleaning my room, etc, so not much exciting to report.

Above pictures:

One of the castles in Dalkey

The beach at Sandycove

Street signs in Irish and English in Dun Laoghaire

Me, at the top of the James Joyce Museum tower

Sampson Fellows' Visit

Hi, everybody!

I know it's taken me until Thursday to write about my weekend, but I feel like I'm still recovering! Friday night Liz and I went to a barbecue hosted by the Dublin Bar Association's young lawyers' division and ended up staying out much later than we planned. (Liz is from Australia, and she's FLAC's volunteer coordinator.) On Saturday, the Sampson fellows came to visit. It was so nice to see some familiar faces! It was also great to hear about what they've been doing in Belfast and Galway. Emily Alvarado is in Belfast, and she has actually been able to write briefs and go to court on a couple of asylum cases, which sounds fascinating. Emily Jarvis and Michiko are also doing mostly research, and I think they're enjoying it. I'm looking forward to getting out and visiting all of them in the next few weekends.

Saturday night we went to my local, the Beaumont House Pub, for some dinner and drinks. Now I know why my roommates don't hang out there - it's mostly middle aged men and the bar staff is really rude! Also, they play country music from the 90's, which seems really anachronistic, although I was having a hard time refraining from singing along. Anyway, we still had a lot of fun, and it was nice to be so close to home! Sunday we mostly walked around Dublin, and wandered around some areas of the city that I hadn't seen. We had lunch at a wonderful cafe called Gruel (I will add pictures!) and just as it started to rain, we escaped into the National Museum, which has a collection of Irish artifacts. So, we got lots of nice touristy activities in. On Monday, they came with me to work, and the whole office took us out to lunch.

I feel like I've been really busy this week, but I'm not sure what I've been doing with myself. I can't believe I've been here for a month already! The summer is flying by.

Above pictures:

Me, Emily J, and Michiko with Catherine Hickey, the director of FLAC

Me and the Emilys at a pub

The Sampson fellows at Gruel

Me and Emily A in my kitchen

Long Day

Yesterday was a very long day. I left my house at 8, and took the bus to Dublin Castle, where I attended the Law Reform Commission's Annual Conference, which was wonderful. The Law Reform Commission is self-explanatory, right? They make recommendations about how the law should be reformed. This conference hosted two speakers and then opened up the discussion to members of the public to make recommendations about which areas of the law the Commission should address. The speakers were Paul Gallagher, the current Attorney General, and Justice Michael Kirby, a world-renowned Australian High Court judge. Justice Kirby's talk lasted an hour, and it was absolutely riveting. He listed what he considered the 10 "virtues" of an effective law reform commission. Are you interested? If not, please skim the following. He argued that the commission must be:
1) Aware of the fundamental institutional flaw of our system of governance, which is that unlike civil law, the common law is not based on broad principles but on solutions to specific problems. Therefore, relying on the judiciary to reform the law is chancy, and the legislature is bad at dealing with either controversial subjects or "unsexy" subjects.
2) Consultative. Without the support and involvement of the public, it is unlikely that the government will pay any attention.
3) Empirical. They must look at how the law operates in fact, not just on verbal analysis of the law.
4) International. Justice Kirby spoke quite a bit about the relationship between Australian and Irish law, and warned against trying to "reinvent the wheel." He urged the Commission to look to the example of other common law jurisdictions.
5) Realistic and flexible, addressing a wide range of issues.
6) Independent.
7) Useful.
8) Patient.
9) Lucky. He urged the Commission to take advantage of the recently formed government to try and push some changes.
10) Confident and bold.
He then spoke about discrimination, and shared just a little bit about his experience as a gay man and reminded the audience that until one has felt the "sting" of discrimination, it is impossible to know what it is like. So, anyway, that was awesome, and it was great to listen to the public's suggestions about possible reforms. Both Michael and Paul, FLAC's solicitors, gave ideas.

