Harry Potter and the Post-Conflict Magical World

I. Love. Harry Potter.

I first started reading the books on my 11th birthday when my mom gave me the first book for my birthday. We read the first two books together, but then they got so good that I didn’t have the patience to only reading them for one hour a night together and would devour each one in turn on my own. Each new book was released in the summertime, right around my birthday and I had such fun going to the midnight book releases, especially back when midnight was waaay past my bedtime.

So of course I did my best to attend the midnight movie releases as well. My timing was just a bit off this summer, though, and I found myself on a plane to La Paz, Bolivia, during the US film release. I cannot tell you how excited I was when on day 2 of our Bolivian experience, we visited the mall and cinema and I saw that the 8th and final Harry Potter movie was showing – either dubbed in Spanish or in English with Spanish subtitles! [I really was having an amazing cultural experience too, but those blog-posts-to-be are floating around in a journal that I think I left in the US, so the rest of the story will have to wait.] My uncle Jim saw my excitement and agreed to take me to see the show a few evenings later. Then the altitude sickness hit and my dreams of seeing Harry Potter with Spanish subtitles in Bolivia (seriously, how cool would that be?!) quickly disappeared.

Fast forward six months and over Christmas break, I finally got to see the double feature of Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows, Parts 1 & 2, cuddled up on the couch with my cousins in Switzerland – I’m going to say that’s just as cool. But why the Harry Potter references you ask?

Well, some pretty intelligent minds put together a fantastic article published in Foreign Policy Magazine called Post-Conflict Potter, about the road to recovery for the magical world in a post-Voldemort society. The three authors write very insightfully about post-conflict transitional justice, reconciliation, governance reform, and international security, and it makes for a great introduction to a major facet of international peace studies in a very accessible and easy-to-relate way (for those of us raised alongside Harry Potter anyway, or anyone who’s read the books or seen the movies). Seriously, it’s well worth the read – check it out: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/08/11/post_conflict_potter.

As for me, I’ll return to my paper on the ethics of whether the international community should focus more on promoting reconciliation or accountability in post-conflict societies – and figuring out how to incorporate quotes from this article in the process.

Winter Break has arrived!

One of the most wonderful things about being back in school is that each fall and spring, I get a week-long mid-term break called Reading Week, and in between terms, get an entire *month* off. Well…the Irish system is a bit different in the sense that where I’m used to having all of my papers and exams done and submitted before the end of the term in December, my essays here aren’t due until the start of next term in January. This is a mixed blessing in the sense that while it’s nice to have the extra month to work on my final essay, it’s not the complete freedom of break that I was used to in the States. Still, that will have to wait until I return to Dublin because I am off to see the world this break!

Week 1: a little fun in the sun in Morocco
Weeks 2 – 3: a white Christmas and New Year fireworks in Switzerland
Week 4: work on that last pesky essay, with a class trip to Belfast for a few days too

Can’t wait!!!

Rombo Table Quiz

The Dublin Central Rotary Club had a table quiz fundraiser last night for the Light of Maasai charity that the club and district support in Rombo, Kenya. Elaine Bannon, a Dubliner, moved there to do community work after visiting the community during a safari about ten years and has been dedicating her life to improving the living conditions and food security for the local Maasai people ever since. You can read more about her story here – pretty inspiring and definitely giving me some ideas for a charity project at the end of my Rotary year.

It was also a fun opportunity for me to bring some friends along to see where I disappear to each Wednesday night. We had a great time at the quiz, though I realized just how much I need to brush up on my contemporary Irish knowledge:
- Who is the current Lord Mayor of Dublin? (Andrew Montague)
- What year was the Battle of the Boyne? (1690)

On the other hand, our table of international students was able to put our knowledge to use on a few questions here and there:
- What country is home to the Tamil Tigers? (Sri Lanka – we’d had a lecture on it just days earlier)
- Chicago is located on which Great Lake? (Michigan, where I vacation most summers)
- What is the currency in Mexico? (The peso – more common knowledge in the US than in Europe though).











