Nine-day trip allows students to experience the arts, culture, history, literature and people of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
by Duane Bonifer
COLUMBIA, KY. (03/11/2026) Alannah Bowman ’27 heard lots of stories about Irish history and folklore from family members while growing up.
During Lindsey Wilson University’s spring break, Bowman was among 25 Lindsey Wilson students and five employees who had immersive study-abroad experience in Ireland. While touring the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, they took in Irish theatre, visited the region’s historic locations and walked in the footsteps of literary legends.
“It was like seeing those stories come to life,” said Bowman, a business administration major with an emphasis in accounting and a history minor. “And they come to life with multiple sides to them. It’s just beautiful.”
To prepare for the March 1-9 trip, which was funded in part by a university grant and a gift from the late honorary alumnus Dr. Jerry Westerfield of Russell Springs, Kentucky, the students spent the first seven weeks of the spring semester studying Irish art, culture, film and literature in “Changed Utterly: Irish Independence from Page to Stage,” a special topics class taught by English professor Karolyn Steffens. Topics explored included the Irish literary renaissance of the late 19th and early 20th centuries; the 30-year period of political violence in Northern Ireland in the late 20th century known as The Troubles; and the Irish diaspora of the 19th century.
Steffens said she knew the seven weeks of often intense preparation leading up to the trip had paid off when she saw students’ reactions and questions they asked throughout their journey on the Emerald Isle. For about half of the students, it was their first international trip.
“To see how much they got out of the trip by watching their faces and expressions was incredibly rewarding,” she said. “You could tell they were having an experience of a lifetime. They did things and went places that you can’t reproduce in the classroom read in a book. It was experiential learning at its finest and most powerful.”
Gage Carnes ’26 said the seven weeks “prepared us perfectly for the trip.”
“It 100% got us prepared,” said Carnes, an arts administration and theatre double major from Jamestown, Kentucky, who was among those who made his first international trip. “Living it is so different from reading it and studying it.”
Special moments
During the second half of the semester, the students will work on research projects that will connect their study of and experience with Irish culture and history to American identity.
Carnes said he plans to compare Ireland’s political tensions and violence in the 20th century with the current political climate in the United States. A couple events on the trip helped him think more about his project — a visit to Northern Ireland’s Museum of Free Derry; and attending a centennial production of Sean O’Casey’s classic play The Plough and the Stars about the 1916 Easter Rising, which was staged at the world-famous Abbey Theatre in Dublin.
“Just being able to see the emotions brought out on the stage about the violence and how it affected the people in Ireland was powerful, but so was seeing the hopes and dreams they had of a better tomorrow and a unified country,” he said. “It made me look at what’s currently going on in our own nation, and the troubles and conflicts our people are experiencing. Maybe through the arts, through culture and through music we can unite our own people.”
For Bowman, a magical moment occurred on a trip to St. Columba’s Church in Drumcliff, Ireland, where William Butler Yeats is buried.
“I knew we were going there, but I hadn’t fully realized where it was located,” she said. “It’s between two mountains. One is where the mythological Queen Maeve was supposed to have been buried, and on the other is where a mythical ancient battle took place. It was so strange to be there. It was like you were in two worlds at once. You had this ancient myth, this ancient queen, you have saints and you’re standing there with your cellphone beside Yeats, who would write about all of these things. I really don’t know how to describe it, but I felt very small in the moment. It was beautiful.”
Sarah Sonnabend ’27 had a beautiful moment when she walked into one of the world’s famous libraries — the Long Room of Trinity College in Dublin. Built in the early 18th century, the library is more than 210 feet (65 meters) long with a barrel-vaulted ceiling and contains more than 200,000 of the oldest books.
“I was walking with several of the students, and when I turned to my right I saw Sarah crying,” said Steffens.
A lifelong friend of libraries, Sonnabend said she was overcome with emotion because she wasn’t sure she was going to get to see the famous library, parts of which were being renovated.
“I’ve always been passionate about libraries, people having access to education and preserving history,” said Sonnabend, an English major from Breeding who has volunteered at libraries since middle school. “It’s something I’m truly, truly, truly passionate about. I literally couldn’t breathe, I was so shocked. I didn’t expect to have that kind of reaction. To be in that space was truly an out-of-body experience. I’m so blessed that I got to go there.”
