Entries by Buggy, Fiona

Father Charles Currie has been the president of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities since 1997. He began his academic career teaching and doing research in chemistry at Georgetown University in 1966. He served as president of several higher education institutions and directed Georgetown University's Bicentennial celebration. I interviewed him during my last week in DC.

What were you doing when you were 21?
I was just beginning the training to be a Jesuit. This was in 1951 so it was a very different world, a very different church. It was a great experience. We had 42 novices in my class; today we’re lucky if we get four or five.

What are your thoughts on the relationship between science and religion?
When I got to St. Joe’s in Philadelphia I had a fascinating 6 years teaching a course in science and theology. And that’s a very interesting field today. It used to be that you would get some theologians trying to do some science or scientists trying to do some theology but there’s a lot more people who have been trained today in both so the quality of conversation and discussion is much better.

Who has been the most influential person in your life and why?
There are a lot of people: Father Tim Healy was a young Jesuit when I was studying in Fordham New York. It was in his room one night that I made my decision to be a priest and I later worked with him at Georgetown where he was President. Of course my parents; they’re both very special people. I attribute any intelligence I have with dealing with women to the relationship I had with my sister. We had a great relationship and I thought that was very formative.

What do you value most in life?
My faith: I think sometimes we take that for granted. It came home to me very graphically once when I was trying to help a woman dying in a hospital. She not only didn’t have any family but she didn’t have any faith and she was desperate and that made me realize how lucky I was to have a faith that puts things together and that personal relationship with God, with Christ.

How did you get to where you are today?
I don’t know how to answer that one except a lot of things were kind of accidental. I guess the first key decision was to become a Jesuit and then the kind of work I got involved in as a Jesuit: higher education. That certainly puts you on a certain path.

What are the main aims of your association?
I see our role as representing the 26 Jesuit higher education institutions to the Church, the Society of Jesus, the other higher education associations, Congress, the Administration. But the role that I think is even more important is promoting collaboration and we do a lot of that.

How do you balance liturgical life with the demands of your job?
Some folks feel that in an administrative role such as this that a priest has to put aside his priesthood. I think that’s nonsense. I don’t think a day has gone by in my role in this job that I haven’t been called on to do something pastoral.

What’s your favourite place in Washington?
I’ve been in Washington over 25 years. I think you have to be inspired by three obvious memorials of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. The Holocaust Museum is a very profound human experience. There’s so much cultural life in this city. Washington is my favourite city because there’s so much here.

How did you get involved with the situation in El Salvador?
I knew nothing about El Salvador until I was coming back from Vietnam. The President of Georgetown told me six Jesuits and their two co-workers had just been killed in El Salvador and I organized Georgetown’s response to this. So I had an intensive crash course in El Salvador and Central America and I was privileged to go down there just a couple weeks after the Jesuit’s were killed. That was a very moving time. It’s very much a part of my life now. You know once you get involved with El Salvador you don’t leave. Dean Bradley, a great Jesuit down there – he was one of the ones who took the place of those who were killed, always says the Salvadors will break your heart and then they’ll help you put it back together again.

What advice would you give a young university graduate?
Keep a sense of hope in your power to make a difference. The purpose of education is to develop your imagination; with your imagination you create options for yourself; with those options you have a sense of hope. If you have that imagination then you have the tools to really make a difference in the world.

Before I went to DC I interviewed the award winning Irish playwright Frank McGuinness.

What were you doing when you were 20?
I was studying English at UCD and that was my big passion at the time. I had a very good second year in College. It was a great liberating year because I was so homesick in my first year. Second year I met a lot more people, I was more sure in what I was doing, I had become enamoured with the city so I was a happy guy at 20, very happy.

How did your university course impact on your career?
There was an enormous opportunity to read and to tackle big authors like Chaucer, Wordsworth, Milton and Pope. Without knowing it at the time, when you have the opportunity to immerse yourself in difficult subjects you carry a good working memory of them with you and that’s very, very important. But one of the main things about university was that it introduced me to people from beyond the Derry-Donegal hinterland.

Who has been the most influential person in your life and why?
My mother unquestionably. She was a very, very powerful person, a very funny person, a very intelligent person. She worked in a shirt factory. She really was an enormous positive force for me and it’s from her I think that I got a fierce determination to do well because she would have loved the opportunity that I got.

What do you value most in life?
I value my relationship with my partner Philip. Life for gay people has got better in this country but it still is a struggle, particularly for younger gay men and lesbians, and we’ve been together thirty years this month in May and it’s lasted. It’s had its ups and its downs like any thirty-year relationship but if you asked me what I’m proud of most that is it: that we are still together.

