On Wednesday 21st of March our sixth year students once again headed south west on our annual trip to The Gaeltacht. The aim of this trip has always been to improve tudents fluency in the Irish language by giving them the opportunity to speak Irish only for three days. The group left Scoil Aireagail early and arrived in Killlarney around eleven am. They collected bicycles in the town and cycled to Rosses Castle where two boats awaited them. The boats then took them and their bikes on an hour trip from the lower lake in Killarney onto the middle lake until finally after reaching the upper lake they disembarked at Lord Brandon’s cottage. Their guide explained the history of the area to them as well as explaining some interesting facts about the National Park and wildlife. After having some light refreshments at the cottage they then began their assent from the famous Black Valley up the Mcgillycuddy reeks. Although very challenging at times everyone agreed that the views from above were nothing short of spectacular. They identified all the features of glaciation including U shaped valley, truncated spurs and paternoster lakes. They were so thirsty that they stopped at a mountain stream to get a drink. Before long they were making their decent down through the valley through The Gap of Dunloe. It was amazing. After cycling 26 km they finally arrived back in Killarney at half five. They then made their way to Dingle where they stayed for two nights. On Thursday they headed even further west on a trip around Slay Head. Unfortunately the weather conditions were poor but they didn’t let that dampen their spirits. They visited the Blasket Island centre where they were given an account of life on The Blaskets and the fame that many of its inhabitants reached due to the many books that that they wrote. No trip to The Dingle Gaeltacht would be complete without a trip to Páidi O’ Sheas pub. The spirit of the Legend is still to be felt within. Back to Dingle they went where they walked right up to the top of the town to the Famine Graveyard. There was a strange sense of eeriness and possibly despair. The trip was extremely beneficial to our students in many ways and they must be commended on the huge effort made by everyone on speaking their native language with such pride. Ní bheidh a leithéidí arís ann!.
