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Worldwide Learning Expedition
Cross-Cultural Educational Program The Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the USA
This program was made possible through cooperation with Sarah Quilty and David Simpson of the Department of Informatics at the University of Ulster, Bill Shay and Andy Krueger of Harvard University, Liam Tiernan, and many others from the US, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Irish schools participating in the program will include:
- St. Eugene's College, Roslea, Co Fermangh, Northern Ireland - led by history teacher Mr. Malachy McConnell
- St. Bricin's Vocational School, Belturbet, Co. Cavan, Republic of Ireland - Coordinator for Ireland-Boston link Mr. Frank Gilleece, Head of Computer Studies
U.S. schools participating will include:
- St. Johns, North End of Boston, MA, USA - led by Sister Eileen Harvey, Principal
- Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA - led by Andy Krueger, President of Harvard University Celtic Society
Program outline:
St. Eugene's College, Roslea, Co Fermangh, Northern Ireland
Co-ordinator for Ireland-Boston link Mrs. Kathlen Cadden,
Head of Business Studies and IT:
- 1 or 2 pupils speaking briefly about the history of Northern Ireland
- History teacher - Mr. Malachy McConnell,
- 1 pupil - reciting poem by Seamus Heaney
- English teacher - Ms. Mary McGinnity
- Music - 3 or 4 pupils singing - ballad and playing accordian
- Music teacher - Ms. Jackie Cassidy
Mid-Term Break
by Seamus Heaney, 1966
I sat all morning in the college sick bay
Counting bells knelling classes to a close.
At two o'clock our neighbours drove me home.
In the porch I met my father crying-
He had always taken funerals in his stride-
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.
The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram
When I came in, and I was embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my hand
And tell me they were 'sorry for my trouble'.
Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my hand
In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.
At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.
Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops
And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,
Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,
He lay in the four-foot box as in his cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.
A four-foot box, a foot for every year.
St. Bricin's Vocational School, Belturbet, Co Cavan, Rep. of Ireland
Co-ordinator for Ireland-Boston link Mr. Frank Gilleece,
Head of Computer Studies:
- Brief welcome/hello in Gaelic
- 1 pupil to explain where Belturbet is and a little bit about it
- 1 or 2 pupils playing a reel or jig
- Irish dance pupils explaining the 'behind the scenes' story about dance competitions and a little about their practice and outfits
- 2 or 3 pupils to talk about the Gaelic Athletic Association and the sports associated with it - hurling, Gaelic football and camogie
John at World Dancing
Competition in Ennis Co Claire Ireland | 
Students at Belturbet School, St. Bricin |
St. Johns, North End of Boston, MA, USA
- Introduction: Sister Eileen, Principal
- 8th grade students: Irish heritage in the North End of Boston/Immigration
- Brief history of Rose Kennedy
- "Honey Fitz" - Former Mayor of Boston
- Sing: "America The Beautiful"
Teacher Majoree E. Sarzana &
Sister Eileen Harvey, Principal,
St. John School, Boston, USA |
Students at St. John School, North End, Boston, USA |
| Harvard University - Celtic Society, Cambridge, MA, USA |
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- Caitlin Ellis Barrett - Harvard student will discuss the mission and work of the Celtic Society, and her thoughts about Ireland and the United States.
- Green Among the Gold - a song by Rosalind and Steve Barnes, arranged by the Harvard Celtic Society
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Green Among the Gold
Lives of toil on strangers' soil met Erin's sons and daughters,
Cast upon a foreign land, a far-off, western shore.
They dreamed of misty mountains and their
homes across the water;
They sang of Connemara and the homes they'd see no more.
Now limestone walls are all that's left of times of pain and failure.
This country yields the secret of the beauty that it holds.
And the tunes of Erin's isle are now the music of America,
For Irish hands have woven strands of green among the gold.
Chorus:
And so, upon a fireign shore, they sang their songs of Ireland.
They sent her sons and daughters here in the hungry days of old.
Now they play their jigs and reels beneath
the skies of their new homeland,
For Irish hands have woven strands of green among the gold.
Nowadays, when times are hard at home,
some people take a notion
To start a brand new life upon the far side of the globe;
And soon they find their hearts are stranded
somewhere in mid-ocean,
Though their days are full of sunshine and their futures full of hope.
Their children know a different world now, free of want and danger.
They learn to play our music and to dance the steps of old.
Though their hearts are in America, they never will be strangers
To the land they've left behind them - they're
the green among the gold.
Chorus...
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