To quote Bjork “It’s oh so quiet” . Don’t get me wrong , both the hostel and DAC are buzzing with everyday normal activities but , nobody has asked me where they left their sunglasses? , if they could go to Lidl? or what time lunch is? (it’s one o clock – same time everyday for three weeks…yet they ask
However , now that I have had a lovely day off, I’m faced with the realisation , that I would take every one of them back tomorrow if I could. This year was one of the most enjoyable years we’ve ever done, perhaps even better than last year which I had previously thought was the peak. 
Our camp is different. We’re a small business in rural Ireland. Unlike other camps we don’t offer lots of free time or shopping as daily activity, even though it would be much more financially rewarding if we did. We  believe though that the kids should be engaged, entertained and occupied – free time is something they can have at home – this doesn’t mean they have to be surfing / climbing / jumping off cliffs the whole time but it does mean there should always be a staff member or two there to make sure everyone is ok, to make sure everyone’s behaviour is appropriate but also to be a friend when someone needs it.

The success of the camp is down to 2 things – the superb attitude of this years kids and to our wonderful staff. This year was really Dickie’s year – I took the backseat and he ran the whole program perfectly blending together Kyle’s excellent work as leader of Surf camp and Nicky & Tommy’s excellent English lessons. Ciara & Trish organised all the logistics – as usual because a lot of the work they do is unseen , sometimes they think it goes unnoticed but believe me with out the girls sterling work, there is no summercamp period. 
I would also like to thank Ken for organising all the staff rotas and activities, sometimes at very short notice and all the outdoor and nightduty staff, Fiddy, Neil, Rachel, Paddy, Johnny, Paul, Siobhan, Jessica, Cillian, Ryan, Sarah and Eoin.
Finally I would like to make a special mention of Niamh my big sister. While she will still be involved in our Adventure Ireland camps, Niamh is leaving to go pursue her studies in the USA and I can say without hyperbole that literally none of us would be here without her. The ethos and direction of the camp all come directly from her and we will all have very big shoes to fill come September. However we will be able to follow her simple recipe for summer success. ” Take kids from all over the world, mix well and then add to water.”
Slán
Collie
 

Hello from Dublin airport once more. I’m sitting here with Dickie and Miguel , who is not impressed that he has to travel as an unaccompanied minor. To be fair, I’d trust him more than half the gang ( eloi
Dickie travelled down on the bus today with the rest of the gang. Juan was the first to fly off then mark & Pierre got on the Paris flight.
We had seven for the Barcelona flight – Eloi, Dani, Carles, Xavi, Ignasi, Jan & Joan. I have to say aer lingus are great at this, they checked in all the gang early so they could all sit together.
Miguel will be boarding in about an hour and says the first thing he is going to do when he gets home is eat some Spanish ham. When Dickie & I get home ? I suspect we might make time for a wee pint of guinness.

A quick update from Dublin airport. I’m sitting here with my two Italian amigos Jonathan & guacamole waiting for the early flight to Milan. After Gemma left on sunday our next departures were Esther’s gang from Barcelona who left early on Monday morning among much wailing & tears. And that was just me
Although on some ways it’s nice to see them so sad to leave it makes me sure we are doing something right. Esther wrote to tell me everyone arrived back safely ( but not before zoel managed to lose his passport in the airport to no ones surprise
I left with the two Italian boys about 1 this morning & all our Majorcans left for Belfast about 4. In a few hours Dickie will be getting on the bus with the remaining gang to head to Dublin & I’ll update you on their progress then.

Wow such busy days I haven’t had a chance to update you all. First of all we had an action packed Friday – Firstly English class had their final class and exams and I’m glad to report everyone did really well. The forecasted bad weather hadn’t hit yet so we all packed into the buses and headed to the beach

Cliff Jumping

to join up with Surf camp who were having an all day surf session.
it was EPIC – best surf conditions of the whole three weeks , big powerful but the kids were able to use all the skills they’ve learned in the last 3 weeks to really carve across those big Atlantic breakers.
Straight after dinner, it was back into the wetsuits to go Cliff Jumping. It is exactly as it sounds , a series of ever-increasing jumps into the blue ocean. It’s the perfect activity a bit scary but really really safe and everyone had a blast. Sebstian, who is a real character, funny and polite said it was the best day but an even better day was to come for him.
On Saturday the bad weather finally came so we brought our gang to our local waterpark, waterworld, instead. It was a lovely day out – Ignasi said he had forgotten what warm water was like
We topped of with our legendary Surfchick contests. This is where the girls get to dress up the boys as ladies – it’s all really good fun, all voluntary (some of them couldn’t wait) and we are there to make sure everything is appropriate.
We had great entries this year – Juan (Seville ) Guaco and Aleksei were all very fun but our top two were Eloi our old pal from Barcelona and ….drum roll… the winner and Miss SurfChick 2011 was Sebastian – hilarious and what’s more he stayed in character all night. He’s priceless !

Hello once again from Ireland – Collie here ably assisted by Mary Willis.  So We had our big talent show on Thursday night and I genuinely believe it might be

Collie, Ken Dickie & Paul...kind of

our best ever show. Not just for talent but sheer joy that they brought to their performance – all this and no auto-tuner too, Glee eat your heart out.

First up were Ignasi, Joan , Xavi & Carles who were “the instructors” This was a side-splitting show – now the boys were good as Dickie & Paul but Joan as Collie and especially Carles as Ken were a scream. It was like looking into a very embarrassing mirror, but it was all done in great spirit.
The were followed by “Show me the Money” Mary-Willis, Mackenzie and Greta performing “I need a dollar” with gusto.
The Chipmunks had a hard act to follow but follow it they did with Eloi, Manuel, Toni, Guillem, Juan, Alec. Miguel-Angel, Lucas, Adrian, Borja& t’other Juan

The Chipmunks

who sang a song and then decided to form a conga line around the whole room .
Another song followed, this time Jonathan and Pablo singing about their mobile phone – the girls loved this one
Guacamole or Giacomo as he is known in Italy performed a lovely piece of acoustic guitar music. We make a lot of jokes here about our Guacy but for once I’ll be serious not only was he great on the guitar , he is also one of the nicest kids we’ve ever had on this programme in almost 15 years of running it. I’m really not sure I’m willing to let him go home. Guacy also performed  “time of your life ” with Miguel as well as forming part of basshunter with Mary-Willis

Basshunters first gig

and Iluc. Iluc also did a solo spot performing “Beat it & Seven Nation army too. The boy is very good!
We had 3 solo spot by our youngest campers next. Zoel performed a great magic trick , Ivan got up and sung a fantastic spanish song all by himself & Alexi was a hilarious mischievous mime .
Dani showed off his brilliant juggling skills that he said he learned in school when he was supposed to be studying and Gemma &

Le Jackson 5

Robert sang a very funny version of I’m a little teapot.
Our 2 french guys Marc and Pierre were joined by Sebastian, Jose and Carles to re-invent the Jackson 5 before Dickie got everyone up on the floor to do his now legendary Pirate song. The evening finished with a performance of Saturday Night by 12 -Ana, Marina, Marta, Lluisa, Bet, Isabel, Nuria, Carme, Miriam, Alix, Maria & Esther but like all the best finales everyone joined in for a dance off at the end.

12

Marina & Lluisa play blindfolded musical chairs

Wow. What a couple of days we’ve had . The weather and surf have been awesome and the craic (Irish for fun) has been mighty. The weather is a little gloomier today but I think that’s just to reflect that while everyone is in really good form, we are a little sad because our friends Greta, Mackenzie & Robert have left the camp. Thanks so much guys and we miss you loads.

Their last night was certainly the best so far. After a great days surf , we all gathered together in the Yellow room for our annual talent show. We usually call this the talent -less show, mainly because we want the kids to take part and have fun, not to worry about what they can and can’t do but boy they blew us out of the water this year. From impression to singing, dancing to magic tricks the guys put on one of the best shows we have ever seen here all mc’d by the very impressive Dickie. It was so good that everyone deserves a mention so i’m going to a special post tomorrow just on the talent show while all the gang are in the waterpark. More on that tomorrow but now it’s time to go cliff jumping ! For now you can catch up with some of our latest photos by clicking  here to our facebook page

Iluc, Mary Willis & Giacomo (Guacamole) jamming

 

Todays entry is a little late as poor Miriam felt poorly yesterday evening so we brought her to the doctor for a quick check up. Everything was ok , she had just strained a muscle as we suspected but as always we like to double-check with the experts because mammys and daddys worry. Even the mammys of the big kids so I’d like to say a really big hi to Maria – Javito’s mum. He says she’s an avid reader I’m not so sure but maybe it’s so hot in Majorca , you really don’t have anything better to do than stay inside and read this

Yesterday was superstars day – Superstars is where the kids are divided into teams and they are given 18 different games – they can only do a maximum of 2 but they must decide who is the best one on each team to compete. It’s really good fun and has stuff for both the really competitive kids like the iron man surf competition and for the creative ones like a sandcastle building competition as well as some silly events like cracker eating and blindfolded musical chairs. I’ll post up lots of photos later and describe a little more about it later – Have to rush now because tonight is the night of the great Irish Talent show !

Jumping for joy

First a little confession. Sometimes I don’t have time to do the post at work so i do them at home on my phone – the wordpress app is excellent but I’ve just noticed it doesn’t send the latest update to the top of the page like the pc does, so if you thought we weren’t updating sorry – we were but it wasn’t appearing as the front page.

Early this morning we were very sorry to see the 3 of our new friends , Victor, Raimon & Alvaro depart – 3 really great guys & one bad haircut The good news is that we were joined by a new friend Pierre, all the way from France who is joining us for our last week.  I was talking to Esther, our wonderful leader of all the Barca kids, who is also writing a blog http://www.landedblog.com/blog/category/jovenes/2011/camp-ireland-2011/ that days like today can be hard to write about – Don’t get me wrong , we had a fantastic day today, I said yesterday that it had been the warmest day. Well today knocked that sucker out of the park – and whats more all the

Tullan Strand

predictions said there would be no surf but out of nowhere the waves appeared.

So whats the problem? you might say. “Kids are having a fantastic time , sun is shining , surf is pumping, everyone is getting along and all the kids are really good when it is their turn to clean the kitchen. It’s all true but I don’t want to rub it in too much to all of you at home. Because I know you wish you were here

Collie

worth a thousand words

 

Only a quick one tonight, it was the sunniest so far but unfortunately we had small waves again today. Good enough for beginners but our gang have progressed hugely in the last 2 weeks. We decided to go for paddle around the cliffs & into the caves instead. Excellent fun.
Speaking of excellent, we were happy to welcome back our old friend Robert, who hails from northern Ireland & as I write Mary Willis , Mackenzie & Greta are due back any minute from their adventures with Niamh.
We’re planning an evening of fun doing our ‘ all aboard ‘ climbing activity, in my opinion the most exciting one ( & the scariest ) . We will take plenty of snaps for you & post them up tomorrow.

Hello and welcome to a belated diary entry – It’s late evening as I write this & there are still blue skies and sunshine, in fact we had to delay our planned movie night just because the weather is so nice!

