Julia's Trip to Ireland 2019

One way that Ireland tries to keep their country clean is by utilizing street sweepers. In Dublin alone, we saw the street sweepers go by several times throughout the day sweeping the streets. I could only imagine how dirty the streets would get if Ireland did not use these since so many people walk on the streets every single day. I think it would definitely be beneficial around the globe, especially in busy cities, if street sweepers were used more often to cut back on trash lying around.

Social responsibility can be defined as a theory that asserts that businesses have an obligation to act in a manner that benefits society. An example of social responsibility in Ireland would be the Guinness Storehouse. The Guinness Storehouse is a great example, because for years now this business has brought about growth to Ireland's society. Almost 2 million people a year visit the Guinness Storehouse, which means the business and the society is benefitting from the revenue being made.

Before arriving in Ireland I was unsure how local people would treat Americans. Would they be rude, nice, or not notice that we were American? I quickly realized after our arrival that locals immediately knew that we were from America, even before we said anything. I'm still unsure how it is that blatantly obvious. Overall, the people of Ireland seemed kind and welcoming to us, but on occasion I noticed a few people that seemed annoyed that we were there. One person even said under their breath, "Dang Americans."

The pub-culture in Ireland is a huge part of life for the Irish people. Our class got to experience this first hand while staying in Dublin. Each night you could hear loud music and people talking until almost 4 am, even on week nights! It seemed as if Dublin never truly slept. This shocked me, because at home it is socially acceptable to stay out late on the weekends, but it's frowned upon to do so on a week night.

On June 4th we travelled to the Cliffs of Moher. Although the weather was not ideal when we arrived, this was still my favorite place that we visited. A few of us took a different path than the rest of the class and I'm so glad that we did, because the view we came across was breathtaking. The walk up was stressful, because it was raining, super muddy/slippery, and there was no fence to walk along. I wish we would have had more time to explore more of the cliffs though!

On June 2nd we took a ferry to the Aran Islands, where we then took a bus tour around the island. At the end of our trip, we hiked to the top to get a view of the cliff. This was one of the windiest days that we have had, so it was nerve wracking being so close to the edge without the safety of a fence. The view was definitely worth the hike though!

On May 29th we visited the Guinness Storehouse. We learned all about the history of how the brand Guinness came to be, as well as how to pour the perfect pint. A couple shocking facts that I learned while on our tour of the storehouse was that Arthur Guinness signed the lease for 9,000 years. Also they produce 3 million pints of Guinness is just one day!

On May 30th we travelled to Belfast, Northern Ireland. While here we visited the Titanic Museum and learned everything there is to know in regards to the Titanic. Such as all that went into constructing the ship, as well as the sinking of the ship. We even got to go on a short ride that mimicked what the workers would have ridden on to get around the construction of the ship.