It was a rough couple of rounds for those of us not raised in Ireland and a few years ‘less wise’ than our fellow competitors, but in the end, both the first-place and last-place teams won a bottle of wine, and while I’d rather not say which place we took, we did go home happy!

Santa "Fun" Run

A few months ago, my classmate Sarah told me about this amazing event in Dublin: the first weekend in December, you can get dressed up in a Santa suit and run a 5K along Clontarf – who wouldn’t want to do that?! As many of you know, I am not a runner, but I figured I could handle a 5K and hey, you get a “free” Santa suit with the entry fee, so why not?

Well…it turns out that the run is along the beach of Bull Run Island, which is a bit different than running on pavement. We got there nice and early since the nearest stop on public transportation was about 3 – 5K away from the starting line and we weren’t entirely sure where we were going, but it was easy enough to find and it was good to get out and breathe in some fresh (if a bit chilly) seaside air. Still, by the time we arrived to pick up and put on our suits, we were a bit chilly and less enthusiastic than we had been when we booked the adventure months before, so decided to take a few pictures jumping up and down for warmth and pre-race entertainment.

That was before the wind picked up and the rain came. The combination of splashing along through the puddles on the beach as I tried not to trip on my “one-size-fits-all” Santa pants, carrying my bags and camera on my back really wasn’t quite my cup of tea (and all along I really just wanted a hot cup of tea!), but the Santas of all shapes, ages, and sizes running along did provide some good entertainment and upon reaching the finish line, I was awarded a pretty cool Santa medal that combined with the hysterical ho-ho-ho-ing along the way made the day memorable, if not one I care to repeat anytime soon. I think for next year, I’ll leave the real Santa to do the deliveries in the future while I sit by a fire awaiting his arrival warm and dry and in clothes that fit me.

Trinity Christmas Tree

During the final week before winter break, it can be a little hard to get into the Christmas spirit with all the work that has to be done before the end of term, so it was a nice break from researching and essay-writing in the library to go watch the TCD Provost and his kids light Trinity’s first ever Christmas tree in the center square. With Christmas carolers singing and students sipping cocoa, it was a great way to kick off the Christmas season.

Mic Christopher Tribute Concert

Last night marked the ten year anniversary of the death of Mic Christopher, a beloved member of the Irish music community. He started busking (performing music for money) on Grafton Street (the main shopping street in Dublin, like Chicago’s Michigan Avenue) and around Dublin when he was 15 years old and was adopted into the music scene, playing with a number of Irish musicians and bands including the Frames and later founding the Mary Janes. After a performance in Grongingen, the Netherlands, a decade ago, he fell down a flight of stairs, hit his head, and was comatose for 11 days before he died on November 29, 2001.

It was a huge loss for the Irish music scene, so ten years later, his friends and some of his music idols got together to play a charity tribute concert. Glen Hansard, Mic’s best friend and one-time flatmate (some of you may know him from the movie Once - he's also in this photo playing a song with Mic Scott), seemed to organize the event and it was incredibly moving to see the way so many people who had looked up to Mic, called him a friend, and also those who Mic had looked up to, gathered together to sing – including at various times his daughter and father on stage as well. To give you a taste, here's a video of Mic and Glen busking on Grafton Street singing Mic's hit song "Heyday."

Not being a huge music aficionado myself, here or in the States, I’m glad my Nashville music-loving friend Christen told me about the show. We got up to the 2nd row (so I could see!), had a very Irish night, and saw one heck of a great value show!

Need Directions?

So on the way back from Fanore today, we stopped on the side of the road in town to consult the map for…if not fastest route back, then most scenic to Dublin. Within about 30 seconds, a kind man knocked on my window and asked if he could give us directions. Stuff like this is why I love Ireland.

So we set off on the scenic route that he assured us all the locals took – just 3 miles down the road, take a right at the circle with the flowerbeds, and a left after that. It’s faster than the main road, and has the best view in the country of Galway Bay. It’s not a T-intersection when you turn left though, just a left.

So we more or less followed those directions. Matt began to doubt just a bit after mile 5, but we did find the flowerbed a little further down, the correct left at a T-intersection, and one beautiful view. Lesson: ask the locals – they know!