{"id":10593,"date":"2023-03-16T08:54:27","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T12:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=10593"},"modified":"2023-03-16T12:04:22","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T16:04:22","slug":"true-blue-and-irish-green-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2023\/03\/16\/true-blue-and-irish-green-too\/","title":{"rendered":"True Blue and Irish Green, Too"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eagle Alumni Fly to Ireland for New Experiences and New Friends<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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While the first cohort of Georgia Southern students was studying at the Wexford Study Abroad Center, a group of 20 Georgia Southern alumni made their way to County Wexford for a wide-ranging travel experience that brought Ireland\u2019s history, culture and favorite pastimes to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the Georgia Southern Alumni Association\u2019s Alumni Travel Program and in partnership with Club Choice Ireland, participants were invited for an eight-day, seven-night stay in Wexford that included excursions to historical sites, rounds of golf near the sport’s birthplace, a tour of Dublin\u2019s most famous brewery and of course a visit to several of the area\u2019s pubs to enjoy local fare and meet its people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a great mix of people \u2014 Georgia Southern alumni from young to old \u2014 some that just recently graduated and some that had been graduated for a while,\u201d said Debra Francis (\u201887), an alumna and business manager in the Finance Office at Georgia Southern. \u201cThey came from all over, lots of different states. It was a smaller group and it was really interesting to see and meet those new people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many of the alumni, however, it was the history of Wexford that was the most interesting part of the trip. The group visited the Dunbrody Famine Ship, a replica of the many ships that left Port New Ross, County Wexford, bound for the docks on River Street in Savannah, Georgia. The exhibit is based largely on research initiated by the faculty and students at Georgia Southern, a fact emphasized on the ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt literally said Georgia Southern students created this research and developed it and understood how the connection between Wexford and Savannah formed,\u201d said Ava Edwards (\u201819), director of Alumni Relations. \u201cThat was just a wow factor for our alumni.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wow factor ran even deeper for alumnus Sean McCormack (\u201886), who found an unlikely connection that led to a future invitation back to Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A former naval aviator, McCormack says it was his first trip to Ireland even though his family are natives of Boston and have deep Irish roots. While he, his wife and the alumni group were visiting the Dunbrody ship, he was talking with some of the town officials who are involved in the John F. Kennedy Summer School in Dunganstown, New Ross, County Wexford, the origin of the Kennedy family. There is a lantern memorial there for JFK with a flame that is always burning, and people go there to give presentations on the town and its families and history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd I said, \u2018Oh, by the way, you might be interested in the fact that my great uncle was John McCormack, speaker of the house under JFK,\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201cTheir jaws hit the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The town leaders later contacted McCormack to come back and be a guest lecturer next summer in Dunganstown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether it was the history, the pride of Georgia Southern\u2019s work in Ireland or the welcoming nature of the Wexford residents themselves, participants said the trip was an experience they\u2019ll never forget, and one where they made new lifelong friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy wife and I stay in touch with everybody that went on that trip,\u201d said McCormack. \u201cIt was like we made a bunch of new friends. I mean, I think that was the most memorable thing. All the other stuff was great, but when you can really get to know people and make new friends, I think that\u2019s probably the most memorable thing you can expect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edwards says the trip was such a success that a repeat trip is a no-brainer.
\u201cWe did not want to leave,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were tears shed. It was such an amazing experience. So warm and welcoming. We\u2019re going to do this every year. We\u2019re going to do this every year for sure.\u201d \u2014 Doy Cave<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Georgia Southern alumni visited Ireland this summer to see the new Wexford Center, see the history our students are studying, and experience the beauty and magic of Ireland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[75],"class_list":["post-10593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-spring-2023"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}