After a long weekend of hurling, hiking, and beefing with random Italian high schoolers at UCD, week five has come to a close and we’re starting week six of the Bucknell in Dublin program. By now, I feel less like an intern and more like a colleague to my coworkers at TaxAssist. This past week, my boss had me collect summaries of various transactions between our client and all their suppliers. I called around forty local Irish companies and talked to them about how our client has interacted with them over the course of 2024, so that we can see if the balances in our records agree with what the supplier is saying. Statement reconciliation is something I learned briefly in classes at Bucknell, but seeing how companies actually go about reconciling their companies’ statements has been a truly eye-opening experience.
Once the weekend finally came, myself and a few of my friends on the program, along with some students we’ve met through UCD, went to a hurling game at Croke Park. Thanks to our Gaelic Games Experience last Saturday, we all knew the basic rules of hurling and could become invested in the game. After making a random decision as we walked in, we decided to root for County Clare in their game against Kilkenny. Right away you could see how big of a deal this game was to the fans. It was the semi-final round and everyone in sight was dressed in their teams’ colors. After spending most of the game down by four points, Clare turned it around in the final few minutes to beat Kilkenny 24 to 22. After a great game we walked downtown to Foley’s pub for dinner and to watch some of the Euro’s.
Sunday morning woke up and went to Belfast. While the Titanic Museum was interesting, for me the highlight of the day was the black taxi tours around the city highlighting notable locations and people from Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubled Times’. While I always knew there had been ongoing conflicts between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, I never knew that the fighting only stopped a few decades ago. You could tell that the broken homes and lives lost are something the people of Belfast never forgot. Seeing the ‘peace’ wall still forty feet high blocking the Protestant neighborhood from the Catholic neighborhood was what taught me that this conflict is one that people in this city are still recovering from.
I want to end this week’s journal by once again thanking Ivy Kepner for all she did to make this program possible. You could tell that this trip was a personal passion of hers. She did everything possible to ensure that we had the best trip possible. It’s hard to believe that our last planned trip is in just four days. This trip has been an incredible experience and I wouldn’t have changed a single part of it.
Had a blast at the hurling game, the energy was electric. Lets Go Clare!
Had a blast at the hurling game, the energy was electric. Lets Go Clare! Can’t wait for an amazing last week!