Tags

, ,

For the next few weeks I’m teaching in Limerick University at the International Summer School. Myself and Dr. McCarthy are teaching the Screening Ireland section covering the development of cinema in Ireland. It’s all American students, generally eager, except for the one who seems constantly on the edge of snooze. Yesterday I was reading the Best of Granta Travel Writing, about the flooding of the Mississippi, whilst walking alongside Ireland’s biggest river, the Shannon. I’m teaching students who live alongside the Mississippi and was going to ask them if they remember the great flood of ’93.  And then I remembered that they probably were not even born then.

I’m renting a wee apartment in the city for the duration and it is quite a change from the rural quietude of the West Stone Cottage. The apartment is directly opposite a restaurant and surrounded by other small flats. It is strange to smell someone else’s dinner whilst watching another couples’ intimate meal in a restaurant. Is that someone’s bath or my chicken noodle soup bubbling? The immediacy and intimacy is strangely comforting, but only because it is temporary. Tonight after work I drive up into the hills a measure away from nearly everyone except a few hardy souls. We are going to have a Downtown Abbey fancy dress party. How utterly charming!