Collie here with a quick hello- I’m just setting up the blog so Niamh can post all the updates for Irish way / Adventure ireland this year. So excited to see everyone tomorrow
So Adventure Ireland and all our Surf Camps are over for another year. The Donegal Adventure Centre remains busy all year with domestic and international school groups not to mention our adult surf weekends and our Bank Holiday specials-especially this one, how cool does this look!! Adventure Ireland also continues with our Gap Year & Semester Abroad programs but for now the Summer Camp part of AI & this blog will have a rest for the Winter
For those of you who were here before, enjoy perusing the diaries to remind yourself of all the amazing, great and downright silly times we had
For those of you who are new to the site, Maybe campers or Parents who are thinking of coming next year -enjoy reading through our summer-i reccomend you go back to the first entry to get the feel of the whole thing and let me try and answer the question that will be going through your mind—Can it really be that much fun. The answer. quite simple is no,I’m just not that good a writter, I’TS WAY BETTER THAN I MAKE IT SOUND !!
Collie
ps I did finally cut off all my hair..
Dear parents, campers & friends,
Collie has left for the airport, and while we still have some people left to depart, this morning has a strangely quiet and calm feeling. The end of another Adventure Ireland! This is year 11, we were young and carefree when we began running this programme, now we’re a little older, wiser, greyer, but still delighted to put a summer experience together like this. Collie has done a good job below in encouraging y’all (got this from Elliot) to pass on details of this camp to your friends & relations - we want more families to send us their teens, partly because these are our jobs, and as long as we have lots of schools, camps and campers coming, thrity people in this small town are kept busy! But also because we do it with love and enthusiasm, and we believe, 100% that our kids grow and learn, thrive and interact in the best possible way. All my staff here deserve so much thanks and praise for the lengths they go to to deliver a good programme. Tolerance, respect, healthy life choices, humour, self respect, self confidence…these are the goals, and the teachers, instructors and people here do so well in teaching by example. As Collie said, you as parents have obviously shared our beliefs- this year’s batch of kids were wonderful to work with, and as they say ‘The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree’. So thank you to you all for sending your kids to us, thank you to Collie, Rosie, Richard, Kyle, Stevo & all for the fantastic programme, Thanks to Trish and Ciara who handle all the paperwork & fees and a million other things. We continue on with surf camp through the summer, and look forward to meeting more campers, from Ireland & overseas. We do ask you to help us as nothing - and we mean nothing - is as reassuring to a parent contemplating an overseas trip for their beloved as another happy parent. We are trying to spread the word in the USA, Europe, Canada, Mexico 
Venezuala yeah, around the world, and you, the parents & the teens who have done it are our best advertising. You are also now part of the big family that is Adventure Ireland, and we hope you will stay in touch, and talk about us until your tongues fall off!
Finally, folks, i think you will agree that Collie is deserving of a huge thanks for being the glorious leader of Adventure Ireland. He makes friends with every single kid here, and takes so much time to ensure everyone is happy. He is patient and kind with everyone, -firm when firmness is called for, but his continuous good humour is the driving force. Teen groups can be difficult to handle, and he seems to magically set a happy and enthusiastic tone. We call him ‘Jolly Colly’ here each July, and not only does he look after the kids, but his evening diary I know has been such a pleasure for you all to read at home. So, Collie, big ups to you for this year, I’ll let you do it all again next year 
Collie has just texted to say our first group are all safely on their planes, trains and automoniles. This isn’t quite the last post - but as Collie would say, the fat lady is clearing her throat. Please do email us your thoughts and feedback over the next few days - we’d love if you would agree to be contacted as a reference for next year, and nice posts are always nice to read! Once again, thank you all for choosing us, thank you for sending us lovely kids, and stay in touch! Be safe & happy. Niamh.
“Today Collie”, big Pau said, “today, was the best day”.
Hello from Ireland on what probably won’t be the last post but is the last daily diary entry. I’m sitting at home at the moment, taking a little break before I join the gang back in the centre. They are all at the cinema at the moment –they’ve gone to see The Dark Knight on it’s first night over here and as it won’t open in mainland Europe for a few weeks there was quite the clamour to see it.
We awoke this morning to disappointingly grey skies but soon the sun came out and blew all the cobwebs away. The surf was only ok this morning but it was high tide and Bundoran works best on a low tide so there were very high hopes for the afternoon session. As it was high tide Dickie and Roisin took the culture class for a cliff jumping session this morning-and even Nat and Eliot got in! Don’t get me wrong these guys have been nothing less than model campers and are welcome back anythime-they just ain’t crazy about wetsuits but the chance to see our Dickie jump off the top of the cliff jump was just too good to resist.
In the afternoon the surf proved to be just as good as hoped-Fede described as “Just like a lake ..but with really big waves” we had undoubtedly our best surf session and all the guys went for a gorgeous last night dinner in stakes very satisfied with themselves. I spent my time putting a few new photos on our gallery page.
Our first bus leaves at 2 am our time with Iannis, Kyle, Elliot, David, Nat and Alejandro (how I’m going to miss that big grin) heading off to Dublin with me. Then about 11 hopefully with all the former safely through customs and on their plane, I’ll meet Sebastian and Trent and sort out their flights-not that Trent needs any help, quite the world traveller. About the same time Leanne, Paddy, Lyna, Mary Kate and little David will be picked up by their parents at the camp (not the same parents, I know Irish families can be big but…) then About three thirty pm, the last bus containing the gang from Barcelona, Flippo, Diarmuid, Emma & Martina (who has run Leanne, TiffanEy, Sienna, Anabelle, Liz and Anna close for the title of the nicest girl we’ve ever had at our camp-seriously the girl is always in a good mood) will arrive. We’ll get them all checked in / or picked up and then I’m going to get back on the bus and SLEEP FOR A WEEK. Then I’m going to the pub.