On the Bus

Saturday was our big day trip for Surf & English camp. A blog on Culture camp’s adventures will be posted Tuesday but see bottom of the page for an update.  
Anyway the rest of the kids were feeling starved of opportunities to spend your money so we all piled onto the big bus with Paul our genial driver & headed off to Galway. Galway is a lovely city , in many ways Ireland’s cultural capital and a perfect place to bring the gang to see all the artists & buskers - not to mention all the shops. I kept some of the younger gang with us & Dickie & Siobhan (Shiv-vaughn) showed the others around shop street and allowed them to go and explore albeit in groups and with regular check in times. It was a really succesful trip , the kids were all on time (seriously I’ve been doing this for

Siobhan teaches Alexi to make a dinosaur & a frog out of paper

15 years, that has never happened before) and everyone had a really lovely day. Even if I am pretty sure that Pennys has had to shut down after Marina bought the whole lot of it !

We stopped for food on the way home – Miguel Angel & Manuel of course went for seconds and it was after 9 when we arrived home, happy but tired.
In fact everyone has been so helpful & keen to help us we decided to give them a  bit of a treat and let them have their first lie-in of the trip this morning. As you know , teenagers usually sleep like vampires do so this made me very popular indeed.
After a late brunch today – we headed off for a surf – the waves were small but it was such a lovely day nobody minded too much. Sunday is usually cinema night but there was officially nothing on that the kids were interested in / hadn’t seen before / that was appropriate:) so instead of buying the tickets , we bought the popcorn , converted the red room into a home cinema (it has a fantastic projector ) and brought over my , rather excellent dvd collection instead. So once there finished a few team games , we’re all going to retreat to our new Collieplex and watch some movies. What’s Spanish for shhhhh?

The girls in Cobh

Welcome to the 2010 Adventure ireland Summercamp diaries.
We will be publishing a daily blog of all the fun and adventures all our campers are getting up to.

Hello world – well hello Spain, Ireland, USA, France, Italy, Canada, Germany and Russia – so far. We’ve already had some arrivials from Sevilla and Barcelona & we are getting the Rock Hostel and the Adventure Centre ready for the arrivial of the gang from Tuenno. We will introduce you to all the gang, staff & students later on & you will get used to Niamh’s informative style when she posts the blogs and my posts which usually are all about me But till later on this evening – Slán (goodbye) from Ireland

Ciao, Hola and Bonsoir from Ireland – oh yeah Dia dhuit as well (thats Gaelic) Collie and Siobhán (Shiv -awn) here writing tonights blog from beautiful Bundoran. We had a lovely night tonight and as I write this the last of the gang are saying goodnight and going to bed.  Siobhán & her sister Eimear look after Homefield where all the girls are staying and are already spoiling them rotten- she made everyone a feast of tea and toast tonight, played piano with them and will be up bright and early to make everyone breakfast with a big warm Irish smile.
Paul is in the Adventure Centre tonight which houses the boys at night and he’s just dragged them inside after playing the longest game of volleyball in the history of Ireland.
This morning started off with quite dull skies but excellent waves- Jose, Carlos &  Maria from Seville have been here since last week and this morning they were joined by Toni, Didac, Aleix, Victor, Oriel, Marc, Luis, Xavi and Clara who all hail from Barcelona.
This afternoon we were joined by Valentina, Anna, Janice, Alessia, Julia, Elen, Karin, Katerina,Mara, Franceso, Frederico & Cesare all from Italy-with their teachers Nicoletta & our old friend Anna (I don’t have any of these names written in front of me so if I spell them wrong sorry !)  Marta from Barcelona, and Remi who is French but lives in Milan.   After everyone settled in we got everyone mixed up into different groups and played a few games on our low ropes course (below) and tried a bit of skateboarding – I posted a few photos on our flickr site which you can see here but the quality isn’t great because I took them with my phone- I will be adding loads more (and better quality) photos as the weeks go by. Jaume and Eloi are on their way now and will arrive at 4 am & The Irish way and Delta groups also arrive in Ireland tomorrow but I will explain all about them in tomorrow nights blog. I’m going now to help Siobhan set up for breakfast and to try and convince her to make tea. Until then
Slán (Goodbye)
Collie

Good morning.
Just a quick Note to say the Irish way flight is in and all the gang have joined Niamh and the fabulously named Bridey McDevitt- Kate’s plane has just landed so once she’s through customs, they’ll be off to the hotel for a well earned snooze.  -Back here in Donegal, Eloi and Jaume arrived in the dead of night from Barca and our just about to be woken up , along with all the other boys by Paul & Collie -Out usual technique is to sing very loudly the most annoying songs in our repertoire - just what teenagers love to hear in the morning Any suggestions of songs welcome.

Hi there, this is Niamh in Dublin – this morning we welcomed the North American contingent – Bridey arrived safely at about 5.30am, followed by The Irish Way Group at 7am – that’s Kevin, Liam D, Colin, Lucy, Grace, Caroline, Elizabeth, Moira, Julia, Liam G, Conor, Matt, Katie, Emma, Sophie,Mary-Willis, Claire, and leaders Karen & Brian, Kate arrived later all the way from Calgary, and we met up with Julia Roth, who came with her Dad yesterday. Everyone’s bags arrived and the bus was there, so happy days! Those with a tough consitution went for a stroll around St. Stephen’s Green, but most people checked into the room and had a snooze! This evening, we went into the city centre, stopping off at Temple Bar, then we went on up by Christ Church Cathedral, old Viking Dublin and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where Jonathan Swift is buried. And where was the shopping done? The Hard Rock Cafe and Urban Outfitters!!! Well, we’ll soon be out of the city and safe from temptations like that! We’re all back in our hotel now, some of the gang are still pretty tired, so our plan is to be up early for breakfast and then we have a class on Irish History and a visit to The National Museum, Yeats exhibition and Trinity College.

Please feel free to say hi here to your beloveds, I’ll show them all in the morning. Until then, good night from us all in Dublin  Niamh

Well I don’t really forget – this is part two of Collies update but Niamh did hers so really it’s part 3 -

Anyway back to my story – today was one of the hotest days of the year so it was a perfect day for the gang to try surfing for the first time – All of them were asking me ” Collie is Ireland always this sunny?”  I of course said yes
We had more arrivials today, including our gang from Mallorca whose flight was delayed for five hours but still arrived in very good spirts. Javier their leader was the first of the bus and introduced me to Maria, Ines,Marta, Elisabet,Lluisa, Sofia,Guillermo, Antoni, Toni,Ramon, Miguel Anguel, Manuel, Ivan, Alberto, Santiago, Juan Miguel- Maria V is also part of this group but she came in from Dublin (without delay) with Clement who is french but lives in Barcelona and Kirril who is from Moscow. (again I am writing this from memory so if i forgot someone or spelt a name wrong I’m sorry – everyone is here!)

Everyone had only one question, well the boys had one question can we watch the match?- (for people who don’t follow football and Americans Portugal were playing Spain in the world cup, a very big match. We put the match on the big screen for those who wanted to watch it & those who weren’t interested joined Kieran & Conor on our Climbing & Abseiling tower-For a while we thought we would have some very sad Spaniards but David Villa came to our rescue and scored a goal to send ’La Roja’ through. Afterwards the girls & boys retreated to their own houses and we had a spot of supper before bed.
Tomorrow I will write a long blog introducing all the staff who work with the students and explaing what we do each day- but for now I’m off home to dream of sunny days and big waves.

The Adventure Ireland & Irish Way gang at St. Stephen's Green

Good morning everyone! All turned up for breakfast, well rested and eager to go. We spent about two hours in the classroom first, running through the highlights of Irish History from 6000 BC to about the 5th century,  – this was in preparation for our first visit, which was the National Museum of History. We paid particular attention to three collections, the stone & bronze age civilisation, the amazing gold collection (or ‘bling’ as we called it) of the Celts, and the priceless ‘Treasury’ of Christian/Celtic art. I explained to the gang how to conquer a small country (some of them said that they might…) but more specifically how the peaceful merge of pagan & christian lead to the high point of Irish civilisation – the ‘golden ages’.  Then, I leapt forward to the 20th century, to discuss the Irish Cultural Revival- mainly we focused on the Literary Revival and the contribution of W.B.Yeats. This is because our second stop-off today was to the wonderful Yeats exhibition at the National Library. We walked down harcourt street in beautiful sunshine, taking a fragrant detour through St Stephen’s Green (See pic above). We took in the Government Buildings, and I explained what ‘Taoiseach’ means: -( Liam Goodfellow was elected out group Taoiseach today – it means leader!) More on the tribal jobs later – We had a lovely time at both the Museum and the Yeats exhibition, and we’re just back to our hotel now for lunch. More later, lovely to see families leave comments, please do! Chat later Niamh & the gang x

it's pronounced 'thee -shock' !Wandering though Temple BarOutside the National Museum of History, Kildare Street.

Outside the National Museum of History, Kildare Street.

We hang out at Trinity College, Dublin!

So, hi again, Moms, Dads, Grandparents, Cousins, Dogs, Cats, Friends and all those tuning in to my USA/Canada gang. We returned to our hotel for lunch, and then we went back sightseeing….we went down Grafton Street in glorious sunshine, all sorts of buskers and mime artists on the way for our entertainment  – we passed Molly Malone, and on into Trinity College Campus, where we stopped off at the library and bookstore - we checked out some beautiful samples of Gaelic manuscript, and then we continued on up to O’ Connell St, stopping for a bit of history about Daniel O’ Connell himself, Ireland’s great ‘liberator’…. we then went for a visit to the Abbey Theatre, as we had been talking about it during our Yeats lesson – and then back down to the General Post Office (GPO) where Padraig Pearse read the Irish Proclamation during the Rising of 1916. I tell ya, these kids were filled with knowledge today!So then they had a little shopping time on Henry Street, they are all looking for county football & hurling jerseys, and all of them are trying to find out what county the folks come from, so if you know, Moms and Dads, let them know! On the way back up Grafton St, the girls spotted Leona Lewis, who is indeed performing in Dublin tonight. Some of us were much more excited by that then my scintilating tales of Daniel O’ Connell, but that’s OK   We’re jus back for dinner, then we’re going to chill here and be ready for big trip to Donegal tomorrow! Love from us all x Niamh

Hey gang – it’s Collie here with the update for all the gang from Spain, France, Italy & of course Russia. Incidentally Kirril has already had his name changed to Kal-el (Other nerds like me will know who this is) Frederico is now Rico Suave and Ramon is still Ramon but has to be said RRRRRRRRRAMON- you’d understand if you were here
Today we started into our regular routine- Those doing surf camp met Kyle and Rachelle in the morning, those doing English classes met up with Nicky & Tommy for their classes.

Let me introduce you to some of the staff.Kyle is originally from South Africa and is our chief surf instructor-his skill at surfing is only matched by his unbridled enthusiasm for working with the kids. Rachelle is from Sligo, which is only 20 minutes from the camp and as well as being a surf instructor, she is a swim coach and is in charge of all the fitness training for the surf camp, calm and considered, kind and funny she is a great influence on the kids and shows that surfing isn’t just a sport for boys!

Nicky is a brilliant teacher has worked with us for over ten years (she tells me to say she is still young though) and runs our English programmes during the summer and our international schools programmes the rest of the year- Tommy has just started working with us this year, a multi-talented teacher, very popular with the students (Aleix told me he was the best teacher ever!)

