Week 8
This week in Working in Digital Media we visited the Dáil.
Having very little knowledge of town I was surprised that I arrived not only on time but early as well. I was pretty surprised by the Dáil as it is where our govenment sits and where all irish people look to for leadership I expected a grand, impressive building inside and out. What I got disapointed me in ways I cant describe.
The Dáil is a cramped overly converted husk of the orginal country house that was built several hundred years ago. While the buildings history may be an important symbol more prestigous and modern sites are available, not that I think that by reading this blog the irish government will decide to find a new place to sit. But it really was a disapointment to see this building as a cramped clostrophobic environement.
The tour itself was very interesting, if not yet again, a little bit of a let down. We were led through the Dáil by a fine gentleman who had such a thick dublin accent that you could easily mistake him for someone who stands outside Croke Park on match days selling scarves.
Understandably I am coming off in a negative way here but as someone who, at work tries to achieve a certain standard of professionalism and at times can be described as the definition of the word perfectionist the staff at the Dáil were a dissapoinment in not such a sense were they didnt know their history about the Dáil but in a body language and manner sense. For me there was a heavy sense of disrespect among the staff from the bar maid who gave out to Ronan for not ringing ahead and telling her the group was on it’s way in and it would be appreicated if there was tea made available for us, to the cleaner who had his coat flung on a table in the Dáil chamber.
The Seanad was also a surprise the best way I can describe it is a small function room, the seats are packed in tightly together and there is very little room to move around in. Also when going through the entrance that we were brought through it felt as though we were about to brought into an attic storage room.
I realise over the course of this entry that I have been very critical but as the Dáil is where our government sits and is where important foreign dignitaries get a first look at life and politics in Ireland I had hoped and expected more. The tour itself was very interesting and I enjoyed learning the history of the house and I thank Ronan for first bringing the idea forward but as stated I hade hoped for something that would stun me and was disapointed.