But in case I don’t get a chance later I want to mention a few things. First I want to thank Dickie and Roisin for everything they have done in the last three weeks-I have always had great help running Adventure Ireland but this year I had partners who stayed late and came in early, always with a smile and a fresh idea. Niamh and I tend to get all the thank yous because we write the diaries but the guys deserve huge credit. I know this is what we get paid for but believe me when I say they went above and beyond. Speaking of Niamh, I want to thank Niamh for her great classes, her great program, which is the highlight of my working year. I want Trish and Ciara for the truly thankful job of organising all the money / flight details as well as the day to day things-As I write Trish is organising supper for everyone even though she was supposed to finish at 5 –it’s 9:30 now. I would like to thank all the instructors who worked with the gang, Kyle, Steven, Adam who worked with surfcamp especially. A particular mention must go to our resident biologist Jose Luis who has been a dream to work with. He has helped me loads with both the kids and all the photos in the gallery and quickly understood our humour (if not all the jokes ) and recognised that our jovial manner doesn’t mean that we are not serious professionals for whom the care of our charges is not paramount. And this is where you come in. we are a small camp but all modesty aside I truly believe we are the best camp of our type anywhere. In fact I don’t believe there is another camp of our type anywhere with such an eclectic mix of international students, activities and staff who consider this a vocation, not a job. So if you think we are doing a good job too, please feel free to mention us to friends and families, link to our websites, tell your local school / paper about the work we do here, check out our other programs, our gap year and instructor training courses or if you happen to be a billionaire … well ok that probably ain’t going to happen. Finally I would like to thank two groups of people. Firstly you, it is a not a coincidence that such a warm group of friendly bright engaging young people came out of your home. Thanks for putting the trust in us and sending them here. And most of al, the students themselves. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t yelled at them a few times to clean up or to stop standing on the furniture etc but that’s just us doing our job. They have really been a pleasure to work with –we have about very high return rate and I’m already looking forward to seeing the gang next year. But first I’m going to sleep! As to the title - it’s how Dickie’s 8 year old nephew says goodbye and has become the camp catchphrase..so for one last time-good luck to your cowsCollie
Woah-I do not feel well but it’s totally self inflicted –before we start thinking about stereotypes, it has nothing to do with alcohol or indeed potatoes. But more on this later.
We woke to a beautiful morning this morning and a wall of water coming in from the Atlantic. Everyone had a skip in their step coming over for breakfast. The surf and English classes went to their respective classrooms (The orange room & The Atlantic Ocean) while the culture class were joined by Paddy and Jose Luis and set off for Donegal town with me.
Donegal is not the county town (capital) of County Donegal, despite being its namesake. 
It is however, a very pretty if rather touristy town about twenty minutes from the camp. Donegal Town itself is famous for being the former home to the O’Donnell Clan, who played a pivotal role in Irish history. From the 15th to the 17th century, they provided the main opposition to the colonisation of Ireland by England
Our destination was Donegal castle situated in the centre of Donegal town, For most of the last two centuries, the majority of the buildings were in ruins but the castle was almost fully restored in the late 1990s.
The castle consists of a 15th century rectangular keep with a later Jacobean style wing. The complex is sited on a bend in the Eske River, near the mouth of Donegal bay, and is surrounded by a 17th boundary wall. There is a small gatehouse at its entrance mirroring the design of the keep. Most of the stone work was constructed from locally sourced limestone with some sandstone. The castle was the stronghold of the O’Donnell clan, Lords of Tír Conaill and one of the most powerful Gaelic families in Ireland from the 5th to the 16th centuries. Elliot being our military expert enjoyed the trip staircase built to favour the defender . Jose Luis and Carles were much taken with the amazing roof –photos tomorrow-Trent, Kyle and Nat enjoyed the whole tour and paddy enjoyed not having to put on a wetsuit for once !
We than did a bit of shopping and headed back to the camp to have lunch for the first time in our newly opened canteen in our new Homefield House hostel.
Today was Dickie’s birthday so he got to pick today’s activity. An excellent surfer, climber and gaelic footballer, Dickie’s best sport is bodyboarding, for which he has represented Ireland. Passionate that done right that it’s just as good as surfing, Dickie, Kyle, Roisin and Neil took the gang down to main beach and had a brilliant session.
The highlight of the day was still to come. Tonight was talent show night! After a few hours to prepare, we kicked the show off about 10. Our first act was the kitchen crew- Emma, Constantin, diarmuid, Mary Kate and Trent playing pots, pans and jam jars with spoons. Now as they drove me demented practicing all day, I was not looking forward to 
this but boy was I wrong. They were fantastic-back out rhythms with perfect timing. Santi and Fede followed with some impressive hurling and soccer skills –
David was next and showed off his double jointed-ness (not sure that’s a word) in the sort of fascinating and repulsive show only a 12 year old boy can put on-he was great and as they went the bed the kids were still asking him to do it!
Our international supergroup was next –Iannis, Kyle, David , Elliot, & Flippo were the air band to end all air bands, Kyle’s keyboard playing, Iannis taking off his guitar in the middle an David’s ultra cool Teutonic front man were particular highlights.
Victor, Nacho, Marc & Joan were next with their version of ”Baila el Chiki Chiki” Spain’s Eurovision entry-the boys were hysterical. More comedy next with Jessie, Leanne, Martina and Lyna doing a sketch based on what boys are like. Very funny (and very true too J )
Our next two acts were dance acts with Big Marc doing a fantastic routine followed by Albert with maybe an even better dance accompanied by Diarmuid on the saucepan!
Xenia, Anna, Laura and the other Anna were next with a very funny sketch about making a movie and then Paddy & Alejandro were next with a nursery rhyme-brutal and side splittingly funny at the same time, they were asked up for an encore!
Dickie was next with both Pau’s and Sebastian and sang the pirate song which Dickie learned in school when he was 6!
Carles played a little Spanish guitar for us and then just to show how brilliant he is, he then played the guitar one handed while juggling something his grandfather used to do. Amazing. I’m telling you I might keep him, David and Albert and put on a little traveling show-it would pay for this year’s trip to vegas J
Brian who is working night duty tonight than played an excellent bit of Spanish guitar (he’s from Sligo!) Then our own Roisin played a couple of songs. Roisin is a fantastic singer and guitar player and gigs all around Ireland and blew the gang away even when I insisted that she changes the words of Valerie to Collie !
