Author Archives: Swati Ravi

With the arrival of the spring season, the Irish landscape bursts forth with tiny yellow flowers. Some call them “gorse,” from the German gerste (“barley”), others name them “furze,” perhaps from the Old English fȳr (“fire”). Botanists will know them … Continue reading →

The day after my first Irish dance class in September, I woke up to jelly legs. As it turns out, a lifetime of Indian Bharatanatyam and classical modern dance hadn’t prepared me for the calf strength needed to be constantly … Continue reading →

An odyssey across my many encounters with an iconic Derry building I first met the Guildhall of Londonderry on the night of Halloween. An early evening of torrential downpour made way for clear midnight skies, and between the parting clouds, … Continue reading →

Upon arriving in Dublin, I wandered into a bookstore in St. Stephen’s Green and picked up a copy of An Irish Nature Year by Jane Powers—a book that took me on scavenger hunts across the island’s cliffs, fields, forests, and … Continue reading →