After the conference, Christina, Ruth, and I went to the Cafe Irie, a little "Jamaican" cafe in the Temple Bar area, for lunch, and then to Marks & Spencers to do some shopping for the evening's event. Last night, FLAC hosted a presentation by the new Garda Ombudsman, which is an independent body that was formed in May to take complaints about police behavior. After the presentation, we had a little wine and cheese reception, most of which was consumed by the interns (naturally). It was really fun, but I didn't get home until almost 10! Luckily, this morning was beautiful and sunny for a change (although it is raining now), so I didn't have any trouble getting up and out the door.

Oh, I haven't even written about last weekend yet! I went to Bray with Brian, and we had such a good time - we went walking in the cliffs right above the sea, and it was beautiful, and they were having their Summerfest. I guess I'll write about it in more detail and post some pictures later. Our new cable box was also successfully installed. It's bad timing actually: for the first few weeks I was here, I really enjoyed the luxury of watching TV after a year of abstention, but just as we got new channels, it started to get old. And Grey's Anatomy has started to suck (I'm getting all caught up, because here they're still at the end of Season 2, which is pretty much when I went to Spain and stopped watching, but my roommates all watch it). Anyway, it used to be funny, and now it's a soap opera in which the men are pigs and the women are hysterical. What happened?

This weekend, the other Sampson fellows are coming into town. I am looking forward to seeing Emily, Emily, and Michiko. It will be nice to compare our experiences and hear about what they are doing.

Now I'm going to lunch.

Pictures

I have my laptop, so I thought I'd upload a few pictures for your viewing pleasure! The top two are of my roommates - Katie's on the left, Olivia is in the chair, and Aoife's in the middle. We were eating cake to celebrate Aoife's birthday and Olivia's job offer. As you can see, I fit right in. The bottom one is of me and Grainne, another intern at FLAC. It was her last day on Friday, so we all went out to celebrate.

They call this work?!

I feel like I've hardly been in the office at all, I've been going on so many fun field trips! Yesterday, I went to a round table discussion at Trinity on the Special Court for Sierra Leone; I had just read the title of the discussion and told them to put me on the list, but when I realized who would be there, I was absolutely blown away. We heard from Stephen Rapp, the Chief Prosecutor (and former US Attorney, and former Chief of Prosecutions at the ICTR (International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda)); Justice George Gelaga King, the President of the Special Court; Herman von Hebel, Chief Registrar; and Binta Mansaray, Head of Outreach. It was fascinating. I even got to ask a question.

And now, I'm about to head out to the Pavee Point Travellers' Centre for a meeting on the plight of Roma immigrants in Ireland. Apparently there are a number of families "camping rough" on a roundabout in Ballymun, and a number of state agencies and NGO's are trying to figure out what to do with them. The Travellers' Centre was originally founded to advocate for Travellers, which are an indigenous Irish nomadic group, and now they're working on behalf of the Roma - I think this is a pretty cool development. So, I'm going to put off my research for a few more hours and go listen to that.

Not much else exciting is happening! I have to hang around on Saturday because the cable guy is coming, but Brian and I have tentative plans to go to Bray for the traditional music festival there on Sunday, so we'll see - maybe I will get out of town this weekend.

Oh, for those who are curious: "slainte" means "cheers" in Irish. It's about the only thing I can say.

Well, not that much exciting has happened in the last 24 hours except the following: I talked to my parents last night, which was wonderful; I helped a nun parallel park her car outside of the office yesterday, which I hope will put me on God's good side; and, thanks to my roommate Katie, I have become totally hooked on the show Prison Break. I think that's everything. I'm going to try to put some pictures up in the next few days.

Slainte!

Monday, Monday

I apologize for the dry spell - Kirsten was right, I do lose interest quickly! No, I think the real reason is that my routine doesn't seem as exciting now that I've been doing it for two weeks.