Despite the fact I would have thought they were totally sick of hearing me, the gang insisted I get up and to a couple of my party pieces to close the show. And close the show I did!
They are all snoring away as I write this, I put up a load of photos today in the gallery and hope to put more up tomorrow
Collie
Ps the reason I feel so unwell is that following on from yesterdays biscuit conversation and that while we are very sensible with the care of your children, we are idiots when with each other, Dickie, Roisin Brian and myself decided to see to follow yesterday’s have a nice cup of tea and a sit down. We also went to the shops and bought as many different packets of biscuits we could find and decided to see how many we could eat –not gorging- Brian dropped out at a pathetic 11, Rosie at a respectable 17 (she’s a tiny wee thing) and Dickie and myself decided to call it a draw at the ridiculous total of 28. The gang were highly amused by our antics and were delighted when we finished up because they got all the leftovers.
Tomorrow I’m only eating fruit.
Hello Collie here, reporting on another action packed day from Donegal.
Today the camp split into two –the English camp and most of the surf camp stayed in Bundoran, while the culture class, joined by Martina, Diarmuid, Leanne and Emma got into the bus with Dickie and myself. Poor Jose Luis was feeling a bit ill so we left him in bed. But more on him later.It was a pretty rainy start to the day but we headed off undaunted. Meanwhile back at the camp, the surfers didn’t mind the rain once the word got around-big waves today. In fact the waves were so good that everyone of them from new kids on the block like little David, Marry Kate and Lyna to veterans like Constantin all went for a second surf where they were joined by the English class.
We all unaware of this as we were all trundling towards Glencolmcille, hoping the rain would stop. And lo and behold it did, just when we arrived.
Firstly a little background. Glencolmcille or Glencolumbkille (official name: Gleann Cholm Cille)[1] is a coastal town located on the southwest Gaeltacht tip of County Donegal, Ireland.
The name translates into English as the Valley of Saint Columba. Saint Columba (Irish: Colm Cille) is one of Ireland’s three patron saints (along with Saint Patrick and Saint Brigid). Colm Cille and his followers lived in the valley and the ruins of several of their churches can still be seen there. Following a dispute with the church about the right to copy religious manuscripts, Colm Cille went into exile on the isle of Iona off the west coast of Scotland.
There we stopped for lunch and the world’s nicest soup-seriously it’s fantastic, last year Leanne said it was the nicest soup she’d ever had aside from her mum’s. this year she admitted it might actually better. Then we ordered two of the biggest pots of steaming hot Irish tea. Divine
When we emerged, our wishes had come true, the weather had passed and we were able to see the beautiful valley. We 
did a quick tour of the folk village and then headed off to the Silver Strand (An Trá Bhán in Irish) a beautiful beach which are accessed by about two hundred steps. We all charged down for a paddle and walked considerably slower back up them-except for Elliot and Dickie who decided to run, a decision they soon regretted much to our amusement.
On the bus, we had gotten into a strange discussion over which was the best biscuit you can have with a cup of tea. To our international readers a biscuit is like a cookie but we deemed choclate chip cookies etc ineligible. Ireland may not lead the world in cuisine, but for a cup of tea and a biscuit we are hard to beat. Because of this, we stopped off in a small shop-so small in fact the proprietor recognised me from last year-and bought a load of biscuits including kimberely and mikado (Irish people will know what I’m on about) 
and munced away on the bus.
Then to much amusement on the bus Dickie & I rang pretty much everyone we knew to ask them what their favourite biscuit was. The most popular were custard creams, Mikado, Toffee Pops and a choclate digestive-but it’s an ongoing survey (really even the kids who didn’t know what a biscuit was, are now asking everyone )so final numbers have yet to be talleyed-what’s yours?
Much like yesterday however, we had saved the best to last. As we had only a small bus, we braved the massive incline and windy roads and went to Slieve League. A stunning set of sea cliffs, 601 metres or 1972ft. I can not find the words to give this stunning vista credit. Just get off your bums now, book your tickets and come and see it. We took lots of photos and we even sent a few via phone to poor Jose Luis who would have loved it. But we had quite an experience waiting for him on our return. For days the gang have been plaguing to the local funfair-so tonight we went. The kids really enjoyed it, went on all the rides.Jose Luis, surrounded by flashing lights and noise thought he was in hell. Clearly a great place to bring a bunch of kids on night near the end of their holiday, not a place to bring a biologist
Collie
ps as to what my favourite biscuit is ?
can I just say as part of todays biscuit conversation we discovered this website whose mission statement is -
“Well I think we should all sit down and have a nice cup of tea, and some biscuits, nice ones mind you. Oh and some cake would be nice as well. Lovely.”
How fantastic is that?
pps You think we’re all mad don’t you?
ppps Big hello to ETT (Eimear the Teacher) who is tuning in even though she’s in India but would have loved today’s conversation!
Oh hello from some very happy campers tonight-we’ve had what I think was our best night so far-the only problem is, every time we have a really good night it means I end up doing short posts and neglecting my gallery! Speaking of which I did manage to put up quite a few shots today including the elusive Fede and Alejandro. Check them out here.
Our day started in the usual fashion with surf / classes for all. Culture camp did a little Gaelic today-well quite a lot actually-followed by a cultural experience-an episode of Father Ted. Father Ted is a very surreal Irish sit com about three priests who live on an isolated island. Very odd and very funny, Nat & Elliot really enjoyed it –Jose Luis looked fairly bemused throughout though.
This afternoon the campers had a choice between surfing and Zip Line & trapeze –The surf wasn’t great so a lot picked the climbing options. The trapeze is one of my favourites –they have to climb a 40ft pole and then jump of it and grab the trapeze (with a safety line of course) I should also clarify whenI say it’s one of my favourites, I mean one of my favourites to watch !
