Today we visited the Irish Emigration museum, also known as the EPIC museum in the docklands of Dublin. I was a little confused at first because I was not sure why a museum would be created in honor of people LEAVING Ireland, however after walking through the museum and stamping all of my passport stamps from each room, I understood why we visited the Emigration museum.

I really enjoyed the museum today because it showed how wide of a reach Ireland has on the world, despite it being such a small (land wise) country. There are Irish people everywhere, and usually if you ask an American where their ancestors are from, there is a good chance they’ll say Ireland. I think that the concept of an emigration museum is so cool. I have never experienced a museum like it in the States. There is so much history in Ireland, and while I was a starting to feel like I had kind of heard all of the main points of Irish history on our travels so far, it was so cool to see the history through different perspectives, as well as see how Irish culture has spread around the world.

I cant remember the name of my favorite room, but there were a lot of little booths that you could step into to watch a compilation of stars and celebrities across various genres of entertainment. My favorite booth was the comedy booth, because it showed various actors and comedians throughout history bringing their culture and humor to different places. This really connected with me because I feel like a lot can be understood about a person and their background through their humor, so the fact that so many Irish comedians brought their humor to the States, England, and many other places brings me a lot of joy.

I also loved the room with all of the sports history. There was a table with a screen on it that almost looked like an air hockey table with little pucks on it that you could play around with to read stories of Irish people moving to different countries to try out some International sports. While reading the slides about baseball, I was very interested to discover that the MLB manager with the most wins in history, Connie Mack, was born to Irish immigrants. I think that it is so important to branch away from what you have known forever and discover different cultures and ways of life, and not to become stuck in the way you’ve been taught things should be.

Overall today was a day full of learning, and I am so very excited to finally see the Cliffs of Moher tomorrow!

(PS, todays featured image is a picture of some of the most beautiful doughnuts I’ve ever seen, and I don’t even like doughnuts. We stopped in this shop on the way home from the EPIC museum).