Thursday, May 13, 2010

Day Five: DCU and Photocall

Today started a little later than normal, but I really enjoyed being able to sleep in.

We started off the day with another lecture at DCU by Dr. Roddy Flynn. He talked about social media in Ireland and it’s still so interesting to me how little of an impact it has had over here. I was really surprised when he said that about 8 percent of the Internet users in Ireland still have a dial-up connection. I’m pretty sure I would go crazy if I still had to deal with such a slow connection.

Next, we went to Photocall, a Dublin based photography agency. It was interesting to learn about how a company that started out by using a pay phone booth for its office has grown into a distinguished PR and editorial photography agency. I really enjoyed looking at the pictures from the company's 8 photographers. The pictures from the conflict in Northern Ireland and pictures depicting the drug problem in Dublin were really powerful. We met one of the photographers who was actually from Texas! He doesn't have much of an accent anymore, but apparently when he first came to Dublin, his accent made it hard for him to find a photography job. Overall, the trip to Photocall was very interesting.

After that, the photography students met with an Irish photographer while the rest of us could do as we please. I went to dinner at an Eddie’s Rocket, which is like a diner, with Ryan and Meagan. We were just really craving some American food! I was really surprised with the variety of food places in Dublin; it’s not all about the Irish stew and fish and chips.

Today was more of a relaxing day, which is nice since I’ll have to get up around a quarter to 6 tomorrow to catch a high-speed train to Belfast. I’m excited to go to Northern Ireland, but I will probably be exhausted by tomorrow night; we won’t be returning to the apartments until 11 or so. Hopefully I’ll have enough energy to update my blog!


An almost clear sky as the sun begins to set in Dublin

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the nice report. Enjoy the trip to Belfast.

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