Did you always want to write and how did you transform that dream into a reality?
I did always want to write but I think the only hard way of being a writer is work and I had to sit down and really write and rewrite and put my mind to it and slog and really, really try to get better and better and better and I still do that.

Do you have a particular writing process?
I write longhand in a little red copybook. If I get past page twenty with that it means the play will be finished. I can’t write without a title. I’ve no fixed time for work but I would certainly do a fair amount in the week and I do a fair amount of reading and thinking.

Was there a particular moment when you thought: “I’m a proper writer” now?
That day was when I was 20 or 21 and I got a letter from David Marcus from The Irish Press saying the first poems were going to be published. And then of course there was the day that The Factory Girls my first play was accepted for the Abbey.

How important is your nationality to your work?
Well it’s just a hard fact. My background is Irish, I write about Ireland and make no apologies about it. It’s a complex society we live in, perhaps even more complex now that the North has a semblance of peace without the savage, brutal war happening. I’m intrigued by this country. I am intrigued by the cultures of this island.

What writers should an aspiring writer read?
You can do worse than read Jane Austen for plotting and for subtlety of characterisation. In Irish writing I think that Heaney is still a great voice, so many people imitate him that’s the only thing, and the same with Muldoon. So, in poetry, I think you should read all of W.H. Auden because I think he’s a benevolent influence on Irish people because he is, without being facetious, so English and yet American, American and yet English. You’ve got this wonderful confusion in him that’s very good for Irish people to have. I think you should certainly have a good working knowledge of Lorca and Ibsen, the Europeans, and among Irish writers you should be ashamed of yourself if you’re a playwright and you don’t know the whole of Synge - in terms of stagecraft and how you can push things in plays Synge is the master.

What advice would you give to a young university graduate?
Well I really regret not travelling after I did my primary degree. I think it’s very good to take the opportunities offered to you to go abroad - even if it’s only to Blackpool. Do something with it: go away and leave your self and your family behind you. What I did do was to believe that everything was going to be alright in terms of making a career out of my Arts background. And I think that requires stamina and it requires a big degree of faith in yourself. So I think you’ve got to follow your head as well as your heart, believe in your luck and you also sometimes have to make your own luck.

The Laughing Heart by Charles Bukowski

your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvellous
the gods wait to delight
in you.

Once upon a time in Dublin my friend Fionnuala read out loud this poem that our friend Fiona had given her. Since I first heard it 18 months ago I’ve shared it with numerous people (some of whom don’t have Fion in their names). This poem has etched itself into my consciousness and the phrase “know it while you have it” was one I repeated to myself during the highs (see every other blog!) and lows (sleep deprivation) of the WIP experience.

I was reminded of the poem’s message when I asked my Ten Questions interviewees what advice they had for young graduates. Father Charles Currie said, "Keep a sense of hope in your power to make a difference" whilst Frank McGuinness stressed the importance of believing "that everything was going to be alright in terms of making a career out of [an] Arts background.”

The priest, the poet and the playwright all emphasise the importance of having faith in yourself, especially when it’s seems like the most difficult thing to do. It's a message I find myself clinging to as I enter the world of work at a time of economic instability. I wanted to share this poem in this my last proper blog because I know there will be potential applicants to WIP who may be debating whether or not it is worth their while filling out the very extensive application form. I was in the same position last year and I’d urge you to do so. What do you have to lose? The gods will offer you chances… this may be one of them.

Its only been a week but I just came across a great music video for the excellent Postal Service song "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight" that I just had to share.

The video shows not only the monuments (bringing back fond memories of fireworks on 4th of July, watching the sunrise at Lincoln on our last night and Oakley's Death Tour) and Dupont Circle (I can see my work in it!) but also the ever important Red Line including Takoma Park where Jean had the SAWIP leaving party. Is it wrong to be nostalgic already?

Anyway here's the link.

Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight

PS I am not as obsessed with the Metro as my blog might suggest. Honest.

On Saturday night six WIPpers (including me) got a ricksaw bicycle to the nearest Metro which ensured we made the last metro train and saved a fortune on taxis (which we actually then spent on tipping the bike driver). Anyway, this made me realize the pivotal role transport has played a huge part in our lives over the last seven and a half weeks. Here is my unofficial guide to the delights of getting around DC.