But we had saved the best to last-we have an activity here called the nightline, which is a blindfolded assault course. This year, however, as we have so many repeats students, we decided to relocate it to Knather forest, which is about 5 k away. Dickie, Neil, Ken and Fiddy went up during their dinner break to set up and awesome course. We got the gang to put on their blacked out goggles on the busses then drove them to the forest-It was hilarious-aside from the natural hazards we had strung the rope around, the lads had armed themselves with a few litres of water too-just to make it a bit more challenging. It was hilarious-the only complaint being that they thought an hour of crawling around the forest, unable to see, being soaked with buckets of water was too short!! Alejandro was particularly funny, little Lyna particularly brave and Santi, well particularly soaked! It was probably both the most enjoyable night both students and staff have had-which is saying a lot!
we finished the night off by watching a classic Airplane which they enjoyed but not nearly as much as myself and Dickie who giggled our way through it much to the amusement of the kids
Collie
ps Day trip for some of us tomorrow and I promise to try and put up some of the nightline photos and tell you all about our day-I keep meaning to more of this sort of stuff but all this fun stuff keeps getting in the way!
pps Hi Anabelle-I’ll look for it and send it with your photos
Hello from lovely sunny Donegal. Yes at last Ireland has remembered it’s supposed to be summer and we’ve had two warm bright days in a row.
Sunday morning started with optional surf for the gang-most of them took the option-decent waves and warm weather, why wouldn’t you. The land lubbers were taken to the Lion’s paw, a series of caves down by the shore. They seemed to have a great time, exploring the caves and from the sound of it, harassing starfish. Needless to say our resident biologist Jose Luis was in his element!
Speaking of JL he organised the afternoons entertainment-a karoke competition for all and sundry. Now I wasn’t there – I was under strict orders from Dickie, Roisin & El Locomotora to take the afternoon off.- Xenia & Albert were the best singers but I am reliably informed that Kyle was the absolute star of the show, Staying Alive being of particular note.I used the time to watch my old schoolmate Padraig Harrington win the Britsh Open. Well done padraig It’s probably just as well I wasn’t there, as my singing voice was a bit wobbly after a night singing my heart out to Chris De Burgh. I have to say, we went for the joke and aside from a few dreaded “here’s one from the new album” moments- he was really good. No band just him and the guitar or piano. Really it was quite embarrassing how much I enjoyed it.
This evening the gang went off to the cinema to see Wall-e with Rachelle (really she spells it that way, weird huh?) & Roisin, which was meet with generally good reviews from the kids if not the rave reviews I’ve read so far in the press. I stayed here with Mary- Kate who was feeling a little poorly but is much better now after an evening’s rest and a huge amount of toast. We started working on all the pictures from yesterdays tour and we’ll try and get them up tomorrow while the gang are in class.
Collie
ps I would have written more but Jose Luis & Rachelle keep distracting me with paper clip sculptures and asking me to sing more Chris de Burgh..well ok the last bit might just be me.
Greetings from a really sunny Ireland. Saturday is tour day so after breakfast and organising a packed lunch for everyone, we clambered aboard the bus and headed off. Guerilla Tourism was the phrase we coined for the day-off the bus, see the sights, back on the bus and on to another spot
Our first stop was Creeveykeel Court Tomb. Dating from the Neolithic Period, 4000-2500 BC, This site is one of the finest examples of a Court Cairn in Ireland. It has a cairn, entrance passage, an oval court and a double chamber 
gallery. The Tomb was excavated in 1935 and shortly afterwards restored The excavations uncovered four cremation burials, decorated and undecorated Neolithic pottery, flint arrow heads, polished stone axes and other artefacts, including a chalk ball. This is an amazing site and I would strongly recommend that you take the time to visit this fine tomb the next time you are in the area.
Our next stop was the spectacular cliffs of Annacoona. The cliff face contains small mine entrances, testament to a bygone age when the mineral barytes was extracted from here. The corner of this valley forms a natural amphitheatre, the result of the last ice age when glacial action plucked the limestone from the back wall of the cliff. A challenge to rock climbers and a botanists (and our Spanish biologist) delight as these cliffs are rich in arctic alpine plants which cling to the north facing walls. More than ten species of rare Irish plants grow here including mountain avens, green spleenworth, mossy saxifrage and holly fern.
The area is strongly linked to the irish tale of Diarmuid & Grainne which I retold using our own Diarmuid playing..well Diarmuid and Laura playing Grainne. The cave in which Diarmuid and Grainne slept their last night is clearly visible, high on the mountain, behind the old school building. According to legend, the ultimate demise of the illfated lovers was tragically enacted on Ben Whiskin’s slopes, that beautiful wave-like peak on your left as you leave the valley.
We finished our tour with a quick stop off at a favourite of ours, Glencar waterfall. Situated just outside Manorhamilton is the beautiful Glencar Waterfall. W.B. Yeats made this enchanting waterfall famous in his poem, “The Stolen Child”. It is by no means a large waterfall, but enchanting nonetheless and is beside Glencar Lake.
I will have lots of photos up and I will add a second part to this blog tomorrow but I’m afraid I’ll have to sign off now as while the kids are having a basketball tournament with Steven and Tara, I have a night off and due to a bad joke over a year ago I’m going to see Chris De Burgh tonight.. I also let you know how that went J
Collie
P.S. thanks for posting Liz-obviously the beatings worked
Hey from Ireland once more-wow another crazy day here at the DAC. We’ve been really busy today. Friday is the day everyone arrives or departs not to mention room cleaning and changing.As most of you reading this are the parents of teenagers who understand how difficult it is to get one teenager to tidy their room, you can imagine what it’s like persuading 42 teenagers that moving a pile of clothes from one corner of a room to another corner does not constitute cleaning. Although in fairness ,they were all pretty good about it and most of them had their rooms spotless in no time at all. Then they went surfing and came back and destroyed the rooms again.
Augie and Timothee left early this morning-then we bid a sad farewell to Anabelle, Kevin & Conor who headed off for Dublin airport at noon. And a little later Nicole & Charlotte were picked up here at the camp. We also said a much more rushed goodbye to our old friends TiffanEy, Liz and Sienna (rushed cos they decided to grab a last surf and run for the bus rather than leave with the others) We as always were sad to see these three girls leave but we know we’ll see them again real soon. Maybe even working here if they have anything to do with it.
We are delighted though to say we have three new visitors, Lyna who is from France and Mary Kate and David who co-incidentally are both from Northern Ireland. David’s big brother Peter was here a few years ago and we were glad to meet David who is here to carry on the tradition.
