Day 8: Irish Cultural Integrity and Luke Skywalker

Today was our eighth day in Ireland as well as our first full day in Killarney. As part of our stay in Killarney, we spent the day on a scenic bus tour around the surrounding area and went into the small town of Dingle. Although the weather was not in our favor, we were able to learn interesting information about the area in which we were traveling and even able to see where parts of the recent movies Star Wars VII: The Force Awaken and Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi, were filmed.

While there we were able to see century-old stone huts which served as the model for Luke Skywalker's home in the movies. As fun and beautiful as all of today's activities were, the part which I found most interesting was the personal and collective integrity of the Irish people, specifically that of the man who oversaw "Luke's home."

When we arrived at the site, we were all extremely excited to be able to explore the hut. However, we were then surprised by the fact that the site accepted cash only. We did not have any cash with us, so we figured that we would not be able to enjoy the amazing structures. However, the kind gentlemen who maintained the area let us in for free anyways. He rejected our offer of mailing him payment a number of times, even though I would expect that he would want to be repaid following the trust he invested into our group by letting us in free. This is shocking to me because I would think that a business owner's main objective would be to gain revenue rather than to solely deliver on their service.

This made me start to think about the moral integrity of the Irish people and how that was translated into the interactions between the natives and the tourists. He could have jumped at the opportunity to take payment from us, but instead he denied us multiple times and kept his moral high ground. One may simply take this from an economic perspective, and say that he did it to be memorable to us and so that we would recommend visiting his establishment to potential customers, but it is more accurate to see it as an illustration of the moral integrity they have about their culture. For example, the Irish strongly emphasis the cultural significance and integrity of their native tongue of Gaelic in their youth, political system, and infrastructure. This is shown through how some of the youth of Ireland attend a two-week Easter vacation experience in rural Ireland to learn Gaelic and Irish tradition. It is also displayed in the way political positions are are named with Gaelic phrases such as the political parties and the Taoiseach (prime minister). It is also shown through the use of Gaelic translations on all the signs. This shows just how much Irish people value their native culture.