The Metro: The hectic WIP schedule has introduced me to the joys of the red, blue, orange, green, yellow and other line. I have something of a love-hate relationship with the Metro. I love that it is air conditioned and (sometimes) takes me where I want to go with minimal fuss. I hate that it chooses to stop randomly when I'm aiming to get the last bus home. It also alarms me that I've turned into one of those aggressive people who sighs loudly any time anyone tries to cramp onto the train because I know chances are that we're all have to get off because of overcrowding. I've also become obsessed with getting a seat. So all in all the Metro may be bringing out the worst in me. Also: I once read that in Paris that their Metro manages to spark romance. I can categorically say that the chances of that happening in Washington are pretty slim because everybody treats each other like they're a potential maniac... says I the seat-obsessed sigher.

Taxis: In general Washington taxi drivers do not know the area's street names so you have to know exactly where you're going. I've never seen this before and I hope I never do again. It is not a particularly fun quirk. Although it has resulted in Judi and I knowing the way to our host home from every direction imaginable.

Buses: I'm not going to into my daily commute on the L7, L8 and 1 because it's just not that interesting. I will mention however the time we got a real life American yellow school bus to Hemlock which we were thrilled about. Then on the way back Alan Ralph serenaded us with every song he's ever heard except Aqua's Barbie Girl. Good times.

Walking: From what I have seen over the last 7 weeks walking in DC is a past time and not a legitimate way of getting about. In some residential areas there are no pavements and what pavements there are can be poorly maintained. Weird.

Boats: When we got our New York schedule we were promised a sightseeing boat trip around the islands. Instead we got The Beast. Have you ever wanted to feel like you've been taken hostage and have freezing cold water poured over you? Then this is the ride for you. The pictures of it are well worth hunting out if you know any WIPPers.

Limousines: If the Beast was a transport low for me then the night before was a transport high as Ian and John managed to blag us a limousine for 8 dollars person (2 dollars less than our bike the other night). Singing Karma Police at the top of our lungs while driving through NY is definitely one of the highlights of my whole trip.

Planes: In just 5 days we make the grueling trip home to Dublin Airport via Toronto. Bets are now on to see how long Andy will be detained in customs...

#1 Last Thursday our host mum Karen wangled the Bamford and I tickets to see Al Gore speak. His speech emphasized the need to move away from reliance on oil and towards renewable energy within the next ten years. It was a great experience as he’s quite a powerful orator and we were very amused to see people clap after nearly every sentence he spoke which made the whole experience much longer and atmospheric. This is possibly something that could be incorporated into our WIP leadership moments.

Anyway, later that day I was on the BBC News website and saw Gore’s speech was one of the lead America stories. It was really weird to think that things that are going on in Washington are applicable at home because sometimes they seem like two completely different worlds. The story on the BBC website really crystallized the fact that the WIP team, by being in Washington, are at a centre of world power. We should savor as much of the experience as possible because its only when we get home that our ordinary life in Washington, especially those speakers who have taken time out to talk to the Group, will seem as extraordinary as it truly is.


#2 On Saturday night, after much deliberation about how to book cinema tickets, Mary, Catherine, Judi, Sarah and I helped to make movie history and became part of the biggest opening weekend ever when we went to see the new Batman film: The Dark Knight. According to my sources at home it’s only coming out in Ireland now and I have to say I’d really liked it. This is high recommendation indeed as I DETESTED the first Batman film. I do have to warn however that it is definitely not a film for the faint-hearted. Bamford, McKegney and I came out with shell-shocked expressions when it finally finished. This may have been because we were sitting in the front row which was so close to the screen we were practically extras.

Talking of extras, at one particularly tense moment when the Joker gatecrashed a party (and not in a fun looking-for-somewhere-to-go-after-Laverys kind of way) this man says: “We’re not afraid of you.” I, who was very afraid, was literally biting my knuckles when Judi turned round to me and say, “That’s Senator Leahy.” We go way back with Senator Leahy to Week 1 when he was kind enough to meet the WIP team and tell us about his involvement in the Northern Ireland peace process. I’m very impressed at his ability to combine legislating with acting and grateful for him for offering us a moment of relief when we needed it most. Anyway make sure to look out for him! Until next time Batlovers!

As part of our summer in Washington each WIPper has to make a speech in front of an audience. This was not a prospect I was relishing but thanks to the help of Colm, Jonathan and Michael it ended up being one of the highlights of my summer. Below is a copy of it:

St. Paul once wrote, “Faith without good deeds is dead.” My name is Fiona Buggy and I am the daughter of a woman who definitely combines faith in God with good works on earth. Today I will tell you about how the values shaped by her strong Catholic faith complement my mother’s career choice, about our own family history and the motivation behind my hopes for the future.

My mother is a nurse in a Pediatric Hematology Ward in Belfast. The life and death nature of her work caring for children with cancer is a world away from my life as an English Literature student debating the merits of Shakespeare and Chaucer. However, despite its pressures, Mum loves her job and feels helping patients and their families in times of crisis is a privilege.

