City Florists, Dublin, Ireland

Week 8 Question

The criteria I've been using for collecting my data has been pretty simple.  I try to always have my camera on me, and when I see anything that has to with leprechauns, whether it be pictures, people, or other representations, I take a picture of it.  I've collected a lot of photos over the last few weeks.  I'm excited to go through them and see all the different leprechauns that came out for St Paddy's day.  One of the reasons I picked leprechauns as my topic is because I was surprised at how they were utilized over here.  Its been really fun discovering all the different ways leprechauns are presented around Dublin.

Gifts from Home

I recently received a care package from my family.  In it, among other things, were these items: a t-shirt from my home town, often referred to as "the Irish Riviera", Irish-themed pins from "Paddy Mc'Fannigan's", shamrock earrings and a shamrock scrunchie.  it seems to me that these are the types of things I should be sending home, not vice versa.  But, it made me laugh and I promised to wear them on St. Patrick's Day.

Fifth Photo Post

Trinity College, Dublin

Week 7 Question

My topic is leprechauns.  At home, leprechauns are used as mascots and in advertising usually as comical caricatures.  I've always wondered if the way leprechauns are represented in the US was seen as disrespectful or offensive by the people of Ireland and thus was surprised when I got here and realized leprechauns are treated very similarly in Ireland.  I don't have a TV so I'm not sure if commercials use leprechauns in the same way, but I see them all over Dublin in many forms.  Its been fairly easy finding leprechauns to take observe and document.  Last week, I visited the Leprechaun Museum in Dublin, where I learned a lot about the myth of the leprechaun and what it means to the Irish people.  Morgan-Trimmer compares the process of creating a visual ethnography to exploratory research, and that very well sums up why I chose this topic.  I was surprised at how leprechauns are represented in Ireland, and this project gives me an opportunity to document my observations.