Sunday | 6/8/2025
Sunday started bright and early for a full 13 hours of West Coast exploration. Unfortunately, my alarm was acting up and went off essentially silently, meaning I didn’t get up till the late hour of 6:00 am… the time we were set to leave. After having a near heart attack and getting ready in less than ten minutes, I found myself suddenly at the Molly Malone statue again, waiting for the bus to come pick us up and take us west to the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren Landscape, and Galway City. The Cliffs of Moher were both amazing but a little, dare I say, underwhelming. They Are amazing for their scale, they’re truly huge and seeing them is grand, especially when the sea birds are roosting. I am choosing to believe I saw a puffin, as they were my favorite animal when I was younger. That being said, they feel a bit sanitized (you’re not allowed anywhere near the edge for safety reasons) and they look fairly similar no matter where you’re looking from. Regardless, I am glad I got the chance to see them and I am definitely not disappointed in the stop. The Burren landscape on the other hand. WOW. It is so magnificent. That sounds corny but it is true. It is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It’s almost lunar in its quality but somehow so earthly. I wish we had more time. Watching the waves at the bottom of the cliff through the holes in the rocks was mesmerising and I could have sat there for hours. But onto Galway we went! Galway was beautiful as well. Its kind of a small town, so even though we didn’t have much time it was well spent. We went to a handmade market and walked around the pedestrian streets. It has such an old town charm to it.
Monday | 6/9/2025
After an exciting and long Sunday, it was nice that my Monday started relatively slow. That morning, I hadn’t heard from my supervisor yet so i started editing my field report when BAM; she emails me. By the end of the day she has three goals for me, including researching a response to a governmental action that is expected by tomorrow at noon. We hopped on a zoom call, started our work together, then broke off and finished individually. In a weird way, it was kind of exhilarating. In the email, she also told me I was going to be involved in a meeting with some heads of eNGOs and Irish law makers, which certainly did not prepare me for what was actually going to go down the next day.
Tuesday | 6/10/2025
The first order of business was responding to the governmental report about eutrophic lake in County Wexford. It was kind of exhilarating, as we were racing against the clock to get the response to the proposal in on time. This being said, i feel I got to show my competency, as we worked very well together actually. Mind the mention of oil, but it was truly like a well oiled machine. After we managed to get the response in, she casually told me to follow her, as we walked to our next meeting in… the Irish Houses of Oireachtas! I did not know we were going there until we were there and I was even more shocked to learn that we would have an audience of multiple different senators and ministers at once. My supervisor a part of the panel during the Q and A, but for the rest of the presentations we sat and I took notes. It was great to hear all the efforts being made by other eNGOs, and I learned about a lot of initiatives that run parallel to our cause. Meeting so many new people has been challenging, especially because I am bad at names, but also fun in a weird way. There was a networking lunch I went to after that was very cool, as we all sat and talked about projects we are working on and brainstorming how to help each other out.
Wednesday | 6/11/2025
On Monday, I got official confirmation that I could attend the national EPA water conference in Galway. This was very exciting as it was my first conference, and I got to go back to Galway. The first day was overwhelming, but so very worth it. I learned so much at the talks and got to meet so many people who work in water. It was shocking the variety of people at the conference, from scientists, to CEO, to fisherman, it was inspiring to see so many different background semi-united and at least all working towards a similar goal.
Thursday | 6/12/2025
I was honestly sad to go to the last day of the conference, but it included my favorite talks. There was one on invasive species I really liked, and then one about harmful algal blooms which I felt was interesting. We also went to a field outing right after the conference ended, which was on the beach and focused on the conservation and restoration of the dunes. I had never previously had the chance to look at a dunes system in a habitat management lens, so it was grand to be out with the manager himself, hearing hima nd my supervisor talk about how they achieved it and next steps.
Friday | 6/13/2025
Because the conference was such a big thing, and my supervisor was travelling all day, Friday was pretty light and just consisted of me cleaning up and reorganizing my conference notes, of which there were 60 pages. Lots and lots of information, most of it new, was shared, so I wanted to go back through and take my time, researching organizations and defining any terms I was unfamiliar with.
My supervisor is extremely busy in general, as she is the coordinator of Coastwatch Ireland and the founder of Coastwatch as a whole. She wears many hats, and one of those hats is conference goer. As such, she has been to three different conferences since I started the internship. This can make getting in touch with her challenging, as she is almost always travelling or otherwise occupied. Additionally, a lot of our work is responsive, whether that be to the government or other eNGOs. Sometimes, she won’t get in touch with me until the day of, either because she just got word of it or because that’s the first time she is able to. This can make understanding what is expected of me pretty challenging, as I sometimes go into a day with no direction. I’ve navigated this by essentially trusting my instincts. I know how to write reports, I know how to research, and I can make some assumptions on things I will need to know in the future. Especially in a different country, there are so many things that you need to become familiar with again. The system of government, relevant laws, data websites, and resources are all different. It is not about finding busy work, it’s about applying extra directionless time in a productive manner that will make my life at work easier down the road. Especially because I travel so much, it is crucial I find things to do even when I have no direction.