While Boston College values and celebrates its growing diversity, the university also is mindful of its Irish roots. The founder of Boston College, John J. McElroy, SJ, was a native of Ireland, and for many years BC was a vital source of education for Boston's poor Irish-American community. That legacy lives on today, with Boston College established as an internationally renowned center of Irish culture, art, literature, music and history. The John J. Burns Library's Irish Collection boasts the most comprehensive set of William Butler Yeats materials outside of Ireland, and has received landmark donations of manuscripts, letters and other writings by Samuel Beckett. The university's Irish Studies Program examines various aspects of Irish history, culture and society, including its bonds with Jewish and African-American cultures.

"Clearly, Boston College has donned the mantle of keeper of the Irish cultural tradition in America," wrote Irish America magazine in a profile of the university.

Recognized as the premier program of its kind in the nation, the Boston College Irish Studies Program represents the university's commitment to serious academic exploration of Irish culture and society. Undergraduates may take Irish Studies as an interdisciplinary minor, while the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences offers a master's degree in Irish Literature and Culture. Open to all Boston College students, Irish Studies Program undergraduate courses cover a range of history, politics, economics and art; in some, students have had the opportunity to travel to an ancient Irish monastery, while others have enabled students to see the historical and cultural similarities between Irish and blacks. The master's degree program includes a component in Irish language; degree candidates must complete six credits of coursework or demonstrate proficiency in a written examination.

The Irish Studies Program also enables students to sample life in Ireland, through an exchange with University College Cork, a summer program at Dublin's Abbey Theatre and a five-week film workshop at University College Dublin featuring seminars and lectures by academics, screenwriters and film directors. The Maeve Finley Scholarship offers a BC graduate student the chance to pursue Irish studies in Ireland.

Under the direction of English Professor Adele Dalsimer [see "Honors for Irish Studies Co-Director" entry] and History Associate Professor Kevin O'Neill, who have led the program since its inception in 1978, Irish Studies also sponsors lectures, programs, performances and other special events that bring the flavor of Ireland to campus. In 1994, for example, Irish Studies co-sponsored appearances by then-Nobel Prize nominee and Northern Ireland's Social Democratic and Labor Party Leader John Hume, and representatives by the Unionist and Protestant communities in Northern Ireland, to discuss the peace process in their country. The program also co-sponsored a 1993 conference which examined the relationship of Boston's Irish and Jewish communities, another which drew graduate students from the US and abroad to discuss current research in Irish studies, and has offered a series of public lectures on Irish civilization, covering such topics as early medieval Irish art and Boston's Irish community.

In addition, the Irish Studies Program has formed a highly productive relationship with the John J. Burns Library [see separate entry] and has played a key role in the university's offerings of Irish art, theater, film, music festivals and concerts. The program produced a book as a companion piece to an exhibition at the university's McMullen Museum of Art [see separate entry]. During the exhibition, "America's Eye: Irish Paintings from the Collection of Brian P. Burns," the Irish Studies Program and the Museum hosted a symposium to address questions concerning the Irish-American experience, including such topics as Irish America and the Catholic Church, the politics of Irish America, immigration past and present, the role of the Irish language in the Irish-American community and an analysis of Irish-American fiction and drama.

Irish Studies also has become known for the various lecture series it sponsors. During the 1997-98 academic year, the program organized a four-part series featuring former doctoral students who, besides discussing their research interests, shared insights on the publication process. The previous year, Irish Studies sponsored a lecture series to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Great Famine [see separate entry].

In March 1998, Irish Studies and the Irish government sponsored the day-long symposium "The 1798 Commemoration," marking the 200th anniversary of Ireland's tragic but landmark uprising against England. The speakers at the symposium--American and Irish scholars, including current and former BC faculty--represented a unique blend of expertise relating to many aspects of the 1798 rebellion, including the role of women in the conflict and the growth of nationalism in the 18th century.

The Irish Studies Program celebrated its 20th anniversary in autumn 1998, marking the occasion with a colloquium on the future of Irish culture and of Irish Studies, an Irish Mass, musical concerts, a poetry reading by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney which drew some 900 attendees, and a visit by Irish President Mary McAleese, who participated in the formal opening of Connolly House, the new home of Irish Studies and the Irish Institute.

In addition, the program will now have a Dublin base of operations, with the establishment of the Boston College Center in Ireland [see separate entry].

Irish America magazine has described the Irish Studies Program as "one of the first and today one of the leading Irish studies programs in the nation," where students can "avail themselves of rich interdisciplinary course offerings in history and literature and culture."