But I did have a good week. I am currently researching international standards of child welfare, and today I'm reading the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The work is really interesting, but it is going by fast; I hope that I will be able to accomplish something significant during my time here! I have also enjoyed my little field trips: apart from the SICCDA conference last week, I went with Catherine Hickey, who is the director of FLAC, to a ceremony at the Ballymun Community Law Centre. Ballymun is another neighborhood in north Dublin similar to Beaumont, where I live, and Coolock, where I will be working for the second half of the summer; they're all sort of villages that have been incorporated into the city. Ballymun was built in the 1960's or 70's as a place to house disadvantaged people who needed to be moved out of the city. They built the infamous "Ballymun Towers," huge apartment buildings like tenements, to give public housing to this group, and then sort of left them, and all kinds of social problems resulted. But they've really cleaned it up, and FLAC opened the Law Centre there in 2002, I think, and it's exciting to see how much has changed. The ceremony Friday was to honor some of the residents who completed a Housing Law course through the National University of Ireland-Galway. They gathered every week to listen to lectures and made recommendations to the Dail (the Irish parliament) on how Housing Policy could be revised. It was exciting to see these working-class people involved in shaping policy that actually affects them. There was a government minister there, handing out awards, and I met some of the professors and lawyers who had been involved in the project, and some of the students. And I got a free sandwich.

Friday was Grainne's last day, so a bunch of us went out to celebrate. We went to the Market Bar, which is in an old market building, complete with high ceilings, brick walls, and a balcony. We had tapas and drinks there, and then moved on to a couple of other places in Temple Bar. The people I work with are a lot of fun, and I will post some pictures of us soon.

My weekend was pretty uneventful. I just did some more sightseeing around Dublin. I was going to take a trip, but I'm feeling a little bit broke, and there's so much to see around here that I was satisfied to hang around. I went to church at Christchurch Cathedral, which is beautiful, and to the Dublin Writers' Museum and some art galleries. And, as it was actually sunny, I did a lot of walking around. So, nothing too thrilling, but a nice relaxing weekend overall.

And now it's Monday, and I should get back to work!

SICCDA Conference

Yesterday I went with some of the other FLAC employees to a conference at the Guinness Brewery sponsored by the South Inner City Community Development Association (SICCDA). SICCDA is a grassroots organization that has been around for 25 years, and we heard about what they have accomplished and what their future goals are, and we also heard from a number of speakers from other local organizations, the government, and representatives from an NGO in South Africa. It was fascinating to hear about the changes that have occurred in Ireland in the last few decades, and their response to the new economic growth. There seems to be a concern that becoming economically successful will somehow affect their society and communities in a negative way; one speaker said, "Economic strength does not necessarily imply an embrace of neoliberalism." The emphasis at this conference was on those left behind by the economic boom. And we went up and had a pint at lunch. (I might write more about the conference later, we'll see.)

I've added photos to some of my old posts. Above are pictures from the SICCDA conference.

My Weekend

I learned something important this morning: weekends go by too fast no matter where you are. I can't believe it's already Monday. I had two of the most relaxing, pleasant days I've had in a long time: I slept about 10 hours a night, read an entire book (The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene - it was so good, I couldn't put it down), and took lots of long walks. On Saturday I walked down the Royal Canal and went to Glasnevin Cemetery, where lots of famous people are buried. I couldn't find Michael Collins, but I did find Roger Casement and the big rock they have dedicated to Parnell (pictures will be forthcoming). Walking around cemeteries has always been one of my favorite things to do, ever since I was a little kid. I never get tired of reading all the inscriptions, looking at the monuments, seeing the things people have left.

On Sunday I headed out to the Irish Museum of Modern Art, which is a lot further from the city center than my Lonely Planet map led me to believe, so I had another good, long walk, this time through town. The museum is in an old hospital (I think it's called Royal Hospital Kilmainham), and the building and grounds are almost more interesting than the art. I spent a long time in the garden, imagining World War I veterans convalescing among the statues and hedges, and in the open courtyard, where there is a Miro and Calder sculpture exhibition taking place. I spent most of my time in the Lucian Freud exhibition; I'll have to go back to see the permanent collection and the Anne Madden retrospective. I'm glad I have an excuse to go back - I really enjoyed it! Sunday night I came home and ordered takeaway with my roommate Olivia and watched the Concert for Diana, which was kind of depressing and I had missed Lily Allen, so I went to bed early. And now it is Monday morning and I should get back to work!

(Above - Glasnevin Cemetary and IMMA)