During her career in the National Health Service she has nursed people at every stage of life, from premature babies to those in hospice care, and every strata of society: leukemia does not know boundaries like class or religion. She believes that – at its core - a nurse’s job is to reassure. She says all patients, whether they are young children or senior citizens, have the same look of fear in their eyes when they are in pain. I believe that this is a poignant example of the truth proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal.” It is my mother’s job to try to remove the look of fear from their eyes. Nursing is not my vocation but it is through my mother’s example that I am reminded of my own moral obligation to look after the weak and the poor.

Mum began her nursing training in Belfast in 1976. She grew up in Portadown at the height of the Troubles and at the age of 18 had few Protestant acquaintances because she lived in such a divided society. However, early into her training she struck up a close friendship with a Protestant girl which continues to this day.

Why did this friendship work despite their differences? It worked because they rejoiced in their similarities. They did this in such earth-shatteringly simple ways as sharing a joke, supporting each other through their nursing training and shimmying the night away at dances. This is not to say that they ignored their differences – instead they chose to acknowledge and respect each others’ beliefs. When my mother stayed at her friend’s home in Ballymena for Saturday night dances both girls would get up on a Sunday morning and accompany each other to their respective religious services. I believe that a portion of credit for the peace in Northern Ireland belongs to people like my mother and her friend who went about making changes. Quiet changes. Small changes. Changes which we feel the benefit of today.

In the early 1980s a young man called Paul Buggy was badly injured in a car accident. He spent several months being treated at the hospital ward in which my mother was a nurse. The fact he ended up marrying her is only one of many testimonies to her competence.

However, mum knows that her own skills alone are not enough to ensure a patient is looked after well. She strongly believes that is only when nurses, doctors, cleaners and the whole hospital staff work as a team that high standards in a ward can be reached. Every person in this room has the capacity to make a positive and individual difference to their communities. That is not enough. What we are called to do is to come together as a team to transform the world.

My mother believes that the key skill a nurse needs is courage - a frightened nurse is of little help to a frightened patient. Courage is a quality which is evident in the story of the girl she was and the woman she has become. It takes courage to attempt to strive for excellence, to transcend divisions, and to take your part in a team. It takes courage to try and make a difference. It is because of my mother’s example that I intend to move away from the subject I love, English literature, and into the unfamiliar realm of public service as a career. Those involved in the WIP, SAWIP and the Catholic Business Network must also show courage as they look beyond themselves and towards the needs of their communities. In terms of our mission as a group I am reminded of the words of Nelson Mandela: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”

Thank you.

Yesterday was one of my favourite days so far in DC. We were so busy it reminded me of the exhausting good old days in Week One when we were on the go from the crack of dawn to long after sundown. The reason I enjoyed the day so much was because four very different guest speakers came in to the WIP Office to share their views on the upcoming Presidential Election with us. Their differing ideologies and their willingness to talk about much more than the 2008 election made for a very interesting day.

The journalist Mark Shields gave us an insider’s opinion on all the hot political stories from JFK onwards. He had us all in fits of laughter when he revealed a certain ex-President once declared that trees created more pollution than cars. Conversely, Harold Ickes shared stories about his personal involvement in Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Bill Clinton’s White House and the Civil Rights Movement and his candid honesty was welcomed by us. I was struck by the fact that two people could be drawn to be involved in politics in such different ways.

Our last two guests looked to the past and to the future simultaneously. Dottie Lynch, a pollster, explained that when she was a student there were no studies in how gender affected voting patterns as women's votes were thought to correlate with their fathers and husbands. The final speaker Charles, a South African journalist, offered an outsider’s perspective on the election race and suggested how the next American President could have an important impact his continent.

Other highlights of the past week include the Media Forum and Guantanamo debate in which Zelda, Cliona, Matt and Phil really excelled. Independence Day was also great as Catherine’s host family, the Lynchs, generously opened up their house to the whole WIP/SAWIP posse and all their host families. Then we interns battled the elements to see the fireworks on the Mall. I personally felt it was worth the trek because (despite the rain) the steps of the Lincoln Memorial were filled with people which was a very powerful and surreal image. The excitement of the 4th of July night is something that will stay with me for a long time.

I also really enjoying my internship last week as ACCU has been getting ready to host a three day conference on Catholic Education which is on this week. It’s really interesting to see the amount of work and detail that goes into planning an event like this and I’m pleased that my supervisors are teaching me to a wide variety of skills that will be useful to me when I venture into the working world in one month’s time!