And a proposal
One of the trip’s unexpected moments was an engagement during a visit to the Cliffs of Moher in southwestern Ireland. Lucas Pooler ’26 proposed to his girlfriend, Laney Stotts ’27.
“It had been planned out for months,” said Pooler, a business administration major with a management emphasis from Columbia. “When she told me that she wanted to go on the trip, I was like, ‘This would be the perfect time to do it.'”
Pooler said he secured the engagement ring in his backpack, never letting it out of his sight nor allowing others to use it or store anything in it.
“I was not letting anybody come remotely close to it,” he said, facetiously.
After Stotts, a nursing major from Columbia, said yes, they called family members to share the good news.
“My parents had probably been up since 4 a.m., I think they were ready for it,” said Pooler, who had made them aware of his plans. “I think they were just as nervous as I was.”
Even the notoriously unpredictable Irish coast weather cooperated on the couple’s special day.
“I’ll never forget it. It was so beautiful,” said Stotts. “I don’t think he could have picked a more romantic spot.”
In addition to Steffens, the other LWU employees who helped lead the study-abroad trip were English Professor Rachel Carr ’13, theatre graduate assistant Kassidy Phelps ’24, School of Arts and Humanities Dean Allison Smith and Director of Annual Giving Travis Smith ’05.
In addition to Bowman, Carnes, Pooler, Sonnabend and Stotts, the other LWU students who participated in the study-abroad trip were: Mac Bettersworth ’27 of Bowling Green, Kentucky; Zoe Boatright, a graduate student from Columbia; Emma Brown ’27 of Glasgow, Kentucky; Morgan Bryant ’26 of Shelbyville, Kentucky; Sarai Collins ’27 of Columbia; Whitley Gibson ’27 of Edmonton, Kentucky; Brandon Grider ’28 of Columbia; Cori Groce ’28 of Monticello, Kentucky; Madeline Hardwick ’27 of Columbia; Leeshawn Johnson ’26 of Louisville, Kentucky; Grace Lowther ’27 of Elizabethtown, Kentucky; Shiane Lussier ’26 of Bremen, Kentucky; Ross Montgomery ’27 of Greensburg, Kentucky; Mackenzie Parnell ’26 of Columbia; Sabrina Ruiz ’26 of Louisville; Piper Samples ’27 of Irvine, Kentucky; Leona Smith ’28 of Coxs Creek, Kentucky; Christian Varga ’28 of Shelbyville; Megan Whitson ’26 of East Bernstadt, Kentucky; and Madison Wiser ’28 of Loretto, Kentucky.
Lindsey Wilson University faculty, staff and students pose with a statue of the poet William Butler Yeats in the coastal seaport city of Sligo, Ireland.
Lindsey Wilson University faculty, staff and students gather at the Cliffs of Moher, which are in southwestern Ireland.
Shortly after Lindsey Wilson University faculty, staff and students arrived at the Cliffs of Moher Columbia residents Lucas Pooler ’26 and Laney Stotts ’27 got engaged. “I’ll never forget it. It was so beautiful,” said Stotts. “I don’t think he could have picked a more romantic spot.”
Lindsey Wilson University faculty, staff and students visited the world-famous Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, for a backstage tour before attending a centennial production of Sean O’Casey’s classic play “The Plough and the Stars” about the 1916 Easter Rising.
Lindsey Wilson University faculty, staff and students aboard the Jeanie Johnston famine ship in Dublin, Ireland, before visiting the EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum.
Lindsey Wilson University faculty, staff and students stand in front of a mural in Belfast, Northern Ireland, of Irish Republican Army member Robert Gerard Sands, who died in 1981 while on hunger strike while he was being imprisoned in Northern Ireland.
Lindsey Wilson University is a vibrant liberal arts university in Columbia, Kentucky. Founded in 1903 and affiliated with The United Methodist Church, the mission of Lindsey Wilson is to serve the educational needs of students by providing a living-learning environment within an atmosphere of active caring and Christian concern where every student, every day, learns and grows and feels like a real human being. Lindsey Wilson offers 28 undergraduate majors, five graduate programs and a doctoral program. The university’s 29 intercollegiate varsity athletic teams have won more than 120 team and individual national championships.
(Duane Bonifer – Lindsey Wilson University)