Tuesday - Jacob

It's been a crazy past couple of days so forgive the time between posts but there really just isn't time to do much of anything else besides what is scheduled. We started today with a restorative justice information session with two judges from the courts of Northern Ireland, one being a youth judge specializing in restorative justice. They talked a lot about the process and the ins and outs of the law, which helped us understand the next session where we met with two restorative justice counselors for juvenile criminals (seeing a pattern here?). They drew parallels between the system for it in Northern Ireland and the one in the US, and highlighted the personal aspect of it all. It made us see that locking people up for some lesser crimes isn't always progressive and sometimes reconciliation between the perpetrator and the victim can be better for all involved than jail time. We then finished up our restorative-justice-filled morning with a meeting with two organizations for community restorative justice, one Unionist and one Nationalist. Obviously they focused more on the practicality of the system in Northern Ireland post-conflict and how to implement in communities, and this helped round out the topic.
We then went to Our Lady at St. Pat's Grammar School and sat in on a politics and Irish language class. Irish is a really tough language, but we all had fun trying. Afterwards some students from their senior class met with us to talk about all sorts of stuff ranging from sports to culture to future plans in life. They were really, really similar to us, reminding us yet again that even though we might be an ocean away none of us are all that different. Finally we went home for some dinner and then all met at the Dundonald Ice Bowl where we played some arcade games and skated for a wee bit. McDonalds was a quick stop for some dessert, and then off to bed because tomorrow we go to Dublin! I wish I could post a lot of pictures on this but I don't think I can. Maybe sometime soon I'll figure out how because there have been some amazing sights. Anyways its time for bed now, good night!
-Jacob