Memoirs from Dublin

We all had one heck of a time in Ireland. Here's the trip in a nutshell:

I got to the Burlington Hotel before any of the Carroll or Northern Arizona people, so I decided to wander around a bit. Had to visit my first true Irish pub, so I dropped into this joint called M. O'Brien's. Sat down, had myself a Guiness, and ended up talking with a gentleman named Patrick Mulligan (on the right in the photo). Hell of a guy. We sat there and discussed everything from Ireland and Montana to Iraq and JFK. And in the midst of our conversation, he mentioned that the Duke of Wellington (the man who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo) was not only an Irishman, but had been born just a few blocks away. So why not wander over and have a look?

Patrick led me around a pretty good chunk of Georgian Dublin. We stopped by a few pubs along the way, including Toner's (a pub that James Joyce used to frequent) and another where the Dubliners had their start (can't remember the name, unfortunately). We must have hit about four altogether after leaving O'Brien's and before arriving at the Duke's. It was a regular old flat right in the middle of Dublin (I know this is the right place too because I happened to find it on a map later).

We rambled around town for awhile over the canal, past the capitol, as far as the Temple Bar district. After awhile, we shook hands, parted ways, and I took a cab back to the hotel to meet up with Joey and the rest of the NAU crowd.

This was the first time that I've gotten to spend more than a couple of days with Joey since high school (right to left: Joey, me, Danny). He came along with his wife Amanda, his brother Danny, and a couple NAU students named Liz and Garrett.

Tournament itself was great, as is to be expected. The rounds I got to judge were much better than I expected. Worlds is unique in that your judge isn't randomly drawn. They rank teams every round so that the top four teams in each round are together, the fifth through eighth are together, etc., but at the same time, judges are ranked as well so that the best judges are adjudicating the top teams. Somehow or other I must have been somewhere high up there because when all was said and done, I'd judged three of the four teams that appeared in finals, as well as a couple of the semifinalists. Let me tell you, these are some smart frickin' people who definitely deserved to clear the field of 300+ teams. In some of the rounds I watched, round six in particular with UC Cork Philosophy, Hart House (the eventual champion), and Sidney, any of the participants could easily have been a top speaker at NPDA or NPTE. The only thing that shocked me even more was that after watching a round between these teams, when discussing with the judges, neither of them found it to be more than simply a mediocre round.

The person I was the most proud of in this tournament and a guy who certainly deserved to be amongst those in the final round is Aaron Donaldson (on the right in the picture, with Scott Peterson on the left...not the murderer). Aaron was my debate partner my senior year of college and is currently a coach at University of Oregon, who he represented at the tournament. Aaron and his partner not only became the first team from a public American university to make the octafinals (in the 31st seed out of 32 qualifiers), but he then proceeded to plow on through into the semifinals. Tite moves, Jethro, and way to make ole CC proud. Hope you get to lose the trucker stash soon.
We took a trip around Dublin and saw the sites in our spare time. I was really hoping to get to get to see Michael Collins' grave, though that never really happened. We did get to see St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was the balls. The park adjacent to the cathedral holds the former location of a well that St. Patrick is believed to have used to baptize the Irish. Centuries later they dug up stone markers from there that are now located inside the church. The cathedral itself was beautiful--built in the 1100s and lined with memorials and catacombs added over the centuries.

We also saw the old city gates from roughly 1240, used to keep out the damned Vikings (though the modern day Vikings couldn't beat their way out of a paper bag), stopped by Dublin Castle (of Michael Collins fame) and hit a few of Dublin's older pubs.

The Stag's Head was established roughly 250 years ago. It's actually tucked away in a little alleyway and we just happened to stumble upon a sign embedded in the sidewalk in the Temple Bar district, went in, and had ourselves a pint. The big story, though, is the Brazen Head, which is certified by the Guiness Book of World Records as the oldest pub in Ireland, dating back to 1198.

Anyway, this is just a small piece of the picture, but we had a great time over there. Got to hang out with the Carroll kids for the first time in ages. The four of us rang out a rendition of "When the Saints Go Marching in" after Donaldson's big break New Year's Eve, with Mike Owen, Brigette Burns, and the NAU crowd in chorus.

Took a trip to a small fishing town on the coast with Joey, Amanda, et al and saw some of the coast. One of the top highlights of the trip, though, was getting to hang out with Joey and the crew. Been quite awhile since I've gotten to hang with that character. Hope it's not too long before I get to again.

Anyway, that's the trip. I'm sure I'll be adding the occasional story or two over the next week or so. Glad to be back, though, home with Lea and getting back into the swing of things.