Dublin Music Internship 2019

I always wanted to go abroad and get some sort of music experience and when I came across The Intern Group, I thought why not give it a go. After many Skype and Whatsapp calls and emails, I was set to go to Dublin in April. Dublin was not my first choice for location, however, after having completed my internship there, I have no regrets on this decision and hope to return someday. The idea of me going to Ireland never really sunk in until I set foot on the plane, even though I had spent months preparing beforehand and purchased my plane tickets, so after 28 hours of travelling, I was in shock that I had arrived! With a house tour and meeting new interns on the agenda for my first day, I was still in complete shock that I had arrived in little ol’ Dublin. I was fortunate enough to have several days to explore Dublin before my first day on the internship as it helped me have time to settle down and figure out how to get to my internship, where to do my groceries, plan places I wanted to go and explore the city.

For my internship I was fortunate enough to work at a local community radio station. It was a great place to learn everything about radio, and it also was a great platform to do my own projects. For me two months was enough time to gorge out how a radio station works, and figure out which areas of work I preferred or thought of doing next. There were plenty of other interns and volunteers there too, and everyone there was great to work with.

I arrived as a lone intern both in terms of my program and accomodation, however the TIG staff always had my back and there were interns already in Dublin so I was able to settle in quickly. This was also unique in that I was able to meet two different groups of interns that arrived at different times, so I was able to meet so many interesting people from across the globe in a short period of time.

TIG organised weekly events which were not compulsory but they were always a tonne of fun. Whether it was in Dublin or a day tour away from the city, it was a great way to explore the beautiful country, learn more about Irish culture and get to know the interns. There was some events that I missed later on during the program because there were some sites that I wanted to visit in Ireland, which was a bummer, so I would highly recommend planning on things to do in your short time there.

In terms of accomodation, I was only 30 minutes walking distance to the city centre which was great and was only minutes away from the local shopping centre. Most of my flat mates were there for one or two weeks and then disappeared because the rent was so high, so almost every week I would arrive in the kitchen and see someone new, so in terms of housing I think perhaps there could be a notification for a new housemate moving in. For example, I made friends with a housemate who I only talked with on the day she was moving out! Whilst this wasn’t a huge problem, I think it would have been nice to know who was living in the house at the time as it got a bit confusing.

Even though Dublin was not my preferred location, it is a wonderful city and I’m sad that I never thought of going there until the opportunity presented itself to me. The culture is amazing with the plethora of pubs and live music, the people are friendly and fun to be around with. Ireland has rich history too and I miss not having Irish people around in my everyday life.

It went by so fast at times it felt like a dream. I know I’ve rated it overall 10/10 but it’s more like a 12/10.