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.