Mediation

Ireland

7 Worksheet on Mediation – Answer Key

Text: Ralf Sotscheck, “Ballyvaughan, ein Ort zum Verlieben”, Merian, Feb. 2011, available online at http://www.merian.de/magazin/irland‐ballyvaughan‐ein‐ort‐zum‐verlieben.html (Please copy and paste this hyperlink into your browser.)

B TASK

Imagine an Irish friend of yours (e‐pal or exchange partner) has just written you an e‐mail. She has found the article “Ballyvaughan, ein Ort zum Verlieben” at the website of the German magazine Merian. As she herself lives near , not too far away from Ballyvaughan, she would like to know what this German journalist has to say about life in a small Irish town or village. She has asked you for help because her German is not good enough to understand everything. She is especially interested in the context of the Irish dialect word “culchie” and she is curious to learn how it came about that a German author has fallen in love with a village near her home.

Write ca. 300‐350 words.

Please copy and paste this hyperlink into your browser to access the German text: http://www.merian.de/magazin/irland‐ballyvaughan‐ein‐ort‐zum‐verlieben.html

Ballyvaughan, a place to fall in love with

Dear Siobhan, Of course I can help you with this text. I found it quite interesting myself. Here’s what Ralf Sotscheck writes about Ballyvaughan: About 40 years ago, his personal interest in began with Irish music, which he came across in folk pubs in Berlin. So he visited Doolin, the “Mecca of folk music”, and it was there that he met Áine, who later became his wife. When they had become friends, they went camping near the village of Fanore. On his travels through Ireland, he came to love and , but also a pub that he calls the most beautiful pub on the Irish west coast: “Ó Loclainn’s” in Ballyvaughan. This pub has been a family business for decades – and there is no TV in the pub because its owner says a pub must be there for the patrons’ conversation. © 2011 Langenscheidt KG, Berlin und München Vervielfältigung zu Unterrichtszwecken gestattet.

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Ireland

After Sotscheck had declared the “Ó Loclainn’s” his favourite pub, his wife surprised him by buying a house in the neighbouring village of Fanore – where the couple had spent their first camping holiday. Initially, the author was shocked by the run‐down state of that house, which had last been used as a cowshed. But when it had been restored and he had got used to the village, he began to love country life, although he had never thought he would develop into a “culchie”, as he self‐deprecatingly calls himself – the German term “Landei” being also slightly negative like the English “country bumpkin”. He also loves the rocky landscape with its special flora, and he even seems to be proud of the rich heritage of sites from the Stone Age and from Christian times that are to be found in that part of Ireland. What makes Sotscheck feel especially at home in Fanore are the people there, e.g. his neighbours. To him, they are proof of the truth of the Irish proverb: “A stranger is a friend you just haven’t met before.”1 I quite like this proverb, don’t you? – If you have any more questions, don’t hesitate to ask. Yours,

(342 words)

(Peter Ringeisen)

1 Strictly speaking, it does not seem to be a real proverb; many sources attribute that sentence to the great Irish poet and playwright William Butler Yeats (1865 ‐ 1939), quoting him as follows: “There are no strangers here; only friends you haven’t yet met.” e.g. at http://www.great‐quotes.com/quotes/author/William+Butler/Yeats © 2011 Langenscheidt KG, Berlin und München Vervielfältigung zu Unterrichtszwecken gestattet.

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