This week Ronan organized a tour of the houses of the Oireachtas for us, Which I looked really forward to, It was very interesting to see the actual chambers of the Dáil and the Seanad and to get to walk through the same corridors as the people who are elected to represent the people of the country. I found it surprisingly small (although we won’t have seen a huge amount of the building), the Dáil is only down a corridor from the Seanad.
One of the porters gave us a tour of the building and while he was very knowledgeable you could tell that this wasn’t his full day job. He was the most interesting when talking about his own experiences of working in the Dáil, such as during sessions and Dáil when he controls the mics for the different representatives (he also said they don’t really need them sometimes) and you could see the amount of respect he had for the building and the people who hold office there.
To see the Seanad chamber was very interesting, but again confirms in my mind that it isunnecessary, a provides only a debating chamber that should be conducted in the Dáil. Also the members of the Seanad are not elected by the people of the country, but by special selected groups (Sorry Ronan, but university students should not be able to elect two representatives to the Seanad) and the Taoiseach appointing some of his own.
After Lunch we went to the Science Gallery on Pearse Street, I have to say I love the idea of this building, bringing science and art together to deliver something beautiful but relevent. I meant the orignal curator of the Science Galley a few years ago while working on another project, and he had just moved over from the states and was totally dazed but was great and very interesting to talk to and had great plans for the building. (I can’t remember his name to save my life) One of my favorite exhibitions that was held there (although I had seen it in London before) which was byPharmacopoeia which was a whole exhibition about the pills we take in our lives and to get people to stop and think about the amount of medicines we consume.
The exhibition that was on was HYPERBOLIC CROCHET CORAL REEF:
A WOOLLY WONDER. Which was created and curated by Margaret and Christine Wertheim. It is a great idea of trying to bring attention to the damage been done to the great barrier reef in Australia by using crochet to rebuild different parts but I wasn’t a fan of it
