Day SIX: Showtime!

Hey all! Here's my day six blog. Today was at the newspaper again. I've finished my draft for my article that will be published at Down News this week, and Jim is going over it. Callan and I were at the office today for a while working on various things. After a while of working, we went to get some lunch and coffee and make a few stops. After gettings some sandwiches, we went to the "chemist" (pharmacy) to pick up a few things.

Next, Jim wanted to take us to a small town pub in the village of Loughinisland. Back in 1994, when Northern Ireland was going through the "troubles", the country was split in half of the people who wanted to stay in the UK and those who wanted to join the Republic of Ireland. During the troubles, people on both sides were getting killed almost daily, and mainly in the big city of Belfast. However, in 1994 the chaos found itself in Loughinisland. On June 18th two gunmen walked into the small pub where about 20 people were watching the World Cup match and killed six people. Being in that pub today was very eerie. It's a very small space and town. Although the murderer has been identified for years, he is still not in jail and is living in the next town. It's all very political, with many coverups happening from high up in government.

After seeing the pub, it was time to head over to the radio station. Jim was doing a short segment on Tuesday nights council meeting, and Callan and I had been invited on air to talk about the Saint Patrick Centre and the program. Colm was the radio host, and he was very nice. We talked off the air a little bit about America and our interests and stuff. On air, we talked for about 15 minutes, which flew by. It was very informal, where he asked what sort of myths I could debunk about Ireland (fairies), we talked about seeing places where they shot "Game of Thrones", and the show "Love Island". Overall it was an amazing and fun experience.

After Callan and I got back to the house, Dr. Tim arrived to drive us around a little bit. We went to the Church of Saul, where the first church that Saint Patrick built. It obviously has been renovated and fixed, but it's the same site. The church was very small on top of a hill, but it was breathtaking and very peaceful. We also went to see Inch Abbey, which is the ruins of a monastery built in the 13th century, which was amazing. There was so much still intact. After we got back to the house we all relaxed, and some of us went to the local to get WiFi and have a drink!