This week we took a trip up to Northern Ireland to visit the Ulster American Folk Park. It was a really interesting experience. Going into it I expected to experience something similar to Plymouth Plantation. I thought that there would be a lot of period actors and animals roaming around but it was kind of different. There were a lot of signs at the beginning that gave you the background of Irish immigration. Not every house had somewhere there to talk to you either, you were free to roam. After we left and got lunch, Professor Silverman asked me if the park was more American or Irish. I felt like it was kind of geared towards the Irish visitors than the Americans. As we journeyed through the boat and transitioned from Irish portion of the park to the American, it felt like they were proud of their ancestors. The whole thing seemed like it was saying “We had to leave Ireland in order to live and thrive but look at how well we did and how in touch we stayed with our roots.” As an American with Irish ancestors though, I really did appreciate the journey that they took and that we kind of got to experience that on a deeper level today.