Initial thoughts
My initial thoughts were pretty excited about Ireland. Even though I knew I was going to miss one of the biggest student celebrations of Finnish student culture (May Day), I did not want to miss the chance to get to know students from not only different universities but different countries. Also, the chance to see the sustainability aspect of Ireland and glimpses from the Netherlands added to my interest.
Before the trip
I quickly noticed that the aspects of sustainability differed from courses we had taken at our university but seemed extremely interesting. After familiarizing myself with the pre-assignment videos of online material I was quite sure I knew more about forming Ireland’s bedrock than I knew about Finland’s at all. The videos that Irish students made were well structured, but they confirmed my idea of having a different approach to sustainability than we do. However, I did not mind this, as I found it was still strongly linked to my studies and offered valuable thoughts and insights.
We also learned that we had to cook together as a group one dinner for the rest of the course and this got my inner Finnish introvert sweating badly. However, after the Zoom meeting for planning the dinner, I was relieved as everyone was extremely nice and welcoming and had great ideas for the cooking. And results spoke for themselves as we got shared first place during the final day from the competition for the best dinner.
During the trip
I flew to Ireland a few days before the actual course began which gave me time to familiarize myself with the city of Dublin accompanied by two friends. The first thing I noticed was the public transport. It was hard for tourists to get around as you had to pay for the ticket only with coins. This was weird because in Finland we usually get around with mobile tickets, and this experience made me appreciate it even more. The second thing was the number of stops that they had along routes. The same trip that would have taken maybe 20 minutes in Tampere took 43 minutes in Dublin and the surprising part was that it was no real cause of congestion but just the sheer number of stops. This made me realize that even though more stops sound good in theory, in practice it can mess up the experience.
The other thing was the lack of high-rise residential buildings in the central district. I have always been more of a dense city guy and thought that we should be growing also upwards instead of sprawling and taking more land. Dublin is a great example of this, as the housing prices are through the roof and there are not enough houses for everyone which sadly can also be seen on the streets. Nonetheless, when you ignore these few practicalities, it comes clear that Dublin has become a beautiful city full of life, history and culture.
However, our course was not done in Dublin, and on Sunday morning we started our trip by bus towards the County of Mayo, where stayed in a study center that looked more like a summer camp building and the dorms reminded me of military service.
During the week we got to do some concrete examinations related to sustainability and environmental well-being that we had never done before in Finland. I was most excited about kick sampling, but water and soil sampling were also interesting and new experiences. I also enjoyed listening to stakeholders and I think that the questions asked by other students were excellent and gave me a better understanding of the topics covered during the course.
The most memorable stakeholder was the eighth-generation sheep farmer Colm Gavin. What I found interesting with this particular discussion was that monetary incentive had him take part in the pearl mussel project that was focused on keeping the runoff water and water quality overall better to guarantee the existence of certain mussel type in the river. Even though the program finished, and Colm was not getting the monetary compensation anymore he said that he will continue the practice in the future. I think this is a great way to get people involved, and this approach could be applied in similar projects in Finland.
The week culminated on Friday when we had a hackathon for a problem of our choosing related to the week’s program. This part seemed similar to our Urban Lab course but just on a smaller and faster scale. I had a great group, and I really enjoyed our work process as the group dynamic felt natural, we had a great flow during the work, and to me at least it felt like everyone got to participate in a meaningful way, and the final product, which was problem solution to decrease and eventually diminish peat cutting by farmers in Ireland, reflected that too.
After the trip
The trip was a great success, the food, people, culture, and course itself were exquisite, and even though I felt like this did not relate to my stream (administrative sciences) as much as the courses in our curriculum at the Tampere University, I learned new practical skills and information that are going to be helpful along my studies. I also made multiple new friends that I miss already and hope to see in the future…… this was an experience of a lifetime, and huge thanks to our lecturers Markus and Salla for making this happen.
Severi Kaarnakorpi
Severi is a second-year SUD student, who participated in the Erasmus+ field trip to the West of Ireland in April 2023. The trip was organized by Dublin City University in collaboration with Tampere University and Utrecht University.
