Ireland 2007: Day 5 - Guest Speaker

This morning we experienced our first minor catostrophe - the hotel had NO hot water. Which meant 90% of us were treated to "an exhilerating" wake up this morning, to quote Lisa. But we took it in stride, as this was one of our only glitches on the trip and the weather - for the 5th consecutive day was near 20 degrees (Celsius) - I'll let the readers do the math!

We headed out to Univeristy College - Dublin for our first guest lecture. Prof Finnegan had used his connections to get John Coakley, a VERY prominent political scientist and head of the Institute for Irish British Studies.

John began by providing a brief overview of the Irish Historical Revolution - beginning with 1169 and the Norman Settlement, through the Gaelic Revival of the 14th century and the English and Scottish settlements of the late 16th century. To illustrate his points he showed slides depicting various flags: The Cross of St. George and the Cross of St. Andrew (English and Scottish respectively) which blended into the flag of Great Britain in 1707. In 1801 it merged with the Cross of St. Patrick (Irish) - which became the Union Jack. This illustration captured his earlier remarks and illustrated them beautifully.

He also spoke a great deal about Irish Politics and a bit about the constitution adopted in 1937. The government roles created in the document are: Pesident (replacing the British king/queen), the Dail (replacing the House of Commons), the Senate (replacing the House of Lords) and the Taoseach (replacing the Prime Minister). A most unique point is that the Taoseach is responsible to the Dail - so the head of state can be dismissed by the parliament.

The Irish Party system inlcudes Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour as the 3 leading parties with some others on the outside (an example provided was Green Party). He covered some older isues in Irish politics and then focus on some of the current political issues: coping with Economic Growth (commuting and a health infrastructure), Immigration and Environment and Energy.