Today English class had their weekly exam as usual and while I’m not privy to results but when I peeked in everyone seemed to be working really hard. The surf today was pretty good but our guys are pretty fussy now that they are two weeks into the program so some elected to forego a second surf and come and dance in public for the Discovery Jones camera-I thought they’d be mortified to dance in public but it didn’t faze them one little bit. Now I have promised to write more about our movie star days and I will but for the first and I promise only time this year I’m going to plead tiredness and sign of early tonight as I’ve an early start in the morning as we are going on a day trip all around Sligo and the surrounding areas tomorrow.
Collie
Ps good to see Frederic´s parents on the site and even though we don’t have the same traditions over her we celebrated his saints day too.
PPS St Colm’s day (the saint I’m named after) is on June 9-I just looked it up-if anyone wants to send me anything next year!
I’m promising myelf that I’m only going to write a very short post tonight-it’s past two over here and while these post might look like it only tekaes a second to write, they take a little longer than that!
Crazy day today-we’ve had our TV crew from Discovery Jones in, so we’ve all been mugging for the camera-they said I was a natural-so I now longer resent Niamh getting attention (see post below) They didn’t even want to talk to her!
Surfing, climbing, zip lining were the order of the day but the cameras are here tomorrow as well so I’ll cover everything in a long blog then. This evening we went to the cinema-the older gang went to wanted, the others went to Prince Caspian or Mama Mia-all were met with mixed reviews with the exception of our Liz who loved Mama Mia
We’ve had another lovely day but the crew have gone to bed with a touch of sadness. Tomorrow Nicole & Charlotte, Anabelle, Conor & Kevin, Timothee and stalwarts Augie, Liz, TiffanEy & Sienna all depart the camp. Sad though they are, they all are exchanging email addresses and numbers and making plans to meet up here next year. Now I know all kids when leaving camp make plans to return but it tends to happen here! Just ask, Trent, Diarmuid, Flippo, Paddy, Leanne, TiffanEy, Augie, Constantin, Sienna, Victor, Marc, Sharon, Aoife, Cian, Leeroy Santi…..Collieps look on the brightside it might cost you but you’ve got something to bribe them with all year long
Hi to everyone out there in cyber-land,
Just finished another week of the cultural stuff with my super students, Kyle, Nat, Charlotte, Nicole, Carles, Eliot, Trent & Jose Louis. This week, we explored the aftermath of the Famine, the sequence of land acts that returned property to Irish Catholics, we had a brilliant class on the Irish cultural revival, which lead us to a whole debate on how culture inspires politics, and how political thinking can be reflected in contempory culture. We began with the example of writers such as O’ Casey, Synge, Yeats and how their interpretation of events such as the 1912 lock out and 1926 rising influenced public opinion – also how public opinion inspired art – the ballads and songs of these eras are all rebellious and chest-thumping. Then we began to discuss contemporary culture in the USA, against the current political backdrop – movies like ‘There will be blood’ and ‘No Country for old men’ with their bleak and ominous endings, ‘Cloverfield’, - the threat of the unknown… by the way, the phrase ‘No Country for old men’ is from a W.B. Yeats poem, - how cool was that for integration!
We went on to identify the politics behind those who supported a bid for Home Rule in Ireland, and those who aspired to total independence – we paused to take in the movie Michael Collins – and we examined the circumstances which lead to the 1916 rising ; The declaration of Irish Independence was made by poet Padraic Pearse, and I told our students at the general apathy in Ireland, Dublin in particular to this small band of rebels. However, the subsequent execution of the leaders of the 1916 rising a few days afterwards turned the tide of public opinion very much – which lead us to discuss how propaganda and spin work, particularly in today’s world. I won’t elaborate, but we had fantastic imput from all the class – opinions from Canada, Mexico, Spain and the USA.
We continued on with the establishment of the Irish consitition, and De Valera’s isolationist idea of an Ireland with the young colleens dancing at the crossroads. We talked about the very powerful church during these times- in the 60’s when my students’ parents were hippy chicks or beatles fans, Ireland was still very much a poor, dysfunctional country. Much of the literature reflects this- the work of Brian Friel (superb playwright, oh please go and see his work!) explores the problems of communication between parents and children, husbands and wives, men and women, - the poetry of Patrick Kavanagh, (And subsequently, Seamus Heaney) examines the plight of the rural men and women who lived in a vacuum of ignorance, shame and shyness…
‘A road, a mile of kingdom, I am king
Of banks and stones and every blooming thing’
We then looked at the underlying causes of the troubles in Northern Ireland, the conflict between Protestant & Catholics, the emergence of the IRA, the response of the Black and Tans, Margaret Thatcher and her contribution – which of course meant we digressed into a whole debate about terrorism and guerrilla warfare, anti-terrorist policies and so on. We compared it to all that’s going on in the USA, the lads told us all about the patriot act, which I was really interested in, I didn’t know too much about it. I also have to explain how the spectrum works in our class- Nat is our superbly informed radical, (Dad, I hope you are very proud of him!) Trent is equally intellectual, less radical though, Elliot is really interesting, he has joined the Marines, and he also is super knowledgable about Ireland, his parents and grandparents have taught him well, and Kyle has a very thoughtful and insightful approach to politics. As I said before, these boys make me very hopeful for the future. Charlotte and Nicole, who have been a little quieter came into their own this week, we had very informative discussions about Quebec and the French Canadian communities, - and Carles & Jose Luis bring the Basque Country, Catalonia and Galacian territories to the table, so we learn that Spain isn’t just Spain! Opinions range from anarchist to conservative, with me playing devil’s advocate when needed!
