Pride and Passion

As we were being given a personal tour of a 200 year old farm at Molly Gallivan’s cottage I was enchanted and taken with our guide, Stephen O’Sullivan, and the passion and pride he exuded. As a 5th generation Irishman who can trace his roots to the early Bonane region.

In our expedition we use the young adult novel "Nory Ryan’s Song" by Patricia Reilly Giff as an anchor text for our students. I kept catching myself making connections to the book and wondering if the main characters had lived similar to this. I made sure to capture lots of video and pictures. We had the idea of creating an illustrated guide to go along with our novel to enrich the literature and transport the students back to the setting of the book. I know it may sound simple but many of our students don't know what a potato plant looks like or what a thatched rook was.

One visual image I can't get out of my head is the remains of a famine house that we stood smack in the middle of. Stephen shared that it wasn't uncommon for 12 or so people to live in a house the size of a small kitchen in the United States. I was shocked to find out that the English landlords would tax the Irish farmers more if they had windows. This is why you will see houses with doors that are cut in 1/2 and the top part opens to act as make shift windows. The concept of a 1/2 door shows true ingenuity at work.

As we were guided around the farm soaking (literally...from the rain and figuratively...from the wealth of knowledge) we came to a neo-lithic stone row that Stephen discovered on his property. The stones he found are significant as they are believed to be placed in this unique spot to connect to other stones in the region at certain parts of the year. The stones date before the time of Christ and are believed to be a way that the Druids and Celts created their calendar around the alignment of the sun and the moon.

It doesn't take one long to realize how excited this discovery was for Stephen. His passion for learning about the stones and this time period was contagious and made me want to do some research for myself. Stephen is a wonderful example of a life long learner and one who is willing to share what he has learned with others. Life long learners do exist outside of the classroom and it was refreshing to meet someone who has used his knowledge for good. He is a chair person for a council who has invested time and money into preserving the heritage of Bonane.

I know we are only at the beginning of our trip but the expereince we had with this alone was irreplacable, thanks in a large part to Stephen's passion and pride for this amazing country, it's history, and the people of Ireland. Many thanks to Stephen, his wife, and the staff at Molly Gallivan's Cottage.