After a lovely lunch in La Sabbia where we have most of our meals, everyone donned a wetsuit and headed down to the beach for a surf – the people from Mallorca were worried it would be cold but soon were frolicking among the waves in Tullan strand.
Tonight we had a lovely evening on the high ropes course, it was raining  a little  but hey it’s Ireland, so we do it anyway Dickie was running the session, you’ll hear a lot about Dickie over the next three weeks, he runs all the sports and activities for the campers and is my right hand man -(although I’m pretty sure he’d say I’m his right hand man Some of the boys were late for the climbing session so Dickie made them all sing a song in front of everyone – that will teach them !!
After supper , everyone was pretty tired but happy – Conor is looking after all the boys tonight and had them all helping him set up for breakfast-they were really good , Jose Ramon & Carlos left the kitchen spotless, i can hardly believe it .
 Siobhán is in charge of the girls tonight and we had a very funny night where we had to speak Spanish and  Italian to them while they spoke English to us- Confused?  - we were too.  

Big day tomorrow as all the gang from USA & Canada arrive in Donegal
Bye for now
Slán
Collie

Dickie wants me to write : GLTYC (I will explain later) 

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Collie

Niamh is on her way to Donegal – The surf camp are gone for an all day surf- we gave them money for food, and they had to debate & plan what they should bring. Kyle & Kieran brought them to the store- chaos ensued but it was great fun.

This is Ted who helps Siobhán look after the girls each night.

Spelling out 'Ireland' on the Hill of Tara.

Greetings all! It’s Niamh here, arrived safely in Donegal with all the USA/Canada group plus welcome arrival Stephen (now named ‘Stevo’) who came from France today. We had a great big breakfast in the Camden Court – these kids all like the big Irish Fry or versions of…- and then we hopped on our Bus, stopping off at the Airport to pick up the aforementioned Stevo. We went on to the Royal County, Meath, and took some time to talk about The Hill of Tara and its importance in Irish History. By the way, the kids all agreed to call me ‘Niamho’ (it’s a Dublin custom of adding an ‘o’ to the name,) but I did give them the alternative of ‘O Captain, my captain’ – and here I am, being captainly…

Oh Captain, my captain.....The Hill of Tara, known as 'Royal Tara' is, in the words of my students, awesome! It dates back to the Neolithic period, and was the seat of the High Kings, the site of Celtic Power, and also challenged by St. PAtrick when he burned his paschal fire. It was also (much later) a famous gathering point for Daniel O' Connell's monster meetings. Here's a link with more info on Tara if you'd like to read up - http://www.mythicalireland.com/ancientsites/tara/The entry to the passage grave at Tara

It’s a deeply spiritual place – I told the students that so much history had happened there, and they really seemed to enjoy being at such an ancient and special site…. although Mary Willis did take the opportunity to practice a few ballet moves and it really was such a gorgeous day, we all enjoyed to fabulous views of Ireland (all four provinces…) and the

Mary Willis dancing at Lunaghsa (almost!)

fresh air.

Sunshine at Tara! You betcha!

Our next stop was right between Counties Cavan and Fermanagh, – this is the divide between The Republic of Ireland (Southern Ireland) and Northern Ireland. Once upon a time, there was an Army checkpoint here, now there is this peautiful peace sculpture. I took this opportunity to deliver an al-fresco talk about The Peace Process in Northern Ireland – I love this sculpture, and I love that these visitors can come safely to all parts of Ireland, and that peace has triumphed over the terrible troubles of this Island! 

Right between County Cavan and County Fermanagh, The Peace Monument.

We also stopped at McDonalds for burgers…not exactly Irish, but a: comfort food for the gang, and b: well at least it has a ‘Mc’ in it! So – eventually, after a most pleasant trip through Eniskillen and up by the lake shore road, we got to Bundoran, just in time for dinner. The boys are checked in to our DAC centre, and the girls in our Homefield Centre – and after dinner, we finally merged our groups and everyone went for a fun ice-breaking session at our Adventure Ireland team building area… it was great craic (as we say here) and everyone had a chance to meet fellow teens from Spain, Germany, France, Russia, Italy and Ireland (as well as USA & Canada,,)  – we did as usual have one or two people a little homesick – this almost ALWAYS happens on the first few nights, and ALWAYS goes away after a day or two here, please, Moms & Dads, don’t be alarmed and do tell us if you have any concerns, but we now are pretty sure that we have this bunch well introduced and integrated –

I will be setting up a link to flicker (a page of photographs tomorrow) as we are taking loads and there is not enough space for them all up here. It’s suppertime now at Adventure Ireland, and as I write to you all, the global gang here are chatting and making friends, and it’s a happy little corner of the world. We will leave the last word tonight to Kate & her family back in BC, and wish HAPPY CANADA DAY to you all. Goodnight, please post comments here and we will be back with more tomorrow xxx Niamh

Happy Canada Day !

A quick update on tonights fun – we split everyone into 5 teams with a mix of all the nationalities – well Kal-el is the only Russian so far but you get the idea. They had to come up with their own team names so we had Red Tuna, the alarmingly named Bundoran killers-whos motto was we tried & we failed !, The Smelly Bin People (they couldn’t think of a name but were standing beside the Trash can, New York , New York & The Vuvuzelas who were allowed make a buzzing sound when Dickie talked (this reference may confuse people who aren’t watching the soccer world cup)
I have to say we’ve never had a group of kids who tried so hard to mix, it was a brilliant night -I was with the Red Tunas who were lead by Mary Willis from Florida & Alberto, now called Bertie,  from Mallorca who were a scream. You can see more photos below on Niamh’s blog & we will be adding more photos to our flickr stream on http://www.flickr.com/photos/donegaladventurecentre/ once we get a chance.
Earlier in the day while the surf camp went on an all day Surf Safari, the others had English lessons as usual and then went for a bodyboarding session on beautiful Tullan strand. No lessons tomorrow as we are off on a full day excursion to Galway city   while the culture camp will have a class with Niamh & then venture into the water themselves for a surf. Till then
Slán
Collie
GLTYC

 

Morning/Afternoon all! It’s just dinner time here, and Niamho, your faithful blogger is going to fill you in on our day. All is well here, everyone in good spirits, and full of beans! We began with breakfast at nine, and then the europeans went off on an excursion to Galway City- we’re going later next week – so my gang were into class for the morning. We went through the schedule, preparing for July 4th (they are going to do a history dramatization for all of us), we have an upcoming video shoot, talent show, olympic games, super quiz and they also all have to do a presentation on some aspect of Ireland at the end of the trip. Then we went on a trip to the bank (so we could cash traveller’s cheques and put away passports and cash in the safe) and we showed everyone where the stores, post-office, pharmacy etc is. It was funny, the pharmacy was celebrating 10 years of business, and there was a party on, balloons, fancy dress, free coffee….the kids just looked at me, and Matt asked ‘do Irish pharmacies always have parties like this’ – so now you know – if you’re looking for a party in Ireland, go visit the chemist!  So then we came back to base, I did some teaching about Irish (Gaelic) language, including Ogham, which is the oldest form of writing, we learned how to say hello (Dia Duit) and hello back (Dia’s Muire Dhuit!). We then moved on to music – first of all, we discussed how themes of displacement and travel were so prevalent in Irish music, and why, and also how many aspects of Irish music were absorbed into other folk music – cajun, country, bluegrass etc. And so – songtime! We took two songs, ‘The Wild Rover’ and ‘Whiskey in the Jar’, and believe me, there was no problems getting this crowd to sing, (they proved this on the bus yesterday) – The Loftus ladies definitely inherited the ability to burst into song, and inspired everyone to pour forth. Kevin accompanied me on guitar, Matt’s getting the harmonica ready, and Stephen is going to work on these tunes with his fiddle teacher. It was really fun, and I already know we are going to have a fine collection of tunes by the end of the trip. Ok here is a sample below!

Then it was lunchtime, and after lunch, everyone went surfing, except for Stevo, who had to get his head fixed ! (he’s all good, Maura!, and will surf another day.) I don’t have pics of the surfing, because no one brought a camera, everyone was in a wetsuit! They loved it, and are all asking to do it again, so we will, and I’ll go take pics this time.

This evening, we are having the great International Adventure Ireland Quiz, and I shall let you know all about it tomorrow. Thanks for all the comments to the site, we do love getting them, and the gang all have time online to read too, so keep them coming! We hope you have as good a day as we’ve had, Slán go foill (bye for now) Niamh

A brief update on tonight’s shenanigans. After myself and Dickie returned from Galway with all European gang, we were delighted to see our old friend Jonathan from Milan waiting for us along with two new friends , Elena from San Sebsatian & Louis from Paris. By the way extra points go to Rico Suave & Francesco for buying everything that said Ireland on it and wearing it home!

Tonight we decided to excercise (egg-ercise maybe) their minds for a change. The task was to build a parachute for an egg using only the materials we gave them and also design an advertising campaign for their particular parachute system. They had to scramble their brains- some of them poached ideas from each other,others were fried (ok I’m going to stop doing egg jokes)
Actually all the teams were very creative & it was a great way for the gang to mix once more  but the winners hands down were the Bundoran killers – spoiling their motto from last night.Their entry was based on our concillor Punk (his real name is Liam but he doesn’t like that !) who turns 21 tommorow- Happy Birthday Liam!:)
Ok got to go-  Big day Saturday , the surf is pumping, Spain are playing & it’s the Italianos last night

The sounds not great but I think you get the idea

Dia Dhiabh a chairde (hello friends) from Niamho and her crew – I hope at this stage you are addicted to our blog, and also sending the link to all the friends and neighbors! Ok, today, we began with Gaelic lessons, we started with hello (Dia duit) and hello back (Dia s’Muire dhuit.) Then we went to ‘How are you’? (Conas atá tu?) and ‘I’m good, thanks – ‘go maith, go raibh maith agat. ‘What’s your name? and the proper (gaelic reply) and bye. See the video below for some of the fruitful results of our trials-

Each of the students got their name translated into Gaelic – well, our two Liams and Conor needed no translation, but here’s the rest….

Elizabeth -Eilish
Mary Willis - Máire Liam
Grace-  Gráinne
Kathryn  -Cáit
Moira - Máire
Liam -  Liam
Conor - Conor
Liam - Liam
Carolyn-  Searlait
Bridget - Brid
Emma - Eimear
Sophia-  Sadhbh
Claire-  Cláirin
Kevin  -Caoimhin
Colin-  Colm
Madeline -Madailéin
Julia -   Sile
Kevin-  Caoimhin
Stephen-  Stiofán
Bridey-  Brid
Kate - Cáitlin

Also discussed in Gaelic class were place-names, surnames, and the meaning of the ‘Mc’ and the ‘O’

After our Gaelic Class, we studied the development of the Irish Monasteries, from the arrival of St. Patrick up tp the 10th century, the campus-style workings of the monasteries and the story of St. Patrick himself. Then we moved on to talk about Penal Times and the prevention of Catholics attending School or Mass – this was to tie in with our field trips this afternoon.

Having stuffed the brain cells of my lovely class again, we took some time out to do some more Irish songs – this time it was ‘the Ballad of Sean O’ Malley’ and ‘Dublin for the weekend’…oh, you’ll be hearing (and seeing) so much more about these! Kevin is now my 2nd musician, with Stevo and Matt preparing… Grace and Liam G won the auditions for the video, but more on this later in the week!

After lu

St. Paddy himself!

nch, our first stop was to St. Patrick’s Well, in the town of Ballyshannon. This is a beautiful, hidden spot down by the river Estuary. Legend has it that St. Patrick bathed his feet in the water here, and that the well is Blessed. The elderly folk of this area come every August 15th to bathe their feet in the water, and pray for good health. There is a statue of St. Patrick, and five standing stones where a decade of the rosary is said. There is also a tree, where people tie on small bits and pieces of their own things (ribbons, jewellry) and this is for a ‘cure’ for themselves or their friends – I invited the gang to leave tokens if they wished….