It is a delightful thing, as I try and age gracefully, that my Irish history course has a much happier ending than it used to have. In the dark days of the conflict in Northern Ireland, hope was, as Emily Dickenson wrote, ‘the thing with feathers’. But, as I explained to my students, there have been dramatic changes in the lifetime of this programme. The intervention of the Clinton administration – hey, all I can say is that Bill took extraordinary risks with the ‘Irish Question’, so if you dislike him for all that other stuff, I’m sorry, but he did a helluva job for us- anyway, the combination of Tony Blair in the UK, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, and Clinton saw a unique drive to solve the Northern problem, and combined with various leaps of faith of both Irish republicans and unionists, the Anglo-Irish peace process has been a resounding success. I told the kids that there was a pic in the paper recently of Ian Paisley (unionist) and Martin Mc Guinness (Sinn Fein) that I never thought I would see – to put in context, this is like seeing Osama & George W. having a cup of tea together. Check this out-
We discussed how Ireland has become a prosperous country, solving its huge political problems, embracing its affiliations with Europe and the U.S.A, and how much has become positive here.
We ended today with an invite to each of my students to do a short presentation to the class on a topic of their choice- all of the kids were great, but I am going to nominate my three favourites- first of all, Charlotte, who is quite shy and quiet, and who did a funny and informative presentation on her own, all about the perceptions v the realities of Canadians. She told us, vehemently, that all Canadians do not all live in igloos! Then she spoke to us about her Grandfather, who established a ski resort in Canada, and who, by all accounts, was quite the entrepreneur. It was a most interesting and well delivered presentation, well done girl! Secondly, Kyle had a well prepared and really interesting presentation on the secession of native American Indians from the USA, - it was an appropriate topic considering what we had been discussing, and he had prepared well. Thirdly, Carles introduced us to Medieval writer Ramon Llull-He wrote the first major work of Catalan literature. I must admit that I had never heard of him, and straight after the class, I was reading up about him on wikipedia. Great stuff!” Honorable mentions to Nat- who did the secession of Vermont, Trent, who covered the history of animosity between The Yankees & The Redsox, (no guesses for whose side he was on!), Anabelle, who discussed the differences between the stereotype of Mexico and the realities, Nicole, who did a similar topic re Canadian stereotypes, Elliot, who discussed Hawaiian independence & the influence of the military, and Jose Luis… now I must explain that J-Lo is a biologist and the leader of the Spanish group. He is 24, and has been a very enthusiastic student, but all the kids tease him about being a biologist- so he did his presentation on ….Lactose Intolerance! Ok, it had absolutely nothing to do with anything, but it was actually a really interesting presentation, explaining the genetic and geographical reasons behind lactose intolerance. And after all – he is a biologist!
We have all of this on video, and I’m going to work with people who understand technology to put some tape together for you all – I hope my outline does justice to it all! Sadly, we are losing Charlotte, Nicole and Anabelle from the class as they are only staying for two weeks, but it has been great teaching them, and I hope they remember some of what they’ve learnt over the last two weeks. My boys are here for another week, so lots more arguing to come!
I’ll get Collie to get some pics and video up soon, and I hope you enjoy reading a little bit about what we have been doing! Best wishes to you all – please feel free to leave a comment, I am very interested in what you think of all this! And Collie hates it when I get some attention 
Niamh
I suppose for everything there must be a balance-for every yin there must be a yang-for every north theres a south, for every Niamh, there’s a Collie . Which makes me wonder is that why the weather hasn’t been great-is it because we are having so much fun it has to be a bit rainy to strike that balance-that our spirits can’t be dampened but our students can be? Not to mention my car, I left my window open while we were in Sligo. Wet bottom all the way home. D’oh
As you can tell from my rather silly tone, we’ve had another very enjoyable day today. I’m writing this from home, as the very capable Dickie is looking after the kids this evening-I love our crew -genuinely they might be the best mix we’ve ever had but a gentleman sometimes needs 5 minutes to himself to recharge the old batteries. Not to mention, we’ve got the tv cameras in tomorrow morning so I have to make myself (more) beautiful. This morning after we woke up all the sleepyheads, the class started as usual-the surf camp were all excited as the big waves remained. We went surfing in Streedagh, a beach between Bundoran and Sligo which is one of the kids favourites. One of the joys of being based in Bundoran, is that we rarely have to cancel surfing when the conditions turn too big as there are so many surf spots locally, we can just relocate to the safest and most suitable surf break. In the afternoon ,we all clambered on to the Innisfree bus and headed off to Sligo which is a pretty town about thirty minutes away from camp. Here Jose Luis took lots of photos of ducks, Marc & Albert thought T K Max was the greatest shop they’ve ever been in. A load of the lads bought sliothars (sch-lit-ers- the ball used in hurling) and hurleys so Dickie was really proud of them. Nicole, Charlotte, TiffanEy, Liz, Sienna, Emma, Anna, Martina and Leanne went shopping mad. Anabelle bought oreos-I didn’t even know you get them in Ireland but there you go. And I’m fairly certain Constantin, Paddy and Flippo bought noodles.
After dinner, we made a big fuss of Leanne because A) she deserves it for being one of the nicest girls ever to walk through our doors and B) it’s her birthday Yay!!! (don’t worry we won’t forget about Kyle tomorrow)And to all of you around the world- feel free to send them birthday messages whether you know them or not. Collie
Ps apparently the Meat Loaf gig went ahead tonight but that’s old hat, because tonight I found out that this man is part of the DAC family. And while it mightn’t mean a lot to our international family –or perhaps to our younger audience, Niamh and I were so stoked, totally want a signed poster for our new hostel. Rocky you’re a legend! Now if we could only find someone who knows Pat McManus
pps more photos in the gallery including, Paula, half of Kevin’s head
Sad news for Bundoran. Meatloaf was supposed to play a gig here tonight but cancelled at the last minute. However luckily for you the other large, loud man in Bundoran tonight is still workingJ
We had a really good day today, Culture class decided to relocate for the day and went to the bridge bar for coffee and a political discussion. Niamh promises to include all the details in her Thursday culture blog. I think she’s afraid I’ll take the words right out of her mouth.
English class went ahead as usual but the real buzz was with the surf camp who had checked the internet last night and knew there was due to be a really big swell so for once waking them was no problem and they were out of bed like a bat out of hell to get to the surf. They were hoping for an offshore wind, big waves and a sunny morning. The waves and wind were perfect but it was a little dull this morning. Still two out of three ain’t bad.
