Skip to Main Content

UNF English students creatively inspired on trip to Ireland

students writing Twelve UNF English students found powerful creative writing inspiration while recently visiting Ireland to study Irish literature and creative writing.

The students read James Joyce and then were in Dublin for Bloomsday, the day that celebrates that author and his magnum opus, “Ulysses.” They read the poetry of Katie Donovan and then walked the long upward path to her home in Dalkey to participate in a masterclass with the poet. They created improvisational art and performance guided by performance artist Donal McConnon in Galway.

UNF students on Ireland study abroadAnother masterclass with travel writer and scholar of the Irish language, Magan Manchan, had the students thinking about their own words in new ways. They walked the ancient burial site of ancient kings on the Hill of Tara. A folklorist led them past trees inhabited by “magical beings” up the Hill of Uisneach, considered the sacred center of Ireland. They rode the waves beneath the Cliffs of Moher and climbed among ruins and rock walls on the Aran Islands.

Faculty advisors for the trip were professors Mark Ari and Clark Lunberry. The students wrote about their experiences every day, tutored by Ari, filling their journals with inspired poetry and prose.

Learn more by contacting Ari at mari@unf.edu.