Bridey leaves a 'cure' on the tree at St. Patrick's well

 

As we were watching, a family of swans and cygnets came by, and presented me with the wonderful opportunity to tell the story of The Children Of Lir, and the symbolism of swans from celtic mythology through to our favorite poet, W.B. Yeats, and Matt also gave a brilliant rendition of the story of Niamh, Oisin and Tir Na nOg (the land of eternal youth. 

'I have looked upon those brilliant creatures'

 So then we went down to the remains of the Assaroe Abbey, and to the mass rock at the gatsby cave, where Mass was celebrated in secret. This is a really beautiful and little-known place, we had it all to ourselves, and it’s almost beyond description – here’s some pics….

In the Gatsby Cave Mass Rock

Striking a pose!

Cavemen!

 

We also collected some shamrock here! View of the Estuary at Assaroe

David Villaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a night , what a game – 2 missed penalties , a late goal & a room full of teenagers who were either Spanish or Spanish tonight- Grace from Ohio actually said “when we scored” refering to Spain – that my friends is an integrated camp.

Good evening all – Niamh here, and I have such a treat for all our parents celebrating July 4th! We had such a good day today – the kids all had a little lie-in and later breakfast, then we had a room clean and some laundry, and then our USA bunch went off to prepare a special presentation for July 4th. Here it is- they entertained all of the other students, and I think you’ll agree it is a magnificent performance. Narrated brilliantly by Bridey, please enjoy this as much as we did. I have to say that as their teacher and captain oh captain, I just love this bunch of kids!

And then, as a treat for all, we went to watch the new Twilight movie, ‘Eclipse’ – yes, I sat through this with a crew of teens, I guess I’m not the target market, but they had lots of popcorn, chocolate and fun. We’re just back from the cinema, and it’s bedtime here. And we have a busy day tomorrow. It’s been a great July 4, hope you’re having as much fun wherever you are. Bye ’til tomorrow, Niamh

Evening all, from a beautiful sunny evening in Donegal. We’ve just come back from making our Irish traditional music video, with lots of shots and sequences in the cameras. We will tell you more about this as the week goes by, but suffice to say it is being directed by, and featuring all our gang. We did some work in Kinlough, Co. Leitrim, and then on the Main Beach at Bundoran, and here are just a few pics of the evening below -  earlier today, our history classes covered the rise and fall of the Normans in Ireland (but thanks for the castles, guys!) and then the Tudors, penal laws & plantations, and our own re-enactment of the Potato famine 1845-50 and subsequent emigration to the USA. 

In the afternoon, we had the pleasure of a visit and performance of Áine O’ Doherty, one of Ireland’s best singer-songwriters, and a Donegal Native. Áine arrived with her guitar and did a showcase for the group, talking about & performing her songs, and then we had a big singsong together! 

Singer-songwriter Aine O' Doherty

Possibly a contender for most irish photo EVER!

Fair maidens dancing

It turned into a gorgeous evening, with a glorious sunset on the beach. Some of us got the bus back to the accommodation, and a few of us (me included) decided to walk… and look who we found! Yes, it seems Elvis is alive and well and living in Bundoran!

Everyone say 'Uh huh huh!'

As I finish up for the evening, the kids are out chatting to the European kids, who were doing high-rope climbing & skateboarding. The sun is setting over Donegal Bay, everyone is happy and it’s just been one of those wonderful days!

Everyone says hi, and everyone is getting along well, we can’t believe we have one week gone already, so much still to do! So on that note, I will take myself off home to my bed as it’s another busy day tomorrow, and I’ll talk to y’all at the end of it. Good night, keep safe, Niamh & the gang x                                        

Conor and Liam - Irish Rappers.

Fun on the beach

beach rappers!

Hey everyone – Collie here with a quick update of all the craic in English & Surf camp -While we are broken hearted that our Italian school have gone home , we had 2 new arrivals today, Sharon who’s from Germany and Sean who hails from Ireland. Both have been here before so settled right in. The surf has been really big but a bit wild so we have been using different beaches for the gang.
We were out on our high ropes course again this evening, this time doing the balance beams and Tightrope. We had loads of fun , Remi, Jean & Jonathan were elected the  helmet police – their job is to make sure everyone wears a helmet at all times- Eloi made everyone laugh pretending to be a  piñata.
Albert, the Tonis, Miguel Angel & Manuel were on kitchen cleaning duty tonight – but in ten years I have never seen people eat so much while cleaning!!
There are loads of new photos on our flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/donegaladventurecentre/ and we will have loads of new ones courtesy of Aleix tomorrow

GLTYC
Collie

Hello once more from Donegal-
We had another busy day here, Those studying English went to their class with Nicky or Tommy as usual, Our Americanoes (& our Canadian) went to Donegal Castle & surf camp…well they went surfing
The surf was pretty big & blustery today , so this afternoon we decided to teach all the gang how to play gaelic football – proper football as Dickie called it. We got a loan of Bundorans stadium for the day and after spending a little time on skills, we deiced to have  a game. Gaelic football usually has 15 on each side, Colin thought it was about 17 vs 18 , Kevin had the more accurate figure of 25 vs 25 & that doesn’t include the staff!

Special mention goes to Kirril, Moira, Guilermo, Jonathan, Sophie, Clement, Matt & Luis for being particularly good, Remi for constantly trying to take on Dickie..he did not succeed, Jaume for the save of the day – he’s not a big guy but it was brilliant & Alberto for getting absolutely creamed out of it by some of  the American girls but picking himself and making us all laugh like he does everyday – he’s priceless, we may not let him go home.
The stand-out players though were Connor who hails from the US & Carla from Barcelona who were brilliant.
The weather took a turn for the worse tonight & everyone is pretty tired so we put on a movie on the big screen (Goonies, an excellent choice)  & some of the gang watched Holland beat Uruguay in the world cup semi-final. Just

Marta , Ines, Maria ,Sofia, Ramon,Maria, Lluisa, Elisabet, Maria , Elena

before supper, when we retreat to boys centre & girls centre,  Miguel Angel knocked everyone’s socks off with his piano skills- the boy has game.

Speaking of game, everyone of Spanish descent is starting to get decidedly nervous before the big game (Spain vs Germany)tomorrow night. Sharon is the only German but is very relaxed about it.
I’ll leave you with a video of some “real” football though (& no you won’t see a quarterback anywhere)
Slán
Collie

Surfing in the beautiful Atlantic Ocean!

Good evening all – it’s a blustery but sunny evening here, and time to update you on the last 24 hours of our gang – my apologies for those who missed me yesterday, Collie did the honours- I was busy preparing our upcoming trip to County Clare. Anyway, yesterday, we took a trip to Donegal Town, which is dominated by The O’ Donnell Castle, and we went to take a look. Apart from the fact that it is a beautiful old 15th Century castle, there is also really interesting information about The Annals of the Four Masters, and St. Colm Cille’s ‘Cathach’ for which he was sued by St. Finian for plagiarism – I think, the first incidence of infringement of copyright in European History. The judgement was ‘To every cow, his calf’ and poor St. Colmcille spent his life trying to apologise.

Donegal Castle, Stronghold of the O' Donnells.

So we browsed around there for a while, then we visited McGee’s (home of the famous Irish Donegal Tweed) and other interesting crafty places, and made it back in time for lunch. 

Inside Donegal Castle

We put the girls behind bars!

Our very own Surf Dude, Liamo

 

Could easily be a super hero!

No chance of this lot getting lost in the Ocean!

In the afternoon, as Collie told you, there was Gaelic Football, and in the evening some very tired bodies flopped in front of a movie. This morning, we considered Irish Nationalism, the Irish Cultural Movement, Sinn Fein, Home Rule, The 1916 Rising and Civil War! We also did a few new songs, ‘The Fields of Athenry’ and ‘The City of Chicago’, you’ll be hearing these at every St. paddy’s day for the next twenty years Then this afternoon, due to popular demand, everyone went surf ing again

Tonight, there is a world cup match (Germany v Spain) which means there is huge excitement, there’s Art going on somewhere, and a bit of skateboarding  – there’s a lovely atmosphere here this year with all of the students really getting along, Collie and I are really enjoying our work this year, and we are reminded that all the hard work we put into getting students here in the first place is worth it! Parents- I want you to tell your friends and neighbours about us, anyone with a teen should send them to us!  Ok, tomorrow’s another busy day – they are all safe, well, and happy, and we hope the same for all of you. Oiche Mhaith (Good Night) from us all

Adventure Ireland- Best Summer Camp EVER!

It’s 11:45 & there is nary a sound in either centre. We had another great day but everyone is pretty pooped so we all decided to have an early night. The surf is still pumping so Surf camp decamped to the beach for the whole day -All our Americanos (& Canadian of course) liked Donegal town so much yesterday they asked to go again, Stevo had another fiddle lesson & Nicky and Tommy took the reins of English class once more.
In the afternoon, those who wanted went surfing, the girls were very happy to be re-united with their laundry, a lot of the culture camp took care of bank, mail etc in anticipation of their trip south on Sunday & Mary Willis gave us all cakes for finding her shoes.
The real treat of the day was saved for the evening though. Karen Gillespie champion Irish dancer (and Dickies little sis) came up to show us some traditional Irish dancing & then to get us all up on the floor for a few jigs & reels. Unusually of course a lot of our Americans are familiar with Irish dancing (indeed Liz , Claire and Julia got up and did a demonstration) but many of our Europeans had never seen it before and were blown away by Karens poise and skill. If not by Dickies…theres no doubting where the musical talent lies in that family.
We have a couple of departures tomorrow – Sean who will be back on the  and Sharon (Broomhilda) from Heidleberg and Marta from Barca. Both girls will be sorely missed & were quite overwhelmed tonight as the whole of the girls building (& me and Dickie) serenaded them with Lorraine Ellisons “Stay with me baby” (Dickie put on Duffy’s version first but that’s not a patch on the original. Girls you will be sorely missed , thanks for being such a great addition to the camp and sure you have to go to come back ….
Slan
GLTYC
Collie

Greetings once more & welcome to your daily update. What will you do for entertainment after the 19th ?
We had a cracking day today even if started a little sadly as we bid farewell to Marta, Sharon & Sean – although Sean will be back on the 19th.
Class & Surf camp as usual  for all our Euros (except our Stevo of course) -He piled onto the bus with all our North Americanos and headed North to Derry. Derry is the second biggest city in Northern Ireland and is one of the oldest cities in Northern Ireland. It’s a fascinating city to visit. It has a young  vibrant culture, yet has a long and troubled history. I love bringing the gang here, I feel it’s a real sign of progress of how far Northern Ireland has come since the Troubles. When Niamh started the program, bring a group on tour to Derry would have been unthinkable, now it’s one of the highlights of the trip. 

We took a tour along the ancient walls that still ring the old part of the city and then travelled down to the bogside, the traditionally republican area to “Free Derry Corner” to see the murals. This area has been much in the news lately with the enquiry into Bloody Sunday which was a catalyst for some of the worse years of the troubles.  
We had a very interesting discussion about the history of the troubles – too much to write here but I have put up some links about some of the places we visited for anyone who wants to read more.
After such an interesting but serious topic it was time for some to let our hair down with some serious retail therapy . Bridie went mad in the body shop,  Kate & myself bought some new books in Easons, Moira bought a book on the murals and Liam and Colin went for a haircut !
After dinner tonight we re-united all the camps and had a very competitive soccer tournament (it wasn’t just the boys who were competitive either!). A closely fought final saw the team of Moira, Jaume,Maria,Carlos, Jose and Javi just scrape through victorious.