Note: It may actually be more than a month until I venture into the working world as I think jetlag will take AT LEAST a couple of weeks to get over.

Okay first things first... apologies. I am aware that this is not the most well maintained webblog in the history of the world or indeed WIP. I guess this proves that all the past WIPpers are right when they declare that a summer on the Program will be the busiest summer of your life (unless you're on Management Team and then it gets even more hectic). Anyway I hope to update you on what's been going on in my Washington World over the last few weeks and pledge to start adding more entries and stop making so many excuses.

So I am now 21 and life has just got a lot easier as the bouncers in DC bars are now a lot friendlier towards me. Sometimes they still wish me a happy birthday even though it was two weeks ago, which definitely didn't happen when I turned 18 at home. This may have something to do with the fact that - in my keenness at being legitimately allowed to be there - I'm practically throwing my passport at them. My 21st birthday in DC was the highlight of my second week and will probably be one of my fondest memories of the whole eight weeks (even though my cake wasn't the biggest in the world). This was the first birthday I've ever spent away from home and my host family (including the Bamford), coworkers and fellow WIPpers really rose to the occasion and again I'd just like to say: Thank You. We had ice cream, cocktails and literally took over a dancefloor in Bethesda, which resulted in some very bemused locals. The Class of 2008 and (certain members of the Management Team 2008) can really dance!

There are two moments in my third week in DC that really stood out for me. Firstly, on Thursday 26th June my placement supervisor Michael took me to the Basilica of the Shrine to the Immaculate Conception, which has chapels containing statues of the Virgin Mary from different countries around the world such as Africa, Poland, Ireland, India, Austria and Vietnam. Secondly, on Saturday 28th June we went to Hemlock for outdoor team building exercises, which, although I am definitely not an outdoorsy type, I really enjoyed. It may seem that these two places could not be more different (for instance, I walked around the Basilica on my own and in Hemlock I was part of a ten-person dream team) but when I was reviewing the week I was struck by the fact that I enjoyed both these experiences immensely for basically the same reason.

Whilst I walked around the Basilica I was not only struck by its beauty but by the fact that the Catholic faith is something that manages to link people across the world who have very different experiences of life. I have always felt that community is a very important part of being a Catholic but being in the Basilica made me realise in stark visual terms (as Mary was portrayed as being of every race imaginable) that this community is much, much bigger than I can easily comprehend. It does not stop outside the parish of Seapatrick or the chaplaincy at UCD and I think that’s an important lesson to learn.

Likewise, one of the main reasons I really enjoyed Saturday at Hemlock was that it gave me an opportunity to hang out with some people on the Program that I haven’t spent as much time with, such as those WIPpers outside my Management Team and the South African SAWIP students. Sometimes as we attempted to formulate a plan of how to complete a task it became clear that we all have different ways of doing things but that we could harness our different skills to work more effectively as a team. I know it has been said before in much more eloquent ways but Saturday made me realize that although we are a group of very different individuals WIP is a community also.

As I get older and wiser (I am 21 now after all) I think I’m being to realize the importance of being willing to take an active role in the communities you are a part of and last week really emphasized this point to me.

It's Wednesday 18th June which is 10 days into our Washington adventure and just 25 hours until I turn 21 and have full reign of DC's nightlife - not that I'm counting down the minutes... just the hours.

So... the last 10 days have been busy, busy, busy. We've rubbed shoulders with senators on Capitol Hill, been given private viewings of personal presidential correspondence (including an excellent break up letter by Abraham Lincoln in which he managed to convince his (ex)girlfriend that it was her decision to break up with him) in the Library of Congress and performed a version of the Irish folktale Children of Lir for American 8 year-olds which attempted to stay true to the original whilst cutting out any references to death… which was as difficult as you’d imagine. We've also sampled the delights of Washington weather... unbearable heat mixed with storms at the most inconvenient of times.

Despite the very temperamental weather I am having a brilliant time. I couldn’t have asked for better or kinder host parents than Karen and Jim, who have really made Judi and I feel at home. The other WIP host families have also shown us great kindness by agreeing to open their homes to the whole WIP crew. Frankly there are not enough opportunities in Ireland to dress up as a teletubby in the name of team bonding and so I’d like to take this opportunity to say thanks to Lenore for hosting the fancy dress party and Deb and Kurt for hosting the welcome BBQ.

That’s it for now because it’s now nearly midnight (24 more hours!) and I’ve to be up bright and early for my internship at the ACCU. Thanks to Washington I now (sometimes) get up at 6.30 a.m., which my family and past flatmates may find hard to believe but it’s true!

P.S. For a minute by minute account of our time in Washington so far check out Judi ’s blog.