Our day didn’t start quite as early today, and I even got to experience a full Irish breakfast to kick it off. Who knew beans on toast wasn’t as bad as it sounds? As far as our explorations of Dublin go, we first took a walking tour of the Financial Docks District of Dublin. These docks have only been developed over the past 10-20 years into the massive technology and business hub that it is today, juxtaposing the more run-down looking brick buildings that are shadowed by the modern all-glass architecture of massive businesses like SalesForce and Google. This juxtaposition between old and new Ireland was especially apparent when looking across the River Liffey at the HubSpot corporate building. While at a first glance you are taken aback by the walls entirely made of glass and the sheer size of the building, if you just take a closer look you can see that the entrance to a building was the front wall of an old warehouse. Right next door, Google bought out an old flowermill that was going to be turned into apartments, maintaining the original look of the building, but utilizing it for their business purposes. These examples are just a couple of the glaring contrasts between old and new Ireland, and that’s just in the financial district that we explored today. There is still an entire city to look at in this newfound context!

Next, we explored ThinkHouse, a marketing agency focused on youth culture and protecting the planet. This relates to our earlier talks about new and old Ireland, as this focus on a younger generation creates a more future-focused outlook for their business. They even said that this business model always helps them to keep looking forward to the future and “around corners” to make sure that they are never falling behind in the times. While there are lots of benefits to this up-and-coming new Ireland, there are also potential downfalls. These include the increasing numbers of international businesses and workers taking space away from Irish people already residing in the city, which causes a conflict with why Dublin actually grew to be such a tech hub according to Doctor Kelley.

One thing I found really interesting today that I had not realized before was the impact of the education system on Ireland culture. We learned that because the Ireland education system promotes using your learned knowledge and skills to think for yourself, it has created a high context society, allowing them to become great mediators and managers on an international scale despite their on-paper grades looking “worse” compared to other countries.