JOURNAL ENTRIES
Young_Leader: Sean Doherty
Date: Wednesday, August 02, 2000
Time: 10:16 AM
Journal_Entry
Well since i’ve spoken to you last my faithful journal reader, i’ve been to the big smoke, New York.
The weekend was of particular importance to me given that I had the responsibilty of organising it .Some people had questioned my ability to plan such a trip but how could thay now.
After arriving on our private bus (which had a cinema and top of the range toilet in it)
we had a leisurly stroll across the city until we arrived at our exclusive 5 star CHELSEA INTERNATIONAL HOTEL. I had managed to get a special young leaders of tommorow, group rate of $25 a night per preson.Yes thats right only 25 bucks a nite to stay in Manhattan.To put that in comparison there are more expensive low quality B&B’s in the tourist haven of Castlereagh.
The service in the hotel was excellent and the relaxing jacuzzi was just what i needed after a hard weeks work with the interior.
One slight problem was that we had to share our presidential suite with Dorn from Israel, after a night with him you’ll know why they call it the city that never sleeps, its because of the smell of his socks.The pong would keep anyone up ‘all night long.’
Although as the weekend went on we began to suspect that perhaps Dorn wasn’t responsible for the smell rather it could be someone in our group, and while not wanting to make any allegations we can say that the suspects name begins with a P ends with a Y and there is ADD in between.
The city itself was a sight to behold, full of energy and excitement you would find your self hard pushed to become bored in NY as the great philosopher Stirry Stirry said ‘if your tired of New York you’re tired of life.’
The New York administration must have heard that we were coming as they had placed thousands of statues of cows throughout the city just so farmer fox from fermanagh would feel at home.Indeed the whole Chelsea area with its cosmopolitan outlook and healthy gay population made Mr Fox feel like he was right back in fermanagh. This helped us all relax and enjoy the sights of the city. Statue of Liberty,
World Trade Centre,and Wall Street on friday then on to the bar for a quiet night with some Vikings and mad Belgiums it was particularly sweet to see John and Brenda renewing their blossoming friendship.
Saturday, Times Square and then on to Little Italy.
We had hardly had a bite all day and all I wanted was some Spaghetti Bollognese.
Stuggling to find it on my menu John came to my rescue. Professing to be an expert in both Italian and Italian food, John convincingly told me that Noches Bollogniese was the same thing, so without a second thought John and I on his instructions ordered the Noches Bollogniese his with a side order of Garlic Bread. What eventually was served to us would make grown men cry.What ever it was, it was moving all across my plate one forkful confirmed my fears I started to bite into this crunchy tasting morscel and it started to bite me back. It turned out it was some sort of sea dish that you eat alive.
Anyway on the sunday we went to central park and St Patricks Cathederal and then on home, thanks to Brenda, Emma,Naimh,Sabrina,Jonny,Barry,Nial,Paddy and John for a great weekend.
Young_Leader: Sean Doherty
Date: Tuesday, July 18, 2000
Time: 02:05 PM
Journal_Entry
The question that everyone seems to want to know is whether or not I have met any famous people yet or not, well I have to tell you its not easy if your not on capitol hill or don’t get invited to any high powered lunches or breakfasts but I have actually met a legend. His name is Dan McCann, the tambourine man, from smalltown, Nebraska.
Dan had a number 37 hit in the Guatamelean charts with his single ‘only a fool, wears dungarees on a wet day’. Unfortunately the Guatemelean public are a fickle lot and his new found fame didn’t last long, once Gary Barlow came to town he new his days were numbered.Dan now plans to tour N Ireland already his dates for Castlereagh are sold out having been declared the most exciting act to hit the borough since the sensational Olga ‘the bearded Russian Lady’ tour of 1979.
Thinks may get even more exciting around here for me on Saturday nite when we go see Newcastle Utd play DC united, i’m hoping to see an old favourite of mine from his Everton days ‘Drunken Duncan Disorderly’ Ferguson, with rumours of a return to Goodison on the cards, i’m sure me and jonny(the other evertonian on the programme) will make it clear to him that he would be very welcome back in Mersyside.
I don’t have much time left here I have to rush back to work, but before I go I must tell you about the road to damascus experience myself and a few other interns had last wednesday, the 12th of july of all days. The metro was deserted and an errie silence had descended upon us, we were thinking about back home and how intractable the problems of the north seemed to be.
Then from nowhere a man appeared, the man had no distinguishing features and was only rememberable for his t-shirt which had the words ‘Jesus loves You’ printed on to it. He asked us what county we were from, not wanting to reveal my Irish identity I told him we were from ‘fairfax county’ in Arlington.’No’ he said without anger or frustration, ‘what county are you from in Ireland’ we told him where we from and he responded by telling us that he was from the Smith clan of “county Killarney outside Dublin.”
He was obviously a prophet in a foreign land as its not often you see many Smiths outside of Killarney, in fact it is rumoured that there is only 12 Smiths left in the world.
His next words were like beacons of light, blinding in their brilliance: “the real problem with Northern Ireland” says he, us waiting with baited breathes, “is alcohol, there would be no problems if they made it illegal.” He had it, after hundreds of years of conflict and thousands of pages from academics trying to forge out a solution this man had it in one sentence.We were truly enlightened and each one of us pledged that when we go home we will collect a petition to try and end the evil menace of alcohol, beginning outside the students union where we are sure we can galvanise the support of students. We call ourselves “disciples of Smith” and we will be in a town near you soon.
