Captain's Log: Day 2 - Exhaustion

Day two was an extremely busy day.

First in the morning we went to Dublin City University to hear Prof. Roddy Flynn give us a background on Irish Media history, politics, and future of the industry. He was a very engaging speaker and knew a ton of information that was extremely relevant to our study here in Ireland. He was also humorous and very friendly.

The most surprising thing I learned from his lecture was the large amount of censorship that is prevalent here in Ireland. The population of Ireland is very conservative so they do not mind a small amount of censorship in their country. For instance, Playboy Magazine was not allowed to be sold in Ireland until 1998.

Next, we went on a Dublin Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tour. It is a circular route around Dublin that passes all of the main tourist attractions and allows a person to hop off a bus at a destination they would like to spend more time on. Once you are done, you can just catch the next bus that passes by in about 10 minutes or so.

Despite the frigid temperatures, the tour allows you to take a quick snapshot of the city in an hour or so and if there are any attractions that appeal to you they can be visited on the next circuit.

My favorite part of the bus trip was the foray down O'Connell Street and seeing the ancient statues and the Spire of Dublin, a 400 foot tall spike shooting into the sky of Dublin. I really enjoyed O'Connell Street because it is the site of many of the famous bombings of Dublin during the tumultuous 20th century. It is a beautiful and very affluent looking area -- a far cry from what a normal war torn area.

Later in the evening, we went to a live performance of the political debate show, The Frontline. They were discussing the recession in Ireland and ways it could be solved. The people at the show were very passionate and were very very knowledgeable in the politics of their country. It was also pretty great to see the production of an Irish television show and to compare it to the United States. The cameras were very similar but the whole atmosphere was very loose and relaxed and the entire crew, both on camera and off, seemed to be enjoying themselves.