THE IRISH INSTITUTE

The Boston College Irish Institute was inaugurated in December of 1997 as an expansion of the Center for Irish Management, which was established in 1992 to facilitate economic growth and job creation in Ireland. Originally specializing in management programs for business executives in the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, the institute has added programs in political leadership and education, and has sponsored conferences, seminars and other events. The institute believes its mission--the personal, educational, and corporate exchanges it facilitates--serves to promote peace in Northern Ireland. In 1997, Congress awarded a $1 million grant to the Irish Institute, the second in as many years, to support its efforts to encourage economic and social development in Ireland. The grant was approved by Congress as part of its appropriations for the United States Information Agency. The institute was one of six international exchange programs to receive congressional funding from USIA, which also provided the previous grant. Boston College was honored for its contributions to Ireland at a special state reception held in Dublin during March of 1997, hosted by Deputy Prime Minister Dick Spring. University President William P. Leahy, SJ, Executive Vice President Frank B. Campanella and Irish Institute Director Sean Rowland were guests at the event, held in recognition of the university's initiatives which have helped support economic and management development in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

A hallmark of the institute's programs are its combination of academic courses, taught by BC faculty and other experts, and pairing of the Irish guests with American counterparts. Its offerings include the Young Manager's Development Program, which brings outstanding young prospective managers from Northern Ireland who are interested in, or are currently involved in, cutting-edge businesses such as food technology or product development. The Women's Executive Business Program is aimed at executives who hold senior management positions or oversee small business in a variety of industries, including communications, catering, education, sales, publications, travel, health, and beauty. Besides improving their business and organizational skills, and establishing ties with the local business community, participants can gain an insight into professional support systems for women executives in the US, and explore ideas for strengthening the position of women in the workplace.

Another program enables young state government leaders and local elected representatives from the island of Ireland to explore issues of local governance with particular emphasis on technology, resources, development and federalism.  The academic class work covers leadership, management, human resources and policy analysis; moreover, some of the lectures are conducted by top level state bureaucrats and government officials who give their views on policy formation.  Opportunities to mix with local legislators from Massachusetts and share ideas encourage interaction between elected local officials and civil servants from both sides of the border. Participants also travel to Birmingham, AL to observe the work of a community that has dealt with integration and civil rights issues. 

One of its most enthusiastically received initiatives is the Ron Brown Business Development Program, which it operates in cooperation with the International Fund for Ireland. Named for the late US commerce secretary who worked to build business relationships between American and Irish firms, the program is aimed at facilitating business growth in Northern Ireland and the six adjoining counties in the Irish Republic. Through the program, persons in small- and medium-sized businesses and community enterprises in Northern Ireland and border counties in the Republic of Ireland attend two weeks of lectures and seminars at the Carroll School of Management. These sessions cover advanced US management, marketing and distribution techniques and business-related use of information technology. Participants also work with a corporate mentor at a Boston-area business setting which most closely resembles their respective operations, enabling them to see principles they learn at CSOM put into action and to make valuable contacts in the American marketplace.

The establishment of the Boston College Center in Ireland [see separate entry] in 1999 has given the institute a permanent home in Dublin, to provide a liaison with BC faculty involved in Irish-based projects and firm up ties with current or potential partners. In 1998, the institute affirmed its Boston-Dublin connection by organizing two major conferences, the first of these focusing on educational technology. The second, "Higher Education: Partnerships for the 21st Century," was co-sponsored with IBM and brought together educational, cultural, human resource and development experts from Ireland and Northern Ireland to discuss topics ranging from information technology to research opportunities. Many Boston College administrators and faculty attended both events.

The BC campus has been the location of other Irish Institute-sponsored events. In May 1998, an Irish interparliamentary delegation led by Parliament Speaker Seamus Pattison and Desmond O'Malley, chairman of the Join Committee on Foreign Affairs came to Chestnut Hill for a special symposium, "The Northern Ireland Peace Agreement and the Future of the Irish Economy."

In September, 1998, Northern Ireland Secretary of State Mo Mowlam visited the University to announce that the institute would offer a program, "The Task of Government," to strengthen political leadership in Northern Ireland. The 14-month program is the American component of a larger initiative aimed at helping elected officials and civil servants carry out their duties effectively as Northern Ireland seeks to overcome its troubled past. "The Task of Government" began with a series of seminars in Northern Ireland in October, at which Political Science Professor Marc Landy met with assembly representatives to discuss the program's goals and needs. The following month, participants traveled to BC for a week of lectures, seminars and field visits organized by the institute. During their stay, the assembly members gathered on campus to hear talks by BC faculty members, discussed public-private partnerships with Boston city officials, and spoke with Connecticut legislators about challenges in governing.

In May 1999, the institute began a new program in civic journalism. Twelve representatives from newspapers in the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland spent a week meeting with current and former journalists in New York City and Louisville, as well as Boston, to discuss the concept of civic journalism and how it might be applied in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

CONNOLLY HOUSE

In the spring of 1998, the Irish Studies Program, Irish Institute and several other offices relocated to Connolly House, making it the centerpiece for the university's Irish-related academic, cultural and management efforts. Connolly House, named for former Boston College library directors and brothers Brendan Connolly, SJ, and Terence Connolly, SJ, was formally opened by Irish President Mary McAleese in October of that year.

