Form V trip to Jeanie Johnston & Aviva Stadium.

We started off with the Jeanie Johnston, a rebuilt old Irish emigrant tall ship that took passengers to America during the Great Irish Famine. It is now a museum. The ship is a replica of the one built in 1847, made from wood and has huge white sails, it looks like a pirate ship. Below deck were life-sized people made of wax sleeping in bunkbeds, eating at a table and even playing the violin. We left with our minds bulging with information about the famine and the journey across the sea undertaken by many emigrants which suited us because we are currently studying “Under the Hawthorn Tree”. Our next adventure began as we walked through the spinning doors of the EPIC Centre, another kind of museum about the life and times of Irish people in the past. We enjoyed the pressure plates which made sounds when we stepped on them before heading towards the interactive galleries.

We sat down on benches too and saw lots of clips about people emigrating to America, Irish prisoners (even innocent ones) being sent to Australia and some sporting highlights such as Ireland qualifying for the quarter finals of the FIFA World Cup in 1990. We finished up there by visiting the gift shop and spending our 5 euro. The final stop on our trip was to the wonderful Aviva Stadium. We walked eagerly behind our tour guide, keen to get onto the pitch. After watching a short video about the players and a visit to the changing rooms to hear about cold and hot baths, we got on the the Astro and played den to den! We finished off with running out along the side of the pitch and shouting our chants to the ground-keepers.