Afterwards the Mary willis & the US girls introduced Dickie and the all the younger gang from Mallorca to the game of Ninja. They are now obsessed, we had 25 playing at one stage & the want to go for the record of 65 tomorrow. And for those who don’t know what a game of Ninja is , welcome to my world.  More pics posted online, just click here.
Till tomorrow
GLTYC
Collie

p.s. following on from the musical post last night and swapping traditional music for punk- I leave you with the greatest song ever to come out of Derry

Our Adventure Ireland melting pot!

Evening all – hope you are well, I’m starting with this photo, because today has been such a good day, with all our groups together in Sligo. After ten days or so now, everyone is mixing and making friends with each other, and it’s not just about Ireland, but a wonderful global experience that is seeing all of the teens learn about different cultures and ways. But today’s tour was VERY Irish, including a visit to the magnificent Glencar Waterfall (immortalised in Yeats’ ‘Stolen Child’), the Horseshoe Glen, and Mullaghmore.  

Glencar Waterfall

Later this evening, we prepared for the Annual Adventure Ireland Talent Show. This is a fantastic night, where all the students prepare some little act of performance – some perform solo, and some like the safety of numbers, but it is always entertaining and hilarious.

Opening up the talent show...merci beaucoup!

It began with a side-splitting performance of ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ by our French boys…and included dancing, singing, fiddle-playing, Remy doing a fantastic ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams,  Jonathon doing ‘so lonely’, Lucy, Katie and Bridey doing ‘The Bridey Rap’, Colin & Kirrell & Liams & Connor & Kevin doing a very interesting dance…. by the way, as I said on the night, Colin & Bridey were probably the two shy, quiet people a week ago, and you should see them tonight!!!

Colin & his crew

I’ve just posted loads of photos on the Flickr photostream- if you haven’t already, please check it out for loads of photos of our wonderful and talented kids.

Delta Group do 'Macarena'

 Tomorrow, I (Niamho) am taking all our North American group on a trip to Galway City, then on south through The Burren to Lahinch, Co. Clare. On Monday, we are going to the Cliffs of Moher & Doolin, and on Tuesday we will return to Donegal via Delphi Valley, the ‘Quiet Man’ location & The famous famine-valley walk near Leenane. We’re all looking forward to it, although the weather has been very drizzly and the forecast is for more of the same. But we know loads of songs now for singing on the bus, and as I already told you, this group of kids is AWESOME, they are great to be working with, so we will have a good time. I am not sure that we will have wifi there, so it may be a day or two before you hear from us – but   I’ll do a nice long blog when we get back! So from all of us here on a great night, Good night, keep safe and enjoy the photos! Niamh & gang.

Madeleine dancing .... (amazing!)

Julia, beautiful singing!

Mary Willis, showing us all how it's done.

Phew- we are just settling down after the world cup final – We watch all the games on the big screen in the orange room, as Dickie said that made at least one orange room happy tonight. (For those who don’t know , the Dutch play in orange but were defeated by Spain today ). It wasn’t a great match but it was very exciting and looked like in was heading for penalties until Iniesta scored with just 4 minutes to go. Pandemonium ensued.
We are back to our normal regime of Surf & classes tomorrow – our American compadres are out on tour in Clare at the moment and will update when they get back.     It’s the last week for many of our campers and we are determined to make it even better the the last two. Well done Spain.

The Cliffs of Moher, County Clare.

Howdy folks, t’is Niamho, your faithful blogger from the USA/Canada group. I found a place that has wifi and felt it only right to make you jealous of the wonderful time we’re having on our little road trip. We left Donegal at 11 yesterday morning, with a happy bunch on the bus – Liz, Lucy, Katie, Moira, Sophia, Caroline , Claireand Emma are the resident bus-singers, with Matt, Liam & Liam & Conor the resident comedians! For sensible conversation, see Colin, Kevin, Kate, Grace, Julia or Julia, for glee and good humour, Stevo, Mary Willis & Bridey, but as they will tell you, the craic was great as we made our way down through counties Leitrim, Sligo & Mayo and into Galway City. We had a picnic in Eyre Square, blessed by warm sunshine and the usual jolly atmosphere of Galway. After lunch, we had a browse down Shop Street and a wander around the hippy markets, there was quite a bit of shopping done, -Galway jerseys a big favourite, but Bridey was on the search for a very special Aran sweater, and did not find what she was looking for….  we then left Galway, and travelled on south through Ballyvaughan, the famous match-making town of Lisdoonvarna, into Liscannor and arriving at our Lahinch destination, West Coast Lodge. We travelled down through The Burren, Ireland’s amazing geographical enigma of limestone and strange flora and fauna, but unfortunately, the ubiquitious drizzle did not make for good views, so we decided to return today. When we arrived, everyone was hungry, and eager to watch the Spain-Holland world cup, (having made many friends from Spain, the support was pretty one-sided, I was the lone dutch supporter, and as it worked out, the only one to be disappointed.) Appeals were for chinese food, and so we put in a gigantic order and all gobbled up plates of rice, noodles, fries, sweet & sour chicken, shredded beef, ribs, – it was a popular choice and left everyone full and happy.

This morning, we began with a walk along the beach at Lahinch – the tide was out, and this popular sea-side town was busy with families and ramblers. We strolled along the shoreline, up by the edge of the golf course and back in time to prepare lunch and then head off for The Cliffs of Moher. You probably have all heard of the cliffs- it is a very popular tourist site, and definitely quite impressive, although you’ll know by now that I prefer to take our visitors to less commercial places of more historical interest…but demand was great, so I capitulated. It was a beautiful day, and although the cliffs were busy, I think everyone did enjoy the views. We did check the stores again for Bridey’s elusive sweater, but we still didn’t find exactly what ticked the boxes, and it was too expensive there anyway, I banned all shopping!

Beautiful Sunny Galway on a Sunday Afternoon.

We discussed a trip to the Aran Islands, but I offered an alternative suggestion, that we go down into the tiny village of Doolin. If you walk down to the pier, and up a bit behind it, you reach a stunning and not-a-tourist-trap landscape where the rocky Burren sweeps down to the Atlantic, there’s amazing views of both the Cliffs of Moher and The Aran Islands, and it gave space and timw for those hyper-bunnies (Matt, Liams, Stevo) to use up their energy exploring the cliffs and caves. So this was agreed, and we really did have a good time…we had it all to ourselves, apart from a few fisherman and a little old man Katie wanted to adopt as her grandad!

On our way back through Doolin, we saw a sweater shop, and decided to let Bridey check it out, just in case the elusive sweater lurcked within…and guess what! She found exactly what she wanted- right style, right colour, right size, and on sale! We were all delighted, and she is now at peace with the world! We got caught in a crazy shower of soft rain as we went to buy some ice cream cones, and I’d say we all looked ridiculous eating them as the rain dripped off our noses, but it was very funny!

We returned to Lahinch for a big Irish dinner of Roast Beef, Potatoes & Turnip at 7.30, and everyone is gone for a sunset stroll along the seafront, in fact they are due home right this minute, and I’m off to check that Brian (our glorious leader) has everyone back. I’ll say this again – every single teenager here is a credit to you folk back home, they are so enthusiastic, interested & pleasant, making my job a pleasure. Tomorrow we are travelling right into the West, via Clifden, Leenane, and Louisburg, but I’ll tell you all about that in the evening. Until then, keep safe- please do post a comment if you’re reading this, these diaries make wonderful records, and also are a real support to parents who will be online next year trying to decide if they should send their kids. So it’s great to see feedback. Rightio, Chat to you all tomorrow, xxx Niamho & les enfants.

The Burren sweeps down to the Atlantic, with Cliffs of Moher in background, and our students in foreground!

So what have we been up to while the Americanoes have been on tour.?
As you might realise by now , it never stops here at the Adventure Centre.  We have 3 new surf campers , Sylvia who came all the way from Madrid, & Constantin & Victor Pahl from hamburg. Constantin is a veteran , its his fourth time  here and this year he brought his brother Victor. This is a long tradition as their older brothers Aymeric & Sebstian also have been here. It’s not summer till one of the Pahl boys arrives.

Day time as usual consisted of Classes and surfing – On Monday night we did my favourite of all the climbing activities , the All Aboard. This involves for people scaling a pole and balancing on top of a tiny platform 15 metres high. Brilliant scary fun. Tonight every one was fairly tired so we got popcorn and candy for everyone and had a big movie night in. Then everyone was delighted to be reunited with the americans once more. It’s a great sign of what a lovely bunch of students we have this year that all the nationalities are mixing so well.  We have a really busy schedule planned for all the camps in the next few days including our “Superstars” night which me and Dickie have spent the night planning.
But more of that tommorow. Speaking of tomorrow, we also have this

Kylemore Abbey, Connemara, Co. Galway.

Hello all! Niamh here, safely returned from our road-trip through the South & West of Ireland. The craic was mighty! When I left you last, we had returned from Cliffs of Moher & The Burren, and were preparing for a trip into the heart of Ireland- Connemara. I’d be hard pushed to name my favourite place in Ireland- I adore Donegal for culture, history, scenery- but Connemara, between counties Galway and Mayo is something very special- Gaelic speaking,

Niamho in Connemara National Park, telling stories!

weather-beaten, Atlantic sprayed beauty, that inspired poets, playwrights, artists with its staggering unkempt glory. There are no tour buses and hastily built hotels, no-one selling souvenirs or charging admission fees- Connemara is as real as it gets, and we were off to explore it for the day.

We left Lahinch for Ennis, stopping for ’5 minutes’ so some of the gang could go to the bank, but Mary Willis forgot the 5 minutes bit and was off exploring all sorts of bric-a-brac…meanwhile Liam found a Clare Jersey he wanted, and Colin failed to find the Cork jersey he wants. We had some outrageously expensive coffees ( I get so annoyed by the priceyness of some tourist spots and do our best to avoid them- Costa Coffee in Ennis, TOO DEAR!) and we finally got going towards Connemara via Gort and Galway. The weather was predictably misty and ‘soft’ as we say here, but as we turned towards the Clifden Road, the Twelve Ben Mountains loomed up and the views became breath-taking. By lunchtime, we reached Oughterard, and stopped for lunch – a very pleasant sandwich stop at Breathnach’s pub, and thanks to the lovely Rose who looked after us. Then we went onwards towardsRenvyle, and arrived first at the magnificent Kylemore Abbey – the oldest Benedictine Abbey in Ireland, and still open as a school. This is the photo above, and it is as beautiful as it looks. About 4km up the road, we reached the Connemara National Park, so we stopped for time to walk up to the viewpoints all around Connaught- some took the bog road and some took the hill path, but everyone agreed it was immensly beautiful and inspirational.

Claire & Moira at Connemara National Park.

From there, we travelled further west into the village of Leenane. This is on the edge of Killary Harbour, and was also the location for the filming of John B. Keane’s play ‘The Field’ – which I showed the students this morning.  Killary Harbour is the stunning drowned valley dividing Galway/Mayo, and the village at Leenane is immortalised in ‘The Field’ – more on this later. We then went up to the local beauty spot at Ashleigh Falls (Scene of the musrder of the American in the same Movie) and then we went onwards to Delphi Lodge.

