A sprint across Emerald Isle

Monday to Friday driving through the Republic of Ireland, from Dublin down the east coast to Cork, then speeding across via Limerick to the Galway in the west and back again via Shannon town to Dublin – one week, a world away from the bustling city that is Chennai – inhaling the best of what academia had to offer – to say it was a heady experience would be selling it short.

I was met at Dublin Airport by Brian, a taxi driver in a suit and tie. Helping me with the luggage, he said to me, “would you like to sit in the front seat or the back?” I say, “what do you say?” He said, “Well, if you sit in front we can talk on the way to Cork.” I slid into the front seat, quite unaware that we were going to be engaged in conversation every minute of the three and half hour drive down to Cork.  And flow the conversation did, from the education system in Ireland, to religious differences, to personal takes on abortion laws, to marriage, the egalitarian attitude of the Irish, to the language itself. As Brian put it, “When you reach Cork, you will already have an impression of Ireland, which will add to your story.” That taxi ride certainly put me at ease in a new land, not for nothing, I felt, has Ireland been voted the friendliest nation, by Lonely Planet.

As we entered Cork, driving along the River Lee to find my hotel, I was surprised to see a board saying, “The Independent Republic of Cork.”  I learn from Brian that the people of Cork consider it the real capital of Ireland. I hear for the first time the oft-quoted joke – “ A Cork man with an inferiority complex thinks he is only as good as others.”

 I leave my bags in Hotel River Lee and rush back to find my taxi waiting. I get dropped at Cork Institute of Technology. I also get a hug and a “Young lady, you take care of yourself,” from Brian…

It was easy finding the other journalists in CIT. I immediately bump into Bharat Joshi. Speedy introductions follow, I meet Vikram Chaudhury, Maitri Porecha, Jayant Sriram and Pankti Mehta.  

Presentations at Cork Institute of Technology waft all around. The meeting is held in the conference hall which is circular – for better communication all around, we are told. Some of their brightest students do innovative internships during their third year of undergraduate degree we are told. We learn that the undergraduate degree is a four year course, while a postgraduate one can be one year or two years, depending on the course. Everyone speaks well – no wonder for legend has it that anyone who has kissed the Blarney stone is endowed with the gift of eloquence – and the Blarney stone, found in Blarney Castle, is just about 8 kilometres from Cork, which should say it all.

University College Cork, ranked between 250 and 300 among world universities by Times Higher Education, was our next stop. The bus we were in took us right up the grounds and stopped a short distance from the Main building of the university. As we tried to dodge the drizzle and made our way, we could hear the bus driver enquiring whether he could park there…

The university spans a range of periods from archival stuff to modern institutes where frontier research is being conducted.