Ally Mulvs in Dublin

This week was absolutely incredible! Not only did I get to work on a real project with a client for my internship, but I also got the chance to take a dance class at a studio in Dublin and travel to Nice, France for the free weekend. It was a week of hard work straight into a lot of fun – get ready for a long post!

Internship

This week one of the main account managers that works at Burrell, Sinead, went on a brand trip with Pretty Little Thing, so she was not in the office all week. Last week she and Rebecca decided to give me one of her projects to cover for the week, for an Irish fashion and lifestyle brand called Oxendales. I was tasked to go on their website and look through some of their newest fashions and outdoor accessories to create a collection of whatever I wanted. I decided to choose bright-colored and floral pieces combined with summery outdoor accessories and created a collection I called “Bright and Fresh Summer Fashion and Garden” (I tried to be as creative as possible!). I was so excited because my supervisor approved the collection of items I picked out on my first try. Then the pieces I picked got sent over to the company’s brand manager, and she sent over the assets of all of the items, which were basically all of the raw images from the photoshoots they did. I then picked one of each of the images I thought captured the product best, put them into a sharable file, and sent them out in a press release to a list of journalists, encouraging them to include the products in any pieces they were doing on summer fashion and accessories. I’m really proud that I was able to complete the project. I had a lot of help from my supervisor and from Sinead before she left, and I had to try a few things multiple times before I got it right, but it felt so rewarding to actually work with an outside client and put something together that could be used in a real advertisement.

I’m not sure if Burrell participates in any sustainability/environmental campaigns on a large scale, but I do know that a lot of their clients do. On a smaller scale, however, I have noticed that in Burrell and across Dublin, there is a big emphasis on sustainability. In the office, they have specific bags that are compostable that we use for recycling and trash, and they are very conscious of separating what can be recycled vs what can’t be. They also are always brainstorming ways to cut their use of plastic and minimize the packaging they use in their PR packages, which is different from the elaborate (but very wasteful) PR packages I’ve seen being sent out to influencers in the US. On a larger scale, I’ve noticed that Ireland is very big on sustainability – it’s rare that I talk to someone that owns a car, especially my age, because of how much people use public transport, which is very different from where I grew up. The streets are very clean and I rarely see any litter or trash blowing around, and the same goes for public transport. One thing that’s similar to New Jersey is that grocery stores and other shops rarely give out plastic bags, so I always have to remember to bring my own. Overall I feel like Ireland makes living sustainably a daily way of life, which I really like.

I can’t believe that I’m already halfway through my internship and my time in Dublin. I think Ireland has really started to feel like a second home as I’ve gotten more accustomed to the way of life here. Even coming back from France, I was thinking how weird it was that I felt like I was going “home” to Dublin when my real home is in the US. Especially after traveling to France, I have an even greater appreciation for how nice the people are here in Ireland. It’s been so easy for me to become friends with the people I’m working with or even random people I meet at dance classes or at the pub. I love how casual the workplace environment is, and how it’s normal to hang out with your coworkers outside of work and even get a drink with them after the day is done. All of the worries that I had during the first week have completely gone away. I already know I’m going to miss Dublin a lot when this is over at the end of the month, so I’m trying to savor every minute I have here until then! 

Dance Class!

France!

It seems like that was the theme of this week, because while I was on the train home from dance, I got a text from Reggie, Kate Ellis, and Kate Strong with a link to a plane ticket to France telling me to buy it right away because we were leaving Thursday. I had no clue what was going on or how we landed on that plan, but I bought the ticket and three days later we were in Nice! It was the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to. We spent our two days there eating amazing food, including a LOT of cous cous from a random restaurant we were ushered into on the street by a man named Felippo and some of the best pasta I’ve ever had, and drinking very cheap wine (only 3 euros!). We went to the beach both days, first in Nice, and on the second day we went to Monte Carlo! It was shockingly easy to travel there, only about an hour by the train. Although I felt a little out of place because of how rich and classy everyone was there, the views were incredible – we even got to visit the Monte Carlo Casino. The water was so blue and clear it didn’t even look real. I also got some great souvenirs! I bought a postcard of Nice to put on my wall in my dorm next year, and on Saturday I was way too hot in my outfit, so I bought a dress from a shop in a market we were walking through. The woman working there was so sweet – she didn’t speak English, but she picked out a dress for me, had me try it on, and then made me walk out and show my friends before I bought it. I’m so glad we all had the opportunity to travel to a new place in Europe so different than Dublin. It was a once in a lifetime experience and we all had a lot of fun experiencing a new culture and seeing all of the amazing views. 

Reflection: Class & Kilmainham Gaol

In class today, we had Dr. Declan Redmond come in to speak to us about compact cities, density, and planning. It was really interesting to see what it means to be a compact city. I was particularly shocked at one graph he showed us which indicated that while NYC is the most dense city in the US, it actually falls relatively low on the rank of most dense cities in the world. It was even more shocking to me that some countries in Asia have densities three or four times of NYC. We also got the chance to break into groups and research a city of our choice. We looked at Chicago and what was good/bad about its relative density, along with its potential to be a 15-minute city. Although Chicago isn’t one of the best candidates for a 15-minute city, it was very cool to chat with the professor about other cities both in the US and the world and their population density, as well as hear from other groups with their findings about their respective cities.

We also visited Kilmainham Gaol, an old prison in Dublin. It housed many Irish revolutionaries, including members of the 1916 Easter Rising. We got to hear stories of the people who were imprisoned there and went on a tour of the facilities. We got to see inside jail cells and even see original artifacts from some of the prisoners there. It was especially cool because our tour guide’s great-grandfather was a prisoner at Kilmainham Goal. The two parts of the tour that stood out to me the most were hearing about how there were prisoners as young as 3 years old, and learning about how people would intentionally get arrested so they could stay in prison during the Great Famine so they would be guaranteed two meals a day.

While this week was exhausting, I am so happy about everything that I was able to do and experience. I’m looking forward to taking some more time to relax in the coming week and hopefully get a little more sleep!