On Friday 30 March 1849 two officials of the  Poor Law Union arrived in at Delphi Lodge – a hunting lodge - during the height of the Irish Potato Famine. They ordered that those in need of help should present themselves.  For much of the night and day that followed therefore seemingly hundreds of destitute and starving people had to undertake what for them, given their existing state of debilitation, was an extremely fatiguing journey, in very bad weather. A letter-writer to “The Mayo Constitution” reported shortly afterwards that the bodies of seven people, including women and children, were subsequently discovered on the roadside between Delphi and Louisburgh overlooking the shores of Doolough lake and that nine more never reached their homes. Local folklore maintains the total numbers that perished because of the ordeals they had to endure was far higher.

Each year, those who perished in the Famine are commemorated by a March through Doolough Valley from Delphi Lodge to the memorial cross. So having told that story, we travelled through the same valley, in wind and rain too, I might say, and stopped up at the famine memorial, to remember all those who died or had to emigrate during those harsh times

At the Famine Memorial in Doolough, Delphi.

After this, we hit the road for Westport, stopping for that most traditional of Irish meals- Pizza!!! Load of it! Conor was able to fit most pizza in mouth at one time,  (what a skill and then we continued on to Bundoran, and finally made it home about ten-thirty pm.

The beach at Lahinch, Co. Clare

So this morning, it was a class on the themes of Irish Literature, in particular, themes of displacement, land-ownership, labour, gender roles and communication. The afore-mentioned movie ‘The Field’ is a great text to use as a basis for these themes, and I knew everyone would enjoy watching it, as we had explored the movie location yesterday. We watched the movie, and then spoke about De Valera’s 1937  constitution and the Ireland that emerged thereafter – the movie is very very good at dramatizing the devotion to the land, the poverty of the times, the fear of ‘outsiders’, the inevitability of modernisation and the awful toll that history took upon the Irish. After some discussion of other texts, like ‘Philadelphia, Here I come’ (by Brian Friel) and ‘Angela’s Ashes’ (Frank Mc Court)  one of the students asked me if there was such a thing as a happy ending in Irish History! It was a great question, and I’ll give you the same answer I gave them. These students with us- that’s the happy ending: grandchildren and great grandchildren of emigrants who left with nothing, returning ‘home’ as happy, well-balanced, well educated, motivated, interested young people.  And this is why it’s important and fantastic that everyone’s here, thanks for sending them! More tomorrow, love Niamh & crew xx

Takin' it Easy in Ireland!

So, now everyone understands that the Irish use the term ‘craic’ (pronounced crack) as an expression for fun, right? So we say “that was great craic”, (that was awesome fun) or “where’s the craic” (where is the fun happening) or “She’s great craic” (She is lots of fun) or if it’s really fun, you might say “the craic was 90!”. Your kids have learnt this well, so expect to hear it a lot. It was an expression that got me into a lot of trouble when I started going to the U.S. first, as I often walked into a high school and said, “So, where’s the craic”. And I wondered why they didn’t like me…:-)

Having the craic with the girls!

Anyway, today the students were preparing for the presentations they are to do on Sunday (the last day, can’t believe it!) Some went off to the library, some used computers, but the task is to do a 3-5 minuute presentation on a subject (Ireland-connected of course) of their choice. They also did some bank & pharmacy visiting – Bridey has everyone on a regimen of vitamins (pronounced vitt -a-minns) and everyone’s coming to the end of the pocket money, which I’m glad about, because I’ve banned any further shopping! We did a bit more work on the Sean O’ Malley video – rising stars Kate, Stevo, Liam G, Kevin and Grace came away with me into the m0untains to find cows, and the others are all presently engaged in an activity called ‘Superstars’ – I’ll let you know the results tomorrow.

Yesterday evening’s combination of a very high tide, a warm evening and a lovely calm ocean meant that we could greenlight the cliff jump- the kids have been dying to do this! So we took them off to local cliffs called Rougey, and encouraged them to fling themselves into the ocean- it works wonders for self-confidence and self esteem!

Cliff jumping off Rougey

Tomorrow we have an all-day hike into the glens of Leitrim, I’m leaving this to the wonderful mountaineering staff here, and I’m going to double-check all arrangements for departures and get certificates etc organised. It’s also Stevo’s last night here- as the French man thrown in with the Americans & Canadian, he has had a non-stop smile on his face since he got here, and has been a wonderful addition to the group. So we’ll be seeing him off in the morning. It’s sad when it comes to the time when students begin leaving, especially this group whom I’ve specially enjoyed – our giggly girls Sophie & Emma have been n0n-stop craic, Claire and Julia are just gorgeous and so interested in everything, Liam G is a gentleman, and our other Liam (Drennan) is a charmer, I love him and want to keep him! Liz (libby) adorable, and herself and Moira know all the best songs on the bus, Katie and Carolyn are the cheerleaders, bursting into merriment at every occasion, Conor has been happily following Julia Roth around (don’t worry Moms, I keep a close eye!) Colin is a master of entertainment, Mary Willis is loved by every single person here, she has to be the most good-natured and sunny person in the world, Kevin & Madeline are just smart and lovely and cool, Bridey is the undisputed leader of them all, just the best of craic, Kate, the only Canadian representative is my Personal Assistant and so helpful always, and Lucy…ah I’d keep Lucy in a heartbeat too, just so good-humoured all the time, and Matt is smart, funny and a constant source of facts and information… I genuinely have enjoyed every single person here, I know you have your favourite but trust me, if you wanted to choose a peer-group for your own child, the others would be it – funny, generous, inclusive, kind, trustworthy and loyal – I want you to be sure and give these teenagers all the credit they deserve (teens get such bad press sometimes!) Our two leaders are Brian and Karen, who have been so helpful in getting the students here and helping me every day also deserve great credit, I do my best to hog all the limelight as captain, but in fairness there is a team of people here in the background that are doing so much. So thanks everyone!

Thanks also for commenting on the blog- it is of great help to parents of the future. We take lots of students all year round- we have a 10-week semester for students of 18+ who may be taking a gap year or a break from school, so if you know of older teens planning some travel, we would be so glad if you could recommend us. The 12 week program is a combo of sports, training, skills, internship (in outdoor sports) and cultural stuff, we have older kids for a bit longer! So if you know of 18-30 year olds who are looking for a semester somewhere, tell them about http://www.adventure-ireland.com (THANKS)

On that note, here’s a few more photos and I’ll be back tomorrow with more. Oiche sámh (Have a peaceful night) Niamh

Can I keep him, Drennan family?

Moira & Julia....angels! Having the craic at the beach!

          

Having the craic at the beach!

Sportsmanship, fair play and above all a desire to spread harmony through sport. These were just some of the ideals missing form our Superstars tournament

Seriously though, we had a brilliant time (Mary Willis said the Irish say brilliant like US people say awesome) – this was our first Superstars tournament, we will be doing this again! The game was inspired by the old superstars tv show where people from different sports would be brought together to compete various sporting tasks to see who was the best overall sportsman. Ours however had a couple of twists.
We divided up into 5 teams of various nationalities Bundoran killers (!) X-men (marvel please don’t sue) Ninja Superstars , Team Awesome and the aptly named Super Superstars. They were then given a list of the tasks and had to decided who was most suited to each game. Each student had to at least one task.
After much gnashing of teeth it was time to start.  We kicked of with the running events, Constantin strolled to victory in the long distance run (special mention to Sophie for being the only girl to take on the boys -she didn’t come last either) Iago took the sprint – so it was maximum points for the X-men. Victor and Matt made it a good day for German – USA co-operation by beating all my chicas in a 3-legged race but Sylvia struck back for Spanish ladies everywhere by staggering to victory in the broom racing – where they have to spin around ten times then race.
Onto the penalty kicks where it was a victory for our Trish who works in the office who kept out every penalty kick much to the Spanish boys (and Katies) chagrin. Guilermo won the basketball free throw easily – the boy has style & we finished off the outdoor events with the ramp slide surprisingly won by little Jaume just pipping Moira and resulting it wet bums all-round.
The indoor section had the gang having to engage in some serious brain work – Julia O Hara kicked butt in the math problem but Brian manged to get the best score in the riddle round. 
Next was the cracker eating competition. 20 Dry jacobs crackers (invented by the Irish incidentally) 5 students, no water, 1 Minute. Louis managed just 1, We thought Didac had won until he showed us the cracker stowed away in his pocket but the actual winner was Liz Barry with a mighty 4 . I promised her that i would write that Liz now officially has the biggest mouth in Europe. Ninja, our the game that has swept this camp was next and it was student becomes master time as little Alberto beat all the American girls who taugh him it in the first place!
 We finished with a game of musical chairs. Eloi, Mary Willis, Katie, Louis D & Bridie stepped forward. Only then did we reveal it was blindfolded musical chairs. Chaos ensued. Especially as we kept on moving the chairs something Mary Willis only found out this morning.  Imagine 60 children screaming directions in different languages at 5 very giggly and confused people and you have some idea of what it was like. In the very long final, Mary Willis was just pipped to the post by Louis in what was genuinely one of the funniest things I have every seen.

It was time to tot up the results – and with a grand total of 44 million points the winners were the Ninja superstars – Tony, Jean, Victor, Matt, Connor, Remi, Marta, Liam, Silvia, Alberto, Louis.
Superstars take your bow.

Claire

Emma

Conor

Grace

Liamo 1.

Brian (Irish Way Leader)

Julia O’.

Liz

 

Mary Willis

Stevo

 

Lucy

Madeline

Sophie

Julia R.

Kate

 

Moira

Liamo 2.

Colin

Kevin

 

Bridey

Niamho (Director of Adventure Ireland)

Karen (Irish Way Leader)

Caroline

Katie

                

Matt

 

And because we are running short of space to  Meet the Europeans click here

Ok my friends, here it is – the tune is ‘The Ballad of Sean O’ Malley’, written by Aine  O’ Doherty and Niamh Hamill, aka Surfchixxx, and we expect you parents, grandparents and friends to get this tune to all your local Irish music radio stations and make us FAMOUS!

All the Irish Way/Adventure Ireland students helped us make this video. Chief Directors were Bridey (who else would it be) and Claire and Kate, and we must apologise to Liam G, who was in it, but then cut his hair and continuity was banjaxed! Sorry Liamo . We had the best of craic making this, as you’ll see, and we hope you enjoy watching it. Myself and Aine are available for Grammy Awards, Appearances on Ellen, all major festivals etc etc etc enjoy!

Ok we have figured out how to do a slideshow. Here is a gallery of our epic hillwalk on Friday – enjoy ! Click here to see them !

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Aleix

Xavi

Eloi

Jaume

Victor from Germany

Oriel

Toni from Barca

Didac

Marc

Consantin

Remi

Clement

Luis

Louis

Louis the II

Jean

Luis with Jean’s glasses

Victor

Simon

Jonathan

Clara Elena y Sylvia

Carlos

Santiago

Ivan

Toni

Miguel Angel

Bertie

Toni 2

Manuel

Lluisa

Sofia

Elisabet

Maria

Maria 2

Marta

Sofia

Hello from Ireland, everyone is off to bed but I can still hear distant giggles – I don’t blame them tonight was hysterical.

