While in Dublin you'll stay in the oldest part of DCU, Rooms All Hallows, eat breakfast in the dining hall, attend workshops/lectures on campus, visit sites of literary interest (the Book of Kells, Dublin Writing Museum, James Joyce Centre) and have dinner discussions with celebrated local authors (such as Sophie White, who just won the Shirley Jackson award, and Eoin Colfer, who wrote the bestselling Artemis Fowl series) in variety of evocative restaurants (like the haunted Brazen Head, Ireland's oldest pub, and Johnnie Fox's in the foothills of Wicklow Mountains). The second week, we'll travel across Ireland to Galway (Ireland's cultural heart), where we'll have dinner with Patricia Forde, the seventh and current Laureate na nÓg, Ireland’s Children’s Literature Laureate, then it's on to the Aran Islands, specifically Inishmore (with its clifftop fort of Dún Aonghasa and mythic Dragon's Lair/Worm Hole), and Doolin, a small town in County Clare known for its traditional Irish music and the stunning Cliffs of Moher (aka the Cliffs of Insanity in The Princess Bride). Finally, it's back to Dublin for two nights, with a hike up Montpelier Hill, where sits a ruined hunting lodge with a supernatural history (known locally as the Hellfire Club), and a highly publicized group reading at DCU. And so much more! “The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper." - William Butler Yeats.  

Note: "Where dips the rocky highland" is the first line to a famous Irish poem about faeries called "The Stolen Child" by William Butler Yeats.