Erin of the Hills

History Lives Most Vividly in the Imagination – Inspired by the Senses

Posted on July 28, 2013March 11, 2019 by Erin of the Hills

“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find

something. You certainly usually find something, if you

look, but it is not always quite the something you were

after.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien

Wow this post was a long time coming. I actually started it on the 16th of June if you’ll believe it and suddenly a month had passed and an ocean and half a continent had been crossed before my thoughts returned to the quiet beauty of Wicklow National Park. I’m hoping the fact that I’ve been lucky enough to visit the county 3 times in my life will make writing this from memory easier so lets see how this goes. I have a feeling this will end up a 2-part post.

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Ireland’s Craic

Posted on June 12, 2013March 11, 2019 by Erin of the Hills

31969_429382759282_6989362_n — Why am I starting with this photo? Because it was taken in Ireland and I think it’s beautiful, simple as that, circa 2010

As I sit in the upper lobby of my bewilderingly large hostel trying to decide whether the neon glow of the Generator’s welcome sign is gaudy or curiously comforting, a lone uilleann pipe begins its beautiful wailing just below me on the other side of the steel railings. As other instruments quickly join in on the melody the scenery transforms from the hostel that remains my sometimes-overcrowded-place-of-residence for the next two weeks into a warm and cozy local inn-like atmosphere where I instantly feel happy and at home. Honestly, I was half waiting for Merry and Pippin to jump on the tables and start stomping their feet to the music. OK, so I might STILL be waiting for that to happen – it’s good to dream right?

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Cheers to the Desperately Unrehearsed

Posted on June 9, 2013March 11, 2019 by Erin of the Hills

“All the world’s a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.”

– Sean O’Casey (Irish Dramatist)

I can’t remember where I first saw this quotation written out but I remember loving it immediately. Such a great Irish play on the brilliant Shakespeare. Here’s the thing though, as much as I love this quote I should probably explain what it says to me before some of you begin to think I have slipped into some strange form of Irish melancholy because believe you-me that has yet to happen. I may be a little homesick but I am still the perpetually happy-go-lucky Erin you all know (and hopefully still love – if not I will work on rekindling that when I get home).

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In Dublin’s Fair City… [can you finish the melody?]

Posted on June 7, 2013March 11, 2019 by Erin of the Hills

“A good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures.”

-Irish Expression

I’m going to go have the long sleep – I hope this gives you guys the good laugh!

Ireland — OK OK so this was taken in 2009. It’s still this beautiful!

Disclaimer: Wrote this on the 6th, only getting around to posting it on the 7th.

Hiya! <— I’m definitely going to start using that. Sorry in advance to those who will be annoyed.

All right so I have a serious time limit on this one as my computer has less than an hour of power left and I’m still nervous to plug it in using the adaptor, the last time I did so (granted for 6 months straight) it fried my battery. So here goes!

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A Gentle(wo)man and a Scholar

Posted on May 21, 2013October 8, 2020 by Erin of the Hills

“I’m not trying to tell you,” he said, “that only educated and scholarly men are able to contribute something valuable to the world. It’s not so. But I do say that educated and scholarly men, if they’re brilliant and creative to begin with…tend to leave infinitely more valuable records behind them than me do who are merely brilliant and creative. They tend to express themselves more clearly, and they usually have a passion for following their thoughts through to the end. And – most important – nine times out of ten they have more humility than the unscholarly thinker.”

– J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

Woah, it has been months since I last posted. They weren’t kidding about grad school’s impressive ability to keep one busy – who are they you ask? Everyone. Seriously, it’s the first thing someone (un?)helpfully offers when you announce your intentions to go on to grad school: “you know you’re going to have no life right?” or the infinitely more clever, “so I’ll see you in.. two years then?” At any rate, clever or not, you were all right – I’ve been busy as hell.

That being said, I’ve made a pact to insert some fiction reading into my schedule this summer. Periodically I seem to forget that fiction calms, de-stresses, and just generally makes me happy and I’m going to need all the happiness I can muster as I embark on the madness that is an MA Thesis. This may make me slightly even more busy but I don’t consider reading (or writing for that matter) fiction something that takes up time – rather it enhances time, making life’s simple pleasures all the more enjoyable. I can’t tell you how many times a good book with even a single deliciously crafted sentence has opened my mind to possibilities and thoughts I maybe had access to all along but didn’t know how to reach.

You may notice, if you even care to read these ramblings, that I try to start my blog posts with a quote. It doesn’t necessarily have to come out of fiction, as not every brilliant word-smith writes fiction, but it has to be something that jumps out of the page and insists on arresting my attention for whatever reason.

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History Written and Rewritten

Posted on February 5, 2013October 8, 2020 by Erin of the Hills

History, “(must) first ‘die’ in the heads, hearts, and bodies of the affected, before it can rise as knowledge like a phoenix out of the ashes of experience.”

-Aleida Assmann as quoted by Alexander von Plato

This post is about a week and a half in the making and was inspired by those very same academic readings that actually kept me from writing it for so long.

Beautiful Historic Paris at Night – A city that has risen from literal ashes time and time again.

But getting back to this wonderful turn of phrase, the image of history as knowledge rising from the ashes like a phoenix admittedly got my heart racing a little and immediately set me down the never-ending path of the perpetual question from those perplexed people whose pulses do not quicken when they read an historical passage (or, apparently, for super nerds – read a passage about the passage of history…).

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Dare to Know

Posted on January 17, 2013October 8, 2020 by Erin of the Hills

“Have the courage to use your own understanding” – Immanuel Kant

Easier said than done sometimes.

It kind of feels like walking out on a ledge – and a flimsy-looking ledge at that. If I screw this up, do I fall to my…doom?

In the past 4 1/2 months of Grad school completed thus far (yes, I did have to count that out on my fingers) there has been one idea brought up over and over again in conversation with colleagues and friends: Do I belong here?

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A Little (ok a lot of) Musing to Start Things Off

Posted on January 2, 2013October 8, 2020 by Erin of the Hills

Most people will tell you that going on to university makes you stand out, sets you apart as someone who is sure to go places. Funny thing is, once you get there you feel like just one in thousands…

And not even one of the notable ones.

Think of it a bit like a lake. You have your sunfish and rainbow fish that might catch your eye for a few moments, but who typically keep on swimming and enjoy their quiet lives largely un-remarked.

Lower than them, you have the suckers, or bottom feeders. You know, that dazed-looking kid you noticed on your first day of class who you never saw again – and before you know it a betting pool has formed around whether they’ll show their face on the day the essay is due… or at least at the exam? That’s them. Every university needs them to make the average students feel good about themselves and to even out those dreaded bell-curves, much like the lake needs its suckers to keep the ecosystem running. Did you ever know they were so vital to your university experience? I bet not, as, in the end, most people don’t pay them much attention.

Then you have your trophy predators, the Pike. Not only do these devour the more average students with their superiority and ridiculous GPAs, but they are the pride and joy of the fishermen who cast far and wide for the brightest and best.

These fishermen, er… professors as they are more commonly known, choose their prizes by trolling the classroom until they hone in on the students most likely to succeed. Once these trophy fish, I mean students, have been snared they snap a photo and release them back into the world. They have now earned bragging rights for life, or at least until their colleague snags a bigger star. I do not mean in the slightest to paint these professors as grasping, greedy folk. Have you ever met an unpleasant fisherman? I certainly haven’t. In fact they are some of the most delightful people of my acquaintance, perfectly content with the simple things in life. I would not be where I am today without the few wonderful professors who noted there might actually be more to me than.. well.. me.

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