But I should start with todays events- We said goodbye to Stevo and Louis but hello to two more French friends- Alice and Aude (known as oooooooood here) were here last year and are already a hit with the gang- All the American girls are so disappointed they didn’t get to spend more time with them . We started off this morning sorting out all the shirts from our girly tie-dye night the boys all wanted to watch a movie so me (Collie ) and all the girls spent Friday night up to our elbows in dye. Some spectacular results, some less so but all agreed it was great craic. Special mention to all the American girls who gave extra shirts and handkerchiefs to my little Chicas so they could join in - it was really nice and they were so excited. Surf camp went off for an all day surf, English camp had their last lesson and our US gang went to Drumcliffe , W.B. Yeats burial place and then off to the Marlboro house restaurant for an Irish cookery demonstration. Niamh will fill you in on all the details but they are all promising to cook up a storm for you guys when they get home !
So to tonight’s fun.  We have a long standing tradition of having a surfchick competition – where the girls dress the boys up as beauty queens and we have a pageant. It’s all good harmless fun, nobody has to do it that doesn’t want to and we are there to make sure everything is appropriate. I have done many of these but tonight’s was particularly funny. Liam D was Marry Poppins with an accent worse than Dick van Dyke’s- Liam D was Joan Rivers and Connor was Mary Willis ! We then had Ramona (Ramon ) & Candy better known as Guillermo. Juan Miguel was the deadly Belladonna, then we had the 3 Toni’s in a row as Regina, Deborah and Shakira. 3 of our younger Miguel Angel, Jaume and Eloi came next- Eloi looked the spit of young Winona Ryder. Antoinella and Vanessa were next known to you and me as Manuel and Luis. Santi was Shyla and Colin was Kandi (question what animal would you like to be – A cougar!)
Matt aka Destiny, Aleix was a girl who wanted to be a boy  and Jonathan as a very funny Laetia completed the line up of runners up.
3 rd place was shared by Remi and Alberto as Albertina and Louise. Second place was Victor as Chantelle who was so good that his own brother Constantin who was one of the judges didn’t recognise him at first. But the winner was Clement – I have to say Clement is absolute gentlemen at all times and in drag was very much lady.
But well done to all the boys who were such good sports and our judges Constantin for Germany, Mary Willis for the US, Jean for France, Clara for Spain (catalunya) and Kate for Canada.
We are all a little sad tonight though as Remi leaves us in the early hours, then Didac (he of the rivers of Spain fame) Victor, Marc, Xavi,Luis, Aleix (of the talk about my surfboard fame) Oriel (of the talk in class fame Toni & our Clara Bell all leave in the morning for Catalunya. Adieu and hope to see you again soon.
Slán
Collie

Lucy graduates from the Adventure Ireland/Irish Way Programme

Oh sadness! We are almost at the end of the programme, and while you will be delighted to have your beloveds back home, I am losing all my children so some sympathy here please! The last few days have been fairly hectic… we had a lot to do before finishing up. Yesterday morning, we visited Drumcliff, site of one of the churches of St. ColmCille, and home to this particularly fine example of an 11/12 century celtic cross. It has the story of Adam & Eve, and Cain & Abel (among other bible stories) carved on it, and across the road there is the Round Tower.

The 11th century cross at Drumcliff

However, it is now more famously known as the final resting place of the now very familiar W.B. Yeats, -his request was for a simple grave underneath the shadow of Ben Bulben Mountain, and here he lies, in the most scenic and charming location just fifteen minutes from Bundoran.

The final resting place of W.B. Yeats

We went on to Sligo, as despite my best efforts, there were still football jerseys and other gifts to buy, and then we were to be at Marlboro House restaurant for an Irish cookery demonstration by head chef and raconteur Michael ‘Mo’ McWeeney.

Mo demonstrated how to prepare the perfect Irish Stew, dazzling us with his dexerity and making what was always a ‘working person’s meal absolutely delicious. Accompanying the stew was the old Irish potato bread or ‘Boxty’ as it’s called here- a kind of pancake made from (guess what!!!) potatoes and flour. Mo explained not just the cooking method, but the history behind these two dishes – how traditionally, Irish stew was made from cheap cuts of lamb (as people could not have afforded better cuts) and thickened by, yes, the ever-present potato. After demonstrating the process, Mo had of course prepared some earlier, and we all had a hearty lunch served to us in the restaurant. You can expect to sample this sometime soon!

After lunch, we had promised some time at the funfair,and then yesterday evening it was the ‘surfchick’ competition, as described by Collie, below. Our U.S. guys made beautiful girls, that’s all I’ll say!

Today is our last full day with the Irish Way group, so we had presentations by each student. I was so impressed by the range of subjects, and the articulate and confident performances of each student. Claire began with a beautiful presentation on George Bernard Shaw, inspired by her grandfather’s work with a Celtic theatre in the U.S. Lucy followed with an excellently researched piece on the history of our town, Bundoran. Julia O’ Hara was next up, with a superb talk about th Abbey Theatre in Dublin, and Colin then not only did a presentation on ‘Tea and the Irish’, but he made us all a cup of tea, which was welcome! Matt, who is just super-smart, did a fascinating presentation on Celtic pagans and Astronomy, followed by Liamo Drennan, who delivered a very well researched talk on the history of the IRA. Conor chose ‘Leprechauns’ as his topic (a bit of a bugbear with me) but he correctly and wisely focused on their pre-Disney folklore, and it was great. Liam G studied how modern Ireland still drew on the themes of Celtic Ireland, – showing excellent attention to all our classes, and Moira gave us the history of Irish pop group B-witched, complete with a song at the end! Sophia did a presentation on mythology, entertaining us greatly as she always does, and Katie expanded on the history of the famine victims who were lost in the Delphi Valley, (and with the most gorgeous South Carolina accent!). Mary Willis took up the history of the Irish ”filidh’ or poet, with a lovely overview of the role of poetry and language in society, and Liz did a lovely talk on Irish Music- inspired, she says, by her Dad’s Sunday Morning tuning-in to the local Irish radio station. Bridey had a highly entertaining and interesting history of the Irish Aran Sweater (of course!) and Maddy gave us a wonderful and comical talk about thatched roofing! Kevin spoke eloquently and informatively about the bid for Irish Independence 1913-1919, and Grace did a really brilliant talk about Irish Artist Jack Yeats, including a definition of expressionism. Julia Roth spoke about the history of the Derry Murals, – a really articulate and professional presentation – and Emma had studied the history and geography of The Burren, which we visited last week, delivered as always with a big smile. Kate did a great talk about the history of Queen Maeve (Maedbh) and made a great job of pronouncing all the Gaelic names, and Carolyn did a lovely piece on Irish music and dance. So between everyone, we had a wonderful afternoon of music, art, history & literature, and you would be very very proud had you seen it.

Then we had the ‘graduation’ – the presentation of certificates and a little talk from me, first of all thanking Brian and Karen, the two leaders from the Irish Way for all their help, and then (genuinely!) thanking the students themselves for being such adorable people. On the first day, (I may have put this in the blog already) I reminded them of Helen Keller’s statement that ‘the highest result of education is tolerance’ and I asked them to be open and tolerant of all of the other people they would meet here- to avoid cliques and be inclusive, patient and interested – and I must say that they were just ‘awesome’ – they were trustworthy, responsible, interested and enthusiastic about everything, and they make this fat lady sad to be throat-clearing

So, we’re going now for a final banquet and a wee tiny taste of Guinness, and then it’s packing, saying goodbyes and getting the bus at 5am in the morning. This may be the last time I’ll hold your attention, as I find (strangely) that the blog is not as well read when the kids go home! So I’ll finish by saying (In Gaelic) Go raibh mile maith agaibh – thank you all for putting your most prized possessions in our hands for the summer. Thanks for choosing Ireland – it matters to them, and it matters to us. Please do tell other parents & neighbours what we’re doing here, and thankyou for all your kind comments through the programme. I would be more than happy to arrange a parents/alumni trip any time, and we also do trips for schools, colleges, bands, adults, golf etc etc etc so now you know who to contact!

Good night & thank you all, from Niamh, my wonderful & helpful brother Collie, from Eimear and Siobhan, Ken and Neil & all the staff here at Adventure Ireland. 

Graduation! It's hard to let them go....

Hey folks- I’ve had a few emails about the tune that the Adventure Ireland & Irish Way students used for the video below- it’s called ‘The Ballad of Sean O’ Malley’, and was written by my band, Surfchixxx. If you like our music, and you’d like to hear more, you can click on our blog, http://www.surfchixxx.com and click on the ‘buy surfchixxx music’ page and take it from there. Yes- my other life besides teacher is musician, and I’ve been lucky enough to have joined forces with fantastic singer-songwriter Aine O’ Doherty for the last six years- as ‘Surfchixxx’ we have brought original Irish folk-rock music all around the Irish Bars, festivals, parties & St. Patrick’s Days in the USA & Europe. We’re still waiting for that massive breakthrough where every Irish music radio station is playing us- maybe you can help! Forgive the shameless self-promotion, but it’s all good! Thanks Niamh

Never did I see so much wailing and tears! I suppose it’s a good sign, but between Moira and Claire, we were in danger of bursting the levees. Perhaps it was my torturous version of ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’ that did it, but we had a real farewell night. We had a big feed of bacon, cabbage and spuds & home-made apple pie, everyone was dressed beautifully, and then we had our Guinness tasting – Collie showed how to pour a proper pint, plus the etiquette of Guinness drinking, and everyone was allowed a little sip. Then it was autographing and writing on flags and t-shirts, and then our sing-song, and at 5am, myself, Julia Roth, Bridey & Kate bid adieu to the Irish Way group. I guess they’ll be home now, well folks, we’re feeling lonely and miss you already! But enjoy the homecoming and stay tuned in! xxx

It's all behind you now (sob sob!)

So our Adventure Ireland / Irish way experience is over for another year. Below is a journal of all our exploits – the diaries cover all the different and intersecting programs we run,  our cultural camp mostly students from US & Canada , our English language camp aimed mostly at continental Europeans & our Surf camp which is open to all comers especially Irish teens. The different camps have different morning during the week but in the afternoon and evenings the all link up to make the best, strangest and most fun summercamp that we know off. The diary is published chronologically so you have to read backwards but why not jump back in time with this link and go to the initial entry for Summer 2010
You can get more information on all our sumer camps and our school & gap year programs on our website www.adventure-ireland.com or email us here info@adventure-ireland.com for any information on our programs, Ireland or just to say hi !

Hola & howdy from a beautifully sunny Donegal – I think it’s lovely but Mackenzie who is from COLARADO ! says it’s cold . Anyway we are going to do a bigger blog tonight with all our introductions but here is a quick update on what is happening so far.

Mackenzie & Greta , who hails fromMaryland, were are first arrivals inDublinairport early yesterday morning. We whisked them off to Donegal to get some sleep. Kevin our bus driver then picked up the ever cheerful Mary Willis and our crew fromBarcelona- whom I’m not going to introduce you too until the later blog – when I have a list with the correct spelling. We were also joined by Gemma Finnan who is from Longford , here inIreland. Gemma has been to our camp for the last 2 years – The Finnans have been coming here for years, her big brother Paddy and big sis Leanne have been stalwarts of surf camp for the last 8 years or so and it was really nice to see Leanne yesterday even if it was only for a moment although I can’t belive she didn’t make us one of her legendary cups of tea!

Where's Paddy?

It’s another beautiful day here in Bundoran – All the Irish people are walking about in shorts and sweating. All the people from Majorca are wearing sweaters ! Usual start to the camp
So yesterday I told you about Mary Willis , Mackenzie (Now Max) , Greta & Gemma arriving. They were also joined by Nuria, Alix, Ivan, Pablo , Joan, Lucas, Guillem, Aleksei, Alejandro (Alic), Zoel, and their leader Esther.

