Irish emigration was the topic of our workshop that Marc Ullrich (Germany), Fernando Reyero Noya, Eva Eiroa Rosado (both Spain) and Ulrika Hoonk (Sweden) had signed up for. On Sunday we had our first chance to talk to some people from Achill Island at our reception party. They openly told us their stories. Some had been born in Ireland and had emigrated but came back for different reasons. We wanted to know more about their interesting stories about their departures, the departures of their relatives, and their return and invited them to our workshop.
So on Monday morning we started our work by finding out what our expectations were and what we wanted to achieve. Thinking of our future guests we wanted to know why they had emigrated. Why are people moving? What about national identity and people’s roots? Do people lose their original identity? Where do you belong as an emigrant? Are you still Irish when you have lived in another country? So we had many questions to which we wanted to find answers during our workshop.

On Tuesday we had our first Irish guest at our workshop, Mark Chaddock, Poet and Artist from Achill Island. He has self-published four books of poetry. He offered to read some of his poetry to us in order to give us a glimpse of his perception of belonging, identity and emigration. Mark grew up in England because his parents had decided to go to England to make their living there. In England, Mark lived in a fast-growing industrial town. Actually Mark is three quarters Irish as his mother is from Achill with a long family tradition and there is Irish blood in his father’s family, too.
He was getting increasingly tired of the number of faceless people he saw every day. At the same time, he realised that his work in the field of Nursing Management had led him away from the things that he had wanted to do when he entered his professional life. These were factors that made him think of his origins again… and this is reflected in this poem and the sense of “wild sweet freedom” associated with his Irish home – and reaching freedom is what he considers one of the greatest achievements in his life which he has found again on Achill Island.

 

During our Wednesday session we had the chance to meet Mary Mc Namara and Kathleen English from Achill Tourism. We learned that people emigrated because there was no work on the island. Mary’s father went to Scotland for potato picking. Mary’s family moved over when she was seven years old. She returned because the Irish economic climate was much better. It was not their decision to go and so they kept thinking of Ireland. The move from Ireland to England was a difficult one because they moved to a very industrial area. She missed the freedom and the sea and the island. Often the fathers went and the families stayed behind as Kathleen’s father did. The Irish workers were not always welcome. In the windows of some companies or vacant flats, there were posters saying “No Irish need apply.”

Afterwards, Mark and Mara took our students on a tour of the island – showing them places of special interest and telling them about them. The main activity during our Friday session was the preparation of the final presentations for the farewell celebration. After a week of research, interviews and exploring, it finally was time to present our results to our guests and friends from Achill Island, fellow students and lecturers. The light was dimmed and soft Irish music fulfilled the room with mystery. Pictures from beautiful Achill Island passed in the background when Mark’s poems were read to the audience.
Touched and impressed by the poems and all the wonderful people we have met during the week we hope to see you again one day on Achill Island.
We hope that we were able to communicate some of our enthusiasm to those who attended the celebration. We enjoyed our time with our partners from Achill immensely – and we could sense some of the “wild sweet freedom” which brought so many people back to Achill (and hopefully us, too!).

By Nicole Slupetzky, Andreas Faulstich, Marc Ullrich

 

 

 

 

Belonging

Now that I have
made my
marks and symbols…

my truths
my myths
my stories

on both inner and outer landscapes…

Now I hear
the words beneath the silence…
and the wind has carved memories in me;

now I have buried folk…

“blow-in” no longer has meaning…

by Mark Chaddock

What would your life have been like if you were born on Achill Island, Ireland?
This was the leading question of the workshop for our participants. As our workshop required a very intercultural group of students, Antje & Theo (the workshop leaders) started during the preparatory online-phase to preselect the students. Five students were interested and formed our dream team: Ingrida from Lithuania, Frederick from the Philippines, Jesus from Spain, Michael from France and Matthias from Germany.
On our trainride from Dublin to Westport our first real task of the workshop started: The “borrowed identity” questionnaire. The students sat together in intercultural teams of two and interviewed each other. Every student was asked to fill in answers to several questions on identity and to make up an own Irish identity.
On Saturday the workshop members had their first real meeting and were introduced to the general idea of the workshop and the concept of borrowed identity. Our man on Achill, Karsten, managed to get us in contact with Mary, a real Irish mother from the Island, an open hearted and very friendly woman, working at Achill Tourism.
The workshop consisted above all of a role play that should be turned into a film later:
Mary plays the role of Mary and stays nearly the same as in real life. She is playing an Irish mother. Ingrida pretends to be her daughter and Jesus her son. The other students Frederick, Michael and Matthias pretend to be friends from abroad, visiting the family at their home. Through conversations the students shall get an insight into real Irish life.

On Sunday our scenario becomes really concrete as we meet Mary at the welcome reception. Mary accepts Ingrida and Jesus as her “children” at the very first moment. Surrounded by an intercultural catering, our participants introduced themselves and got to know each other and Mary better. Mary invites the students to her home for the next day, so that everything is perfect to make the role play as authentic and realistic as possible.
Since Mary leaves to Spain on Tuesday, Monday is our most important day and the role play takes place. During the morning we prepared everything for the meeting in the afternoon. During the morning meeting we got two new members for our workshop: Dot and Laurence. The students made a first test run for the role play with Dot as Mary. Dot did her job as a mother very well. Could it become much better in the afternoon? Nobody could imagine that.

At 13.30 p.m. we drove to Mary´s home and showed her the movie “Achill 2004” from last year, so that she could get an impression of the whole project and get used to the idea of being filmed herself. Afterwards we introduced our plannings for the next two hours:
The “new and old” children of Mary are coming home from school. Patrick (formerly known as Jesus from Spain) and Megan (formerly known as Ingrida from Lituania) sit down in the living room with Mary and start chatting. Suddenly the bell rings and three friends from abroad are warmly welcomed by Mary and her children.
The friends have a lot of questions about the Irish culture. They talk about life on Achill, about Guinness, Mary’s husband, the Irish language, and so on.
The filming of the role play worked out very good. Mary enjoyed our “intercultural” cake and she made a real Irish cup of tea for all of us. It was a very very exciting and memorable moment. And everything is on tape!
Everybody of the group did a really great job and now all are waiting for the final version of the documentation movie. We are looking forward to watching it and last but not least: A big group applause to Mary, we already miss you and we are looking forward to seeing you soon!

By Arnold Schenk and Antje Laacks