Boston College - Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences

Fall 2021

Guy Beiner, an Israeli native whose academic and research experiences in Ireland have shaped his career as an award-winning historian with a unique expertise in memory studies, is the new Craig and Maureen Sullivan Millennium Professor in Irish Studies at Boston College. Beiner, who was the 2019–20 Burns Visiting Scholar, is a leading expert on 18th- and 19th-century Irish history.

Image of Fearghal McGarry, professor of modern Irish history at Queen’s University Belfast, and named Burns Scholar in Irish Studies program at Boston College

Image of Irish-Canadian playwright, historian, novelist, and screenwriter Emma Donoghue

Visiting Professor Sullivan Explores Irish Motherhood »

Boston College welcomes Moynagh Sullivan to campus as a visiting professor of Irish Studies. Sullivan is an associate professor of English and associate dean for equality, diversity, and inclusion at Maynooth University in County Kildare. During her time on the Heights, she will be working on a monograph about motherhood in Irish culture.

Remembering Brian P. Burns »

Philanthropist, business executive, and longtime BC Trustee Brian P. Burns, the founder and principal benefactor of the John J. Burns Library, passed away on August 12 at the age of 85. A member of the Irish America Hall of Fame, he established the Burns Visiting Scholar endowment and helped Boston College build its comprehensive Irish Collection.

IRISH STUDIES EVENTS »

Image of the four busts of Ireland’s four Nobel laureates in literature—W.B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, and Seamus Heaney

Manorhamilton Sheep Fair, County Leitrim, 1981

Martin Parr at the McMullen »

Several Irish Studies faculty are collaborating with the McMullen Museum of Art and curator Karl Baden to mount Martin Parr: Time and Place, a January–May 2022 survey of the acclaimed British photographer’s work, much of which documents a changing Ireland between the late 1970s and 2019.

“A Campaign for Justice” »

In his new book The Magdalene Laundries: A Campaign for Justice, Associate Professor of English and Irish Studies James Smith documents the experiences of over 10,000 Irish girls and women who were imprisoned and forced to work in abusive commercial laundries. He also explores the survivors’ group that continues to fight for restorative justice today.

BURNS LIBRARY »

A Lasting Legacy »

Burns Library holds the most comprehensive collections of Irish history, literature, and music outside Ireland, thanks in large part to founder and primary benefactor Brian P. Burns, who was a pioneering collector of Irish art.

Burns Library Renovations »

Burns Library remains open to researchers and visiting classes this fall while much of the building remains “under wraps” during a major exterior renovation project, which is scheduled for completion this October.

Images of Irish composer, pianist, and musicologist Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin

Irish Collections Expand »

The pandemic may have curtailed travel between Ireland and the U.S., but it has not stalled the Burns Library’s pursuit of new collections. Among other acquisitions, Burns Library purchased a large archive pertaining to Republican Sinn Féin, assembled by a collector who had been active in the Republican movement since the 1960s.

Featured image in the banner: Glenbeigh Races, County Kerry, 1983 by Martin Parr (1952–). Courtesy of the McMullen Museum of Art. © Martin Parr / Magnum Photos

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Irish Studies

Connolly House

300 Hammond Street

Chestnut Hill, MA 02467

617-552-3938

irish@bc.edu

bc.edu/irish