Reception, National Museum, Debate

The first week at Belvedere has been off to a fantastic start. After our first day at Belvedere on Monday we met for a reception for the students and their host families. The food was excellent and a great time was enjoyed by all. Many of the leaders of the trip spoke including Mr. McGonagle, Mr. Mark, Belvedere’s own Tom Doyle and Headmaster Gerry Foley. The BC High students were welcomed with open arms to the Belvedere community and each of us received a Belvedere sweatshirt as a token of the friendship of Belvedere and BC High. Tuesday began with more Belvedere classes and after a lesson from Belvedere’s music teacher, Mr. Dan Dunne, on the tin whistle. After some struggles we finally got the hang of it and played the full song with Mr. Dunne accompanying on piano and Tom Nee and Dan Anderson playing the guitar and bass.

After the lesson we ate lunch and left for the Irish National Museum. During the walk over we got a chance to see many of the statues and the Spire on O’Connell Street. All were enjoyed and many pictures were taken by Connor Dermody. The Museum was a very interesting experience and featured many artifacts from thousands of years ago, older than anything in the US. It featured many of the wardrobes of the people of the time as well as the tools they used and even some remains of the ancient people, who were enjoyed greatly by Joe Taccini. The gift shop at the end was a fun experience for all as many souvenirs were purchased including tweed caps from Joe Taccini and Mike Mondo.
Once we departed from the museum we returned to Belvedere to participate in the annual BC High v. Belvedere debate. The question was “Would this house pay dictators to step down?”. The BC High debate team consisted of Paul Howard, Mike Middleton, Ronnie Mahoney and Blaine Woodcock. Both sides gave strong arguments and it was a very fun debate. After the debate the audience voted and BC High won in an overwhelming majority. However, the judges ended up siding with Belvedere in a truly astonishing verdict. After we had a brief reception with pizza and cookies, we will soon depart to the play My Cousin Rachel at the Gate Theater. So far we have had a great time going to Belvedere and living with our host families and wish the best to all of our families across the Atlantic.


Dan Anderson, Brennan Murphy and Michael Mondo
#SuperTuesday