Meanwhile our instructor Richard – known to everyone as Dickie was inDublinairport picking up Jan, Xaviar, Alvaro, Ignasi, Joan, Carles , Daniel, Miguel, Juan, Victor & Raimon all from Catalonia in  Spain. He also picked up some old friends Eloi also from Barca who was here last year and Jonathan and Giacomo (Guacamole) who are both fromItaly. Jonathan has been here 3 years now and Guacamole was here 2 years ago and we are delighted to see the three of them.

Speaking of old friends – Javier , who is the leader from Majorca who was here last year arrived about 9pm last night with a gang from the Islands – including some more friends from last year – Elisabet, Lluisa, Antoni, Manuel and Miguel Angel – who people last year will remember from his awesome piano playing- as well as newbies Lluc, Sebastian, Jose, Borja, Adrian, Marina, Maria, Ana, Carme, Marta, Miriam & Isabelle.

Everyone is happy & safe if a little tired. I’m also sure I spelt some of those names wrong but I promise to learn them properly as the weeks go by. Also want to say a quick hi to all our friends around the world whether recent campers like Clem , Jean , Simon & Connie,  – Ex-campers with little brothers / sisters here like Pau, Martina & Paddy to the gang who were here years ago like Billy, Cat, Ari, Donna who got married recently or Aido who now has 2 little girls of her own. We will expect to seem them here for camp 2025! But  as we make loads of new friends,  we think of Ben & Charlie – 2 friends no longer with us but I’ve a feeling they might just be here in spirit.

More updates & photos to follow tonight as well.

It's time to take Dickie out of the box to run Summercamp.

Lovely day here today. Sunshine stayed all day so we went surfing again fir the afternoon. At one stage we looked across & who was surfing beside us ? Ziggy Marley. You don’t get that at other camps !

Hi from Ireland once more. We had another lovely sunny day today – I think i got a little sunburnt – it was even so hot Nuria only had 2 sweaters on. Actually speaking of how different people cope with different temperatures My favourite tweet of the day was from the legend Miky , who was on June Surfcamp this year. I quote
” i’m just in norway and i discovered that ireland is a warm and dry country! #amazing“

By the way you can follow the summercamp on twitter @Adve_Ireland. i’m going to be posting regular updates there.

Our culture students Max, Mary Willis & Greta travelled to Dublin this morning , where they will be meeting up with 9 new students all the way from Italy who arrive on Friday. Niamh will be posting with updates from them but Dublin may never be the same again. Surf camp had a double surf today – some of them are looking really good already. Alvaro got a bump on the head but we checked him out & he was fine- the only thing he was worried about is that his Mammy would be worried. He says he Dad would say “typical Alvaro “
English class started properly with our two regular teachers Nicky & Tommy who were really surprised by just how well all the kids did in their tests. Naturally there are different levels but everyone worked so hard in class, we decided we better take them for another surf in the sunshine.

This evening we decided to finish of the high ropes & balance beams – great craic but the funniest part was when Guacamole decided to take on Dickie and ended up in the bin again this year. The kid is priceless.

Guacamole takes on Dickie !

Hello again.

Where to begin? Today was a really warm day (for Ireland anyway) so everyone was finally able to wear shorts…well Jonathan, he wears shorts everyday anyway but everyone else was able to take out their summer clothes. Jonathan & Guacamole have decided that they are going to tell the new Italians that they are from Guatemala & don’t speak Italian to make sure they have to speak

CreevyKeel

English. How cool is that! Although it would be more believable if they said they were from Mars.

We had our usual mix of Surf & English classes today , then we all piled into

Kevin’s bus and he took us off for a trip around some of our areas best sights. We first stopped off at Creevykeel where I told the gang all about the ancient Irish burial graves which started everyone talking about zombies instead, ah well I do try.

Next stop was the stunning Glencar waterfall, one of our regular stops. I have been here scores of times and posted many, many photos but still you have to come here to see how beautiful it really is.

Finally we went to Mullaghmore – home of Big wave Surfing here in Ireland as well as a really pretty fishing village. There weren’t any big waves today sadly but there was a school of Dolphins frolicking in the ocean putting on a show for us. I didn’t manage to get any pictures of them leaping out of the water but I did get this:

What a daywe’ve had today . New arrivals, Vikings,  moving buildings & we even taught 32 boys how to make a bed. Even though it was Saturday, we had English class & surf class as usual. Today was the big English exam and I’m delighted to say everyone did really well.

This afternoon we went boat building in our Viking quest activity. The idea is to build 2 rafts and float them out to sea but it always ends up with each raft trying to sink each other. And today was no different  
Just before dinner we were delighted to welcome our newest arrivals all the way from Italy.  Helen who was here last year, Bice, Francesca, Veronica, Carlotta, Andrea, Simone, Nicole , Alberta all arrived along with their teachers

Italians & Americans enjoying St Stephen's Green

Sandra, Chiara & our old friend Nicoletta. Because of our new arrivals, the DAC is full so to make things more comfy,  we are closing our hostel for a week  moving all the girls to it (which the love !) and all the boys get the en-suite rooms – which they love even more !

However to prepare the way , we had to get the rooms ready. Now obviously we have great cleaners who keep our rooms

Bed Making display

spotless but we believe in teaching the kids life skills as well as surf skills so we decided to take upon ourselves to teach the boys how to make a bed properly. Little Alexi was the star of the show but we all had so much fun and to their immense credit all the boys did a great job.
So mammys everywhere don’t let them get away with it when they get home

Good evening once more from Bundoran. I’m taking the chance to write this little account of today while my lovely hostel is nice & quiet. All the kids have gone to see Transformers 3 in our local Cinema. As always we give them the available choices & they pick the movie. There are very few privileges to being in charge but one of them is being able to assign someone else to go to the movies with the kids if they pick something rubbish! Believe you me if they’d been showing Kung Fu Panda I’d be in the cinema right now.
I say all the kids but our cultural camp are actually off exploring Galway with Niamh at the moment – she is going to write up a big blog soon with all their adventures but for now , Tracy, you have to put up with me:) 
Even though it was Sunday, there was no rest for the gang – Our New Italian friends had English class today while the rest of the gang went down to Tullan strand for a surf. The afternoon was spent in our Adventure challenge field – this is a special course we have built with lots of team games and is great as an ice-breakers to introduce all the new people. It was really good craic - so much fun the Majorcans didn’t mind Nadal losing the Wimbledon final too much

Firstly a big happy 4th of July to all our American friends out there …and indeed to all our non-american friends too. You will be glad to know , our most uber American , the irrepressible Mary Willis Bertram celebrated by having the most spectacular wipeout seen so far on surfcamp – a fact she is very proud of.
A special mention today to for Elisabet, who celebrates her birthday today. This is Elisabet’s second year here and I hope all her birthday wishes come through as she is always cheerful and fun to be around . We had another morning of

"Let me see some hands" Dickie teaches some Neil Diamond

classes today – because of our increased numbers we were joined by our new teacher Sinead. Surfing followed – I must be honest we were a little late to surf becuase Dickie decided we all had to sing American songs for lunch but the only one we could find on cd in the restarunt was “Coming to America” by Neil Diamond. Great song it mght be but it’s not on a lot of teens’ ipods so it took awhile to

Iluc looks pensive watching Gemma & Mary Willis

teach them the chorus!  

This evening we went climbing again , this time on our Jacob’s ladder – I’ll post some photos up tomorrow before I bring the culture camp off touring..but more on that tomorrow.

Ok – I do realise nobody other than my sister will get the title but I’m persisting with it – We have been so busy , we’ve got 2 days worth of blogs to make up for -

The Rock Hostel

Yesterday was very much Irish day – after our usual mornings of classes , Dickie , Paul & Johnny took the kids over to our local GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association ) park to explain our 2 major gaelic sports to them.Our 2 main sports are Gaelic Football & Hurling – after a demonstration of both , we decided to play a football match which needless to say descended in to chaos – which is pretty standard for GAA. We had so much fun & today on the shopping trip, loads of the boys bought hurls (the stick you play hurling with) – Not sure how Airline security will feel about it but we will cross that bridge when we come to it

 

On Tuesday night , Dickie’s sister, Karen was kind enough to come up and give us a fantastic demonstration of traditional Irish dancing – Karen has won many awards for our dancing – but she’s an even better teacher so after showing them a few steps , it was the kids turn to give it a go -I promise to put some photos up soon but it was brilliant craic & everyone – even the boys who were reluctant at first , like Marc our new arrival from Paris , soon got stuck in. Special mention has to go to Marta, Maria, Isabel, Carme, Miguel & Angel who were particularly fantastic obviously latin rhythms and celtic beats go hand in hand.

Surfing on Tullan strand

Today, at long last , we unleashed the gang on the shops of Ireland after class. We traveled to our nearest large town, Sligo to go shopping – Giacomo bought a pair of sunglasses just so he could wear them on his head & look Italian again, lots of the spanish bought hurleys as I said earlier but the undoubted award winner was Marina. As she should me the 20 things she had bought , I asked her , somewhat tongue in cheek, why she didn’t buy more. She looked at me quite seriously and said , “Because I only had time for one store”

Tonight we decided to mix it up & brave our Nightline – This is a blindfolded obstacle course full of water hazards & suprises – it’s really great, exciting and mucky fun – we’ve had a brilliant night and all tiredness has been forgotten -but our laundry bill is going to be huge !

After the nightline

Happy and sad today- Happy because we had another fantastic day here – sad because our Italian gang are leaving.

Sliabh league

Today, while everyone else was at surf class or at English class – I (Collie) took Mackenzie, Mary Willis , Great, Gemma, Javier, Esther & Sandra on a trip to Sliabh League – one of Ireland’s highest sea cliffs and to the beautiful valley of Glencolmcille. This is one of my favourite places in the world – every year I try to describe it but words fail me. In fact Esther said even photos don’t do it justice – We scaled the top of the majestic cliffs and then went to the folk village for a sumptuous bowl of homemade soup. You may think you’ve had soup before – but unless you’ve tried the soup in Glencolmcille, believe me , you ain’t had nothing yet.
This evening we took the entire gang bowling – the competition was pretty tight, we thought Raimon was going to win but Jan pipped him just at the end. Well

Collie & Mary Willis enjoying a "99" on top of the world !

actually Dickie won but he doesn’t count. So I’m going to sign off now to wave arrivederci to all our Italian friends, Helen , Alberta, Carlotta, Veronica, Nicole, Bice, Andrea, Simone & Francesca and their charming teachers , Nicoletta, Chiara & Sanda. Ciao for now but we hope to see you again someday very soon. ps Go mbíodh biseach ort gan mhoill! or in English, a big get well soon to Mary Willis’ granddad from all of us here in Ireland

Our Italian gang flanked by Johnny and Neil

Only a very quick update as we are preparing for another big day tomorrow. Country to the forecasts, today was another nice day with glorious surf this morning. Today all the girls moved back to the adventure centre. To assign the room fairly, we decided to have a champions league style draw, complete with anthem, to draw for the rooms. It was every bit as fun & indeed as silly as it sounds.
Tomorrow it’s a big day trip to Galway bit I’ll fill you in on that & our ‘ reach for the stars ‘ evening tomorrow but for now I have 45 lunches to make