Mitchell Scholars Visit Cork for Jazz Festival Weekend

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In October, the Mitchell Scholars enjoyed the 36th annual Guinness Jazz Festival in Cork. UCC Mitchell Scholar, Jonathan Brestoff, hosted his classmates and put together a weekend for them to learn about Ireland and Irish culture through meetings with local and national leaders from Cork.

On Friday, Liam Donohoe, Apple's Country Manager for Ireland, talked met with the Scholars and discussed Apple, which had a record-breaking quarter despite the current state of the economy. Liam showed them Apple’s Cork site, their most important center in Europe. Later that day, they met with UCC President Michael Murphy and after that visited The Franciscan Well Brewery for their annual Beer Fest.

Jonathan, who is studying for the Public Health masters at UCC, arranged n Saturday, for the Mitchell’s to have lunch with Dave Roche, the Manager of the Cork Gay Community Development Company. Dave talked about past and present issues affecting the gay community and about sexuality and gender issues in Ireland. They then learned about refugee health issues from Dr. Yoga Velupillai, UCC's MPH Co-ordinator and lecturer, and about the health status of the Irish population from Dr. Ivan Perry, Professor and Chair of UCC's Dept. of Public Health and Epidemiology. Ivan is an international leader on salt consumption, self harm, and suicide, and led the largest ever study of health determinants in the Irish population (SLAN 2007).

On Sunday, some enjoyed the Jazz Festival while others visited the Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone. Later that evening, included a performance by Grammy Award winner Pharaoh Sanders, who started his career in the later Coltrane ensembles.