Young_Leader: Sean Doherty
Date: Tuesday, July 11, 2000
Time: 03:10 PM
Journal_Entry
What a weekend!
Friday night the play by Sam Sheppard was both shocking and disturbing, although I had read a review in the Washington Post nothing could have prepared me for something as dark and macabre as the real thing. Although to be fair it was enternaining and enjoyable.
Afterwords we were lucky enough to be able to question the cast about the play to try and get a deep and meaningful understanding of some of the more complex elements inherent in the production. The cast hadn’t much time so it was clear the questions had to be well thought out and detailed for the session to be worthwhile .
It came to the last question and both Diana and myself had our hands raised I was going to ask whether the story was actually a metaphor on working class alienation in America rather than a literal tail of forbidden incestous love.
However, I wasn’t overly bothered when they chose Diane because I was sure she would ask some well thought out and intelligent question.Being a media student at the prestigious Leeds University (twinned with Harvard) I imagined that she had picked up on something that the rest of us missed out on.I was doubly excited when she said that she was going to ask two questions;
first question: ‘whats the picture on the wall’
the picture was of a matador and a bull but this was quite obvious I wondered where this was leading, perhaps she was setting the context for the final question of all questions and out it came;
second question: ” why do the actors speak with an American accent”
answer: “becaus we’re americans in an American play”
the audience was quite stunned by this revelation as most like myself thought that it was a tawainese play with actors from outer mongolia using a scouse accent.
I would like to take this oppurtunity to thank Dianne for asking such a brilliant question, I am a lot more educated now that I know that, it is a milestone in my development only matched by my first words as a baby.
Anyway I’m going off the point a bit here the journal is not supposed to be a channel to vent frustrations but a public forum to showcase the programme a programme that I would have no hesitation reccommending to anybody especially after Saturday when we went on the cruise around Chesapeake bay, the closest I had been to a cruise before was the time I went over on the P and 0 Larne to Cairnryan.
It was a great day and I would like to thank those for organising it.
If saturday was great yesterday was just as good as Johnathon, John, Paul Mc Donagh and myself played golf in aid of project children. Our team had two buggies to take us around the course, without going into too much detail unfortunately only one was in full working order at the end of the 18 holes.
Our golfing wasn’t the greatest either although we did improve on last year the fact that me and jonny were at a party the nite before didn’t exactly help things nor did the drinks lady who stalked us at every hole with her free budweiser, although I managed to remain strong in face of temptation, Jonny, John and Paul succomed to the devils sup and there game (and their driving) was seriously affected.
Although Jonny had the shot of the day when he chipped in from thirty yards this lead to scenes reminiscent of the Americans at the last ryder cup, a double bonus for Jonny was that the beer lady had seen the shot and gave him a kiss as reward, although she wouldn’t do the same for me even though I told her about my hole in one at the hole before.
One downer in an otherwise great day was that I lost my Tiger Woods golf t-shirt so if anyone sees it down send it to Tiger send it to me.
Young_Leader: Sean Doherty
Date: Friday, July 07, 2000
Time: 02:38 PM
Journal_Entry
Did you here about the Irishman that fell asleep on the train,
fell into the reflecting pool on the mall on the 4th of july ,
paid $10 dollars for a hot dog with extra mustard,
and got sun burnt on his ears? I’m afraid his names Sean and
he’s writing this journal.
Yes I have made some silly mistakes in my time here, but I have also
learned a lot about the US, Ireland and myself.
For a start in the Myers-Briggs personality test I scored zero
for extraversion, according to the experts this means that unless I come
out of my shell I’m not going to builld up the necessary alliances and
relationships to be a leader. While the rest of the planet may be happy to hear
this news it comes as a dissapointment to me as it undemines my chances
of taking over the planet in cahoots with my good friends the martians.
The first week here we spent seeing the city and what a beautiful city it is too.
It has been interesting, mentally transporting your self back in time and imagining what it would have been like in Arlington Cemetary when Kennedy was buried, or the house of representatives when they were having the great debates on the communist nuclear threat, or in the Oval Office when Bill met Monica.
There is certainly a great deal to see in this capital city, a capital city which is
actually suprisingly green with as many trees as a small Brazilian rain forest.
Its also a very clean city which I incidentally seem to notice about every city I visit outside of Britain and Ireland.
However every story has two sides and the obvious affluence that first strikes you on the plane into the city masks an uglier side where poverty and crime are all too apparent.We encountered this other side of the city on our day to Mount Lebannon Baptist Church. However among the deprivation and social neglect I discovered another world where people refused to accept the destiny that there circumstances seemed to present them. Here in this Church not only was
there a religious service in which everyone wanted to be there, was happy to be there and wasn’t afraid to shout it from the roofs that they were glad to be there,
but the church was playing an active role in the community providing jobs and
training for the unemployed, encouraging their children to doing well at school
by publicly praising those who improved. This Church to me was and is playing the role that Jesus expected his disciples to play and I respect them for that.
Anyway I’m not going to bore you any longer I’m sure you have heard enough.
Young_Leader: Sean Doherty
Date: Friday, June 23, 2000
Time: 03:46 PM
Journal_Entry
Sean, welcome to Young Leaders 2000 from the Webmaster. We all look forward
to following your summer adventure here in Washington, DC through your Journal.
If you have any questions or problems with your Journal, please email webmaster@storywise.com.
Good luck!
