For his inaugural lecture as the Sullivan Chair of Irish Studies at Boston College, Professor Guy Beiner—who specializes in remembering and forgetting in modern Irish history—will examine science fiction depictions of the Anglo-Irish conflict in popular culture to reveal how imagining the future draws on cultural traditions from the past, and what this may tell us about current preoccupation with the prospect of a reunified Ireland. The lecture will begin at 5:30 p.m. (preceded by a reception at 4:30 p.m.) on November 16 in the Burns Library.
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The Irish Studies program welcomes novelist Paul Murray as the Burns Visiting Scholar for fall 2022. Murray is the author of three novels, including the critically acclaimed Skippy Dies. He will lead a fiction workshop for undergraduates while completing edits on his fourth novel, The Bee Sting, to be published next year. On November 9, he will give his Burns Lecture, “How to Write a Novel”—a tongue-in-cheek title that prefaces an exploration of what Murray calls “the chaos that underlies the creative process.”
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University of Galway Political Science and Sociology Professor Niall Ó Dochartaigh spent four weeks exploring the Irish collections of the Burns Library as a 2022 Summer Visiting Fellow, working on a new project on American peacemaking efforts during the Northern Ireland Troubles. During her summer fellowship, historian Gillian O’Brien (Liverpool John Moores University) scoured the Burns collections for materials that mentioned Kilmainham and Mountjoy jails as research for a book on Irish prison museums.
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The Boston College Irish Studies program and the Burns Library invite applications for summer visiting fellowships in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
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The Irish Studies program at Boston College is now inviting applications for a full-time, tenure-track position at the Assistant Professor rank. The position is open to scholars in any discipline whose work relates to the study of Ireland and/or the transnational Irish diaspora. The successful candidate will be appointed to a faculty position in a Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences department, with a joint appointment in the interdisciplinary Irish Studies program.
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Interested candidates should apply via Interfolio by November 27.
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Professor Rob Savage’s new book Northern Ireland, the BBC, and Censorship in Thatcher's Britain (Oxford University Press) explores how the Thatcher government tried to shape the contested narrative of the Troubles throughout the 1980s, addressing the way Thatcher and her cohorts presented the conflict in Northern Ireland to an increasingly global audience.
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In September, BC Irish Studies co-hosted the launch of REDRESS: Ireland’s Institutions and Transitional Justice (University College Dublin Press), which explores the mistreatment and abuse of those who suffered in Magdalene Laundries, mother and baby homes, county homes, and industrial and reformatory schools. All royalties will be donated to the charity Empowering People in Care (EPIC).
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November 29, 5:00–6:30 p.m., Connolly House
Drawing on his co-authored book The Politics of Irish Primary Education, BC professor Sean McGraw demonstrates how the interplay of civil society activists and organizations, the media, public opinion, and political parties can determine the fate of policy reforms.
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November 21, 5:30–7:00 p.m., Connolly House
The University of Limerick’s Ciara Breathnach, a current Fulbright Scholar, discusses a Local Government Board-commissioned report regarding the high infant and child mortality rate in Dublin in 1900.
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November 2, Connolly House
Carole Holohan of Trinity College Dublin, Sean O'Connell of Queen's University Belfast, and BC’s Rob Savage talked about their recent Irish Historical Studies article, which explored how social and economic change made illegal moneylending more viable for Dublin’s working poor.
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October 25, Connolly House
To mark the centenary of the Irish Civil War [1922–23], Irish historian Síobhra Aiken came to Boston College to give a lecture based on her celebrated book discussing how the public silence promoted in official discourse about the war has been disrupted by “silence breakers.”
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October 19, Connolly House
P.h.D. candidates Rachel Brody and Trevor Wiley of BC’s History Department and Andrew Bair of Harvard’s Department of Anthropology discussed archaeological findings from the Castles in Communities Archaeological Field School and Research Project at Ballintober Castle, in County Roscommon.
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October 3, Connolly House
Martin Nangle described his experiences working in Belfast and Boston during the Troubles and internationally as an Associated Press correspondent, arguing that his career encompassed the transition from media-based photojournalism to “Citizens’ Journalism.”
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September 26, Connolly House
Patrick Griffin, director of Irish Studies at Notre Dame, explored how Irish boxers operated within a global system and played an unrecognized part in the birth of democratic urban politics.
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September 21, Burns Library
In an event to mark the publication of Navigating Historical Crosscurrents in the Irish Atlantic: Essays for Catherine B. Shannon (Cork University Press), edited by Mary C. Kelly, the Burns Library collaborated with BC’s Irish Studies program, the Charitable Irish Society, and Eire Society of Boston.
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Cosponsored by the Burns Library’s Irish Music Archives and Irish Studies, the Gaelic Roots Series returned this fall with an amazing lineup, including The Murphy Beds on September 22 and County Down’s very own Tommy Sands in Connolly House on October 28.
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From language courses in Donegal and fieldwork in Roscommon to conferences in Dublin and archive work in Belfast, Irish Studies grad students were all over Ireland this summer. And this fall, multiple graduate students presented at the regional American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS). Click here to see their work and student profiles »
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Language Programs: Rowan Bianchi, Tess Keotting, Jessica Oyler, Abigail Harris, and Cassidy Allen
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Conferences and Archives: Tiffany Thompson and Rachael Young
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Fieldwork: Rachel Brody and Trevor Wiley
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Regional ACIS Presentations: Rowan Bianchi, Sean Goodman, Rachael Young
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