In fact it was so good that we decided to cancel our plans for this evening and we put on another surf for everyone. The waves were even better and it was a glorious summers evening here in Bundoran. Even Anabelle and Alejandro said they were warm. It was almost dark when we dragged them out of the water. As we drove home we could see a bus full of very happy surfers lit by the dashboard light.
(Ok ay I’m going to start writing normally now, and stop trying to put Meat Loaf lyrics into the text as it’s getting late and the only other song I can remember is Objects in the rear view menu…kudos to you if you got all the lyric references-and for those of you who don’t know Meat Loaf-what were you listening to in the seventies? Well a lot of the kids want to see Mama Mia on Thursday so I suppose I can try for ABBA on that blog)
After surfing, when they arrived back, I had packets and packets of noodles waiting for them (I know but it’s what they wanted-Constantin in particularly is a huge fan) and settled down to watch amovie on the projector in the orange room.In-between the surf sessions, we did all aboard-one of my favourite climbing activities. This is where four kids have to climb a 40 ft pole and balance on top of it (don’t worry they have safety ropes). It’s really good fun and just scary enough to get the adrenaline going. Augie says to mention that he was the first one up. Paula, Kevin still can’t believe you want photos of him –he says you know what he looks like but I tried to explain to him that’s not how mums work. Iannis was very amused that his mum knows he’s not going to call for three weeks. Elliot, Kyle & Nat told me to say hi to their families which I take it means they haven’t called home either. But hey it means they’re having a good time.
Speaking of which can I say hi to my family too, see you on July 25th
Anyway it’s after midnight (at the lost and found) I’d better
sign off because to quote Meat Loaf
Baby we can talk all night
But that aint getting us nowhere
I told you everything I possibly can
Theres nothing left inside of here
Actually that’s not true there’s loads more stuff about David, Emma, Martina, Diarmuid, Trent, Leanne, Nicole, Charlotte, our gang from Catalonia, not to mention Jessie who announced today she’s staying for another week (Yay) but I’m going to bed!
Collie
p.s. Santi ate my chunky kit-kat that I was saving for my cup of tea tonight-I told him I was going to tell the world in revenge
Oops another rather late post tonight but with good reason. The much vaunted surprise is up on the gallery page. We always try our best to get a good selection of pictures of the kids but some of them have an uncanny knack of avoiding the camera. So each of us recorded a little message to say hello to the folks at home and so you could see who your kids were spending their time with. Some of them are a little hard to hear but I think you’ll enjoy it nonetheless. I’ve also put a good few pictures up from the last few days with more to follow.
Don’t forger to check out the new gallery page http://www.adventure-ireland.com/newweb/pages/gallery.html
A rare early post from me today. This mainly because the gang are upstairs watching Step up 2 so I decided to give it a miss and do some work (For a changeJ )
We had a morning surf planned today but while it was a nice warm sunny morning, the ocean was pretty flat-ok for beginners but not for a gang. So we had a little meeting and the consensus was to go to the beach anyway-some played a little soccer, some just lay back and enjoyed the weather and a couple including Jessie, Paddy and Leanne decided to go for a dip in the ocean, enjoying not having to wear a wetsuit for a change.
In the afternoon, we worked on a little something for you guys which you will see tomorrow. Then we split into a few groups, Augie, Martina, Timothee, Paddy, Flippo, Big Marc, TiffanEy, Sienna, Iannis, & Sebastian went to the school next door with Melissa to play a little basketball, Pau, both Annas, Trent, Emma, Jessie, Leanne, decided to redecorate our yellow room a little with Morgan while Santi, Albert, Joan, Carles & other Pau played cards. A good few including Nat and “I don’t get tired” Elliot went for a nap! Smart people Conor (our gaelic expert) , Kevin, and Diarmuid decided to watch the Munster Hurling final between Tipperary and Clare with me. If you don’t know what hurling is click here for a little video. Mad huh?
Here we were joined by an ever increasing number of kids who watched in amazement at this brilliant game. They were even more surprised when they found out the players are amateurs. For anyone who’s interested Tipperary won by seven points although Jessie who is from Clare didn’t seem too worried.
This evening we went back out to our high ropes course were we decided that mere climbing wasn’t good enough for us so we opted to do the (mothers look away now) high balance beams and tightropes blindfolded. I have lots of photos of this, the Gaelic match and various other shenanigans we’ve been up to upload, which I’ll do in the am tomorrow. Now I know I promised to do this today but myself and the Train (Jose Luis) were working on a little treat for you which you’ll see more of tomorrow. Trust me, it’s worth it.
Collie
Back to the hectic schedule tomorrow which includes Gaelic language, surfing for all, and then Dickie’s sister is going to teach them all how to do Irish dancing.
Saturday is usually an excursion day, and this Saturday was no different. Rosin and Dickie were up early making sandwiches for the trip and they all clambered on the bus leaving poor Uncle Collie behind. They promised to bring me some cake but returned empty handed
However all the students had a nice day out. I know they have really enjoyed their first 9 days at the camp but 
still they needed a day away from it for a break. Letterkenny which is Donegal’s largest town was our destination, about an hour West of Bundoran. Here the gang indulged in a spot of retail therapy and I think generally enjoyed an urban setting for a change.
On our return after dinner, we all got togged out for game of Gaelic football. For those of you who have never seen it here is a link to a classic game-I suppose Gaelic football is best described as a cross between soccer, rugby and basketball. (Australian rules football derived from it) To score you can put the ball over the bar (but in-between the posts) or in the goal similar to soccer (although the goals are much smaller) it’s a really tough fast and fun game and everyone was fairly gung ho. Instructors Dickie, Morgan and Adam are all excellent players, (Dickie is on the Bundoran team)and they spent some time showing the gang some skills. Then it was time for the main event.
We split the gang up into two teams-Trish came over from the office to be the referee and threw the ball in to start the game. And it was most impressive. Some of the crew really showed a great knack for the game. However to my undying shame, none of these were Irish. Worthy of special mention are Iannis our quiet but charming Belgian, Martina, Marc, Kevin ,Alejandro, Augie (who did play last year but managed to injure himself by running into Victor after 5 minutes-they were kept well apart today and Jose Luis, the Spanish leader who is now known as the train or El Locomotora This is not so much for his ability to charge very quickly at people, more for his inability to change direction. However, for me, the real star of the show was Conor who proved a natural especially at the pick –up which is where you have to flick the ball up into your hands.
