The Gate, Soup Run & Scones, Guinness Storehouse and Chester Beatty Museum

Wellington Monument from Guinness Storehouse Observatory

 

Tuesday Night

We went to see My Cousin Rachel at the historical Gate theatre at 7:30. It was an interesting play about the suspicions and the grief of a young man which caused him to go insane. The theatre had a very nice environment and was very different than most of the theatres near and in Boston. It was a lot smaller so it felt more personal and more engaging than a lot of the larger theatres in our area. Overall it was a lovely experience and we had a great time experiencing the Irish theatre scene

Wednesday 4/18

            After going to first classes, we split up into groups with 11 kids learning to make scones and 7 kids going out on a soup run that the school runs each Wednesday.

The soup run entailed us going out into the south side of Dublin with two backpacks and two large thermoses of hot water and engaging in conversation with any of the poor that we might encounter while giving them food. It involved a great deal of walking but we were impressed at the amount of ground that the Belvedere students could cover and how many people were able to be helped by it. It was where the St. Louis project, which was started at school this year, got its inspiration.

The other group went to the culinary classroom at Belvedere and learned to make a traditional tea-time snack, which were scones. They split up into pairs of two for the actual cooking process, and each pair followed the recipe under the watchful eye of the culinary teacher. Surprisingly, the boys did very well and there were no significant disasters in the kitchen. After the scones were cooled and powdered with sugar, the boys had a formal tea-time to satisfy their hunger and enjoy their creations.

            After reuniting, we proceeded to embark on our journey to the Guinness factory, which involved a good walk and a ride on the Luas (trolley). We learned the process of brewing the beer, the history behind it, and how they have advertised it over the years. The finale to this tour was a fantastic view of the city from the highest building in Dublin while enjoying an ice cold soft drink.

After finishing there, we trudged our way to the Chester Beatty library, adjacent to Dublin Castle. It houses a great number of rare and ancient books, manuscripts and scrolls, such as excerpts from the original gospels of Saint John and Saint Mark that date back to A.D. 150 as well as Islamic and Buddhist writings.