Friday, August 30, 2013

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney 1939 – 2013 Bogland for T. P. Flanagan We have no prairies To slice a big sun at evening-- Everywhere the eye concedes to Encroaching horizon, Is wooed into the Cyclops' eye Of a tarn. Our unfenced country Is bog that keeps crusting Between the sights of the sun. They've taken the skeleton Of the Great Irish Elk Out of the peat, set it up An astounding crate full of air. Butter sunk under More than a hundred years Was recovered salty and white. The ground itself is kind, black but-ter Melting and opening underfoot, Missing its last definition By millions of years. They'll never dig coal here, Only the waterlogged trunks Of great firs, soft as pulp. Our pioneers keep striking Inwards and downwards, Every layer they strip Seems camped on before. The bogholes might be Atlantic seepage. The wet centre is bottomless.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

LIT Library ASPIRE towards inclusive education in Europe

From July 29th to August 15th in the Absolute Hotel, Limerick, LIT Library proudly hosted the visit of academics and practitioners from Armenia and Georgia who were participating in curriculum training as part of the ASPIRE European Union funded TEMPUS project. ASPIRE (Access to Society for People with Individual Requirements) which aims to develop access to inclusive education in Armenia and Georgia. The project which is led by Ilia State University, Tbilisi Georgia also involves Edge Hill University (UK), The Pyramid Group (Germany), Technical University Of Kosice (Slovakia) as well as 5 institutions in Armenia and 4 institutions from Georgia. This TEMPUS project will promote and develop access to Inclusive education, to social integration and to non-discrimination treatment of those with special needs in education in accordance with the Bologna Process and United Nations criteria. This will initiate the right of individuals with special needs to access education, to enjoy the right of participation in everyday society and to combat discrimination against them in society by instilling awareness and acceptance in society, as in line with Bologna Process and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Pictured: Jerald Cavanagh- Institute Librarian,Padraig Kirby LIT, with project participants from Armenia, Georgia, Germany and Slovakia