After the game some of the gang went to watch another group that we work with, globalworks, do a mural on our climbing tower (Pau, Anna, & Albert were really fascinated by this, I’ll post a picture tomorrow) and some of the others had a game of basketball where after a week of surfing, climbing & other extreme sports, Jose Luis and Anabelle both managed to cut their fingers. They are of course fine just a scrape but really basketball injuries! Is it any wonder why I’m going bald?
Collie
Oh what a silly night-Everybody is in flying form this evening. For all the sport, games & events we do sometimes it’s nights like this I remember most. We were having supper in the kitchen and rather spontaneously, we ended up singing songs from each of our nationalities. My argument was that while you guys may have the food, the weather, the fashion and maybe even the looks-we’ve got the music. After all we have won more Eurovision titles than anyone else. A fact that is both a source of contstant pride and eternal shame to me. At the same time. Somehow this ended up in my medley of songs which ended up with our new version of the Venezuelan national anthem as inspired by Alejandro-the boy is 
just so funny. I must stress this was in no way offensive to anyone from Venezuela or indeed anyone at all. (except perhaps music lovers) but we had so much fun just being silly with each other it’s been one of the highlights of the trip for me so far.
It was nice to have such a pleasant evening especially as the camp was a on a little bit of a downer after the gang left today-there were a few tears. the mood however was uplifted bythe arrival of our old friends Sienna and TiffanEy and newbies Emma who joined Leanne and Jessie who is Martina & Anabelle’s new roommate. (For those of you who weren’t reading last year -TiffanEys name is written this way due to a disagreement in spelling on last years blog:)
I’m going to leave it quite short tonight as between Nicky, Kyle, and Niamh’s blogs I think we’ve probably given you enough homework and as for my homework , Tara he says he has no credit -which I’m fairly certain is code for: If I say that she’ll buy me credit & then I can spend all my money on other stuff-a code I think most parents know -I have a load of photos resized and I’ll upload them tomorrow & Anabelle has a load of really good photos she wants me to put up on the web. Paula I’ll get one of Conor & Kevin too I promise. All day trip tomorrow, then some gaelic football.
Collie
ps ok gang that left I’ll mention you once more-Gemma, Sharon, Aoife, David,Cian, Leeroy, Eimhin, Alex, Giggler sorry George and of course Charles in charge, yes we all miss you and hope to see you next year. All though Sharon wondered would she be too old at 17-too old at 17, God they do make feel ancient sometimes
). We have Timothee and Sebastian from France, David who is German but lives in france, Ianis from Belgium, Anna from Madrid and our Barcelona gang including Marc, Fede, Joan, Xenia, Pau, Santi, Nacho, Anna and Laura. Santi was with us last year too and it’s great to see him back again.Hi all Moms and Dads, family & friends of SURF CAMP
This is Kyle here, filling you in on the DAC surf camp for this week. On Monday, we surfed all day – the waves weren’t great, but in the afternoon, a low tide saw Sharon, Gemma, George and Alex begin to make great 
progress in the water – becoming real surfers! On Tuesday morning, we checked conditions, and to everyone’s joy, the waves were bigger and better- everyone learned the term ‘stoked’, cos we all were! Tuesday morning saw Eimhin, Cian and Diarmuid ripping …(eh, that’s surfing really well, for those of you new to surf-speak..) On Tuesday afternoon, conditions were further improved by the appearance of THE SUN… and we all hit the water for possibly the best surf of the week – Victor and Marc as always, leading the pack, first in and last out! Charlie had been hiding his light under a bushel until then, because he suddenly appeared, catching some cracker waves. Martina is our current Italian surf-goddess, making girls around the world so proud-definitely the fastest learner and a super surfchick. One of the wonderful things about surfing is that there is equality- male or female, it doesn’t matter! A mention to supercool Conor, who zooms by with the surf shades on, and the irrepressible Leeroy, who probably spent more time under the water than on the waves, but ALWAYS comes up smiling. They say the best surfer is the one with the biggest smile…. Liz got rid of her ‘Chicken’ position and finally made the leap to becoming a very good surfer. The brother-sister duo Leanne and Paddy, veterans of the DAC are just perpetually happy – cruising the lineup with big smiles- Paddy’s Bruce Lee style is very ‘Kung Foo’, Leanne is graceful and accomplished. Flippo has managed to introduce gymnastics to surfing – catching a wave is not enough for him, he wants to do a somersault, cartwheel, …and Olypian of the future!
Constantin, Augy and David were surfing really well, improving all the time, and out newcomers, Pau, Aoife, Gemma, Sharon, Albert , Ali and Pau 2 were making good solid beginner progress.
On Wedensday, one of the dreaded flat spells hit-aghhhhhh no surf! So in order to find outr adrenaline fix, we went cliff-jumping instead. Yes- we brought them to the beautiful Rougey cliffs, and got them throwing themselves into the sea. The bravest went off ‘grass’ and the shyer chose lower points- I know, this sounds scary, but there is a wonderful natural deep lagoon down at our beach, and it is great fun to jump into the water from as high as you dare…and we are all there to make sure they jump properly, and do it safely…
Thursday, we had our surf-theory class – there is much to be learnt about safe surfing, about reading beaches and identifying rips and other hazards- about how to respond in an emergency, how to deal with difficulties – how waves and moving water works, … etiquette among surfers, who gets the waves,…we finished with a quiz, which the girls were sure they had one, but actually, it was a tie! We also got all the gang making their own mini-surfboards to bring home- some of our gang are leaving today, most will be staying on to surf all next week-
Friday morning- the last surf for David, Gemma, Eimhin, Cian, Leeroy, George & Alex…Charlie left at ten this morning L and we’re gonna miss these guys & gals- all really improved surfers and really good dudes to work with! I hope they had a magical experience, getting to know the ocean, Photos have been posted, and there will be more – meanwhile, this is Kyle signing off with best wishes to all, and a reminder that surfing is the answer to it all J