Friday 28 September 2012

Lecture #3

 On the 25th of September we had a lecture from Denis Sexton. He is associated with  the Irish Society of Autism. Sexton's son is 27 years old and has had autism for his whole life. This is why Denis is part of the Society. Sexton told us how many years ago Autism was less common than it is now. In early statistics only 17 people in 10,000 had autism. Now 1 in every 100 people have autism. The massive increase in Autism may be because of the increased chemicals in foods.
 Sexton told us all about the characteristics of Autism and how it is diagnosed. Some of the characteristics are:
  •  Speech will develop slowly or not at all.
  •  Autistic people like to have rigid patterns. They will often get upset if these patterns are changed.
  • They become obsessive with certain things.
  • They don't play imaginatively.
John was thought to have had autism since the early months of his life. John still refuses to speak and has had a wide variety of obsessions. Some autistic people have 'freaky talents' such as being very strong at maths. Sexton told us about a boy who he knew who could tell you that day on the week a certain date was, even if it was thousands of years before.
    Sexton told us how the Irish Society of Ireland had farms around the country. They said that it was found that the Autistic are happiest in a quiet, peaceful surroundings, away from the bustle of the city. Money is raised to fund these farms (and the rest of the charity) during 'Rose Week' which is a week of fundraising. Roseweek starts on the 11th of october.
  I think that this was a very interesting lecture and i learnt a lot about Autism and those who are affected by it.

Friday 21 September 2012

Lecture #2

On Tuesday the 18th September, we had a lecture from the The Childrens Chernobyl Charity. I was not present for this lecture but I have been told about the lecture. The two speakers told the year how the Dublin Rose, from the Rose Of Tralee competition went to belarus to volounteer. She worked with children who had been affected by the breakdown of the nuclear reactor. The speakers also told the year about the accident in Chernobyl and how it affexcted so many peoples lives. The incident is still causing problems because the birth defects caused by the incident are being passed on through the generations. The air is still not clear in the area. The charity has opened an orphanage to house children who have been affected by the breakdown. The standard of life in the orphanage is low and the charity are trying to raise funds to improve the lives of these children. The charity is clearly doing good work and are this lecture showed this.

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Lecture #1

    Every tuesday afternoon in fourth year we have lectures. Our first lecture was from a man called Zoltan Collis who is a Holocaust survivor.He startesd off by telling us his background. He told us about his family, friends and general life before the holocaust affected him. Mr. Collis told us how his fateher was jewish and his mother was christian. Due to his fathers religion Zoltan was taken to a concentraion camp. He was split up from his father and never saw him again.He told us about how difficult and horrendeus life in the concentraion camp was. We watched a video that showed life in the concentraion camp, Burgen-Belson. The video was really graphic and it showed rotting bodies.Collis told us about life in the concentration camp and why it was such a horrible place to live. The concentration camp was liberated in 1945 and Mr. Collis was free. He was brought to Ireland as a refugee and grew up here. I'm glad that i got the opportunity to hear this story because it clearly showed how people were affected by the holocaust even at such a young age. I think that everybody who gets the chance to attend a lecture like this should as it would enchance their view of the holocaust.

Friday 7 September 2012

Donegal TY trip.

Dunlewey Irish Culture Trip


For our Irish Culture trip we went to Dunlewey in County Donegal. We got a bus there on Monday morning. I sat with my friends on the us and we listened to music and chatted for most of the journey. The journey to Donegal was 5 hours long but we had a break half way through in Monaghan at a service station. When we arrived at Errigal Hostel we were assigned out rooms. We got to choose who we chose a room with so I was with my friends. Our room in the hostel had two levels, so it was kind of like a loft. I got the top bunk!We shared a shower and a bathroom with the room next to ours, which worked out quite well. We unpacked our stuff and scoped out the hostel before meeting up with the rest of the group in the dining room.
Errigal Hostel
We went down to the local heritage centre, An Ionad Cois Locha. There we had a tour of the house, an introduction to weaving and the making of tweed and a boat ride around the lake. It was really interesting place because it had so many stories attached to in.
Dunlewey Lakeside Centre
By this time it was lashing rain and we all got soaked. We got back to the hostel, dried off and lounged around before we had to go back to the lakeside centre for dinner. Once again we got soaked in the rain. The food was gorgeous! I had a lasagna and it was lovely. We went back to the hostel and had a small table quiz. After that we were able to hang around until 10:30 with our friends. Then we went back to our room and went to bed.We got up at around 8 o clock the next day. We had breakfast in the hostel which was basically toast and cereal. We the. Got a bus to the Gartan Outdoor Education centre. The bus ride was really rocky and there were a lot of windy roads. When we got there we were split into two groups. One group was to do canoeing first and then a bog obstacle course. The other group was to do the same activities in the reverse order. I was in the first group so we did the canoeing first. We learnt the basic skills of canoeing and then went out on the lake in our boats. It was really windy and the water was wavy so I thought it was pretty tough. After this we had lunch, soup and sandwiches, before learning how to make a raft. We made the raft using a wooden frame and four buoyant barrels. We had a race on our rafts after the bog course, but the other team won. The big course was so much fun! It was really muddy and cold but I didn't really mind. The mud was up to my waist for the most part but I kept falling over so I was muddy all over by the end. We had to overcome some obstacles like tightropes and tyres. We had so much fun trying and failing to do these things! We had a small mud fight and then washed ourselves off in the lake. We headed back to our hostel where we got ready for our ceili. The ceili was at the lakeside centre and we had a live musician, who played the accordian. The students who were staying at Gartan joined in at the ceili so it was really nice to see them. The dances we learnt were really fun and most people joined in.
The next day we got together in the dining hall at 9:00. We got on our bus and left our hostel. We went  to Glenveagh National Park. We had a tour of the old stone castle and learnt the history of it. The castle was so big and the interior was very fancy. After that we took a small trip around the castle gardens and saw the lovely scenery.


We had a small lunch at the visitor centre and we headed back on the bus to Dublin. We were all so tired from the trip that we rested and slept on the bus back.
The trip was really fun over all and i enjoyed it so much. I'm glad we did so many activities because they're the sort of things you'd remember for a long time. I wish i could do the whole trip again.