CENTER IN IRELAND

In Spring 1999, the University acquired property on the east side of St. Stephen's Green in Dublin to house the Boston College Center in Ireland. The center will serve as the cornerstone of the newly-created, non-profit BC-Ireland Corp., and provide a permanent location for the Dublin office of the Irish Institute, Irish Studies Program, Burns Library, and Student Exchange Program. "The opening of the Boston College Center in Ireland is a natural extension of our commitment to working with the Irish people in both Ireland and Northern Ireland," said University President William P. Leahy, SJ. "For us, it also has great symbolic meaning as it represents a recommitment to the homeland of BC's Jesuit founding fathers who invested so much of themselves in establishing Boston College 136 years ago." The property, at 42 and 43 St. Stephen's Green in Dublin's historic Georgian Square, is across from the Shelbourne Hotel and just minutes from the Irish Parliament and government buildings. It was constructed in 1745 and has been renovated and rewired to accommodate the latest communications technology.

FACULTY PURSUITS AND RECOGNITION

Boston Irish: A Political History

Thomas O'Connor, professor emeritus of history and a highly respected authority on the life and times of Boston, has charted the growth of Irish influence on the city's politics in his book The Boston Irish: A Political History. O'Connor describes the long-standing tensions between the Irish and Yankee populations, the post-Civil War ascension of the Irish in Boston politics, and the varying personalities and styles of mayors like John Fitzgerald, James Michael Curley, John Hynes, Kevin White and Raymond Flynn.

Burns Library Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies

Each academic year, Burns Library welcomes a distinguished scholar, writer or artist who has made significant contributions to Irish cultural and intellectual life. The Burns Library Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies uses the library's Irish collection for his or her own research, and teaches one Irish Studies course and delivers two public lectures per semester. The first Burns Scholar (1991-92) was Alf Mac Lochlainn, a film and literary critic, cultural historian and bibliographer who served as director of the National Library of Ireland. The 1999-2000 scholar is Paul Bew, political scientist and professor at Queens University in Belfast. During the previous academic year, the Burns Scholar had been Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, the most widely acclaimed contemporary poet writing in the Irish language. Past Scholars have included Bernard Meehan, keeper of the Book of Kells and other manuscripts at Trinity College Dublin (Spring 1998), and literary critic and author Maurice Harmon of University College Dublin (1993-94), whose edited volume of the correspondence between playwright Samuel Beckett and director Alan Schneider was released in 1998.

Gaelic Roots (see separate entry in "Irish Music" section.)

Honors for Irish Studies Co-Director

Irish Studies Program Co-director Adele Dalsimer achieved a special distinction when Irish America magazine named her an honorary Irish American in its "Top 100 Irish Americans" issue for 1996. Dalsimer, who is Jewish and of Russian-Polish-Austrian descent, was honored as part of the publication's annual salute to Americans in politics, the arts, business, service and other fields for their contributions to the Irish community as a whole. She and the other honorees, including Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, US Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), and actors Susan Sarandon, Liam Neeson and George Clooney, were feted at a gala at New York City's Plaza Hotel. Dalsimer also has received honorary degrees in consecutive years in recognition of her contributions to Irish studies. In 1999, she was presented a degree by the National University of Ireland at a special ceremony in St. Patrick's Hall of Dublin Castle. The degree was conferred by former Irish Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald, now the university's chancellor. The previous year, Dalsimer was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland.

Irish Literary Supplement

The university sponsors the Supplement, the major scholarly publication in the field of Irish studies. Irish Studies Program Directors Adele Dalsimer and Kevin O'Neill serve on the editorial board and Boston College faculty members regularly contribute reviews.

Irish Television: Political and Social Origins

Using newly released Irish government archival records, History Assistant Professor Robert Savage Jr. provided a glimpse at the bureaucratic infighting that delayed Ireland's first television broadcast for years in his 1997 book, Irish Television: The Political and Social Origins.

Savage traced the struggle between Ireland's Department of Finance--which felt the country's severe economic problems meant television was a luxury that would be available only to the wealthy--and the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, which saw TV as helping to preserve the island's culture. The dispute prevented Ireland from introducing television until the end of 1961, but more controversy surfaced: Irish-language activists objected to the lip service they were being paid as English dominated the airwaves. Not until 1996 did the service open a small Irish-language station.

National Music Archive for Ireland

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern appointed Irish Studies Associate Director Robert Savage Jr. to a commission that will establish a national music archive for Ireland. Savage sits on the 16-member board of the Sean O'Riada Trust, named for the late composer and musician who was a key figure in the modern revival of Irish traditional music forms. Savage and former US Ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith are the only Americans on the board, whose members include singer and composer Phil Coulter, a visiting faculty member in Irish Studies, and Michael D. O'Higgins, Ireland's former minister of the arts. The trust will focus initially on organizing the diverse collection of O'Riada, whose endeavors also included theater, lectures, radio and television programs, poetry and correspondence. It also will develop plans for the fall 2000 opening of an archival materials center.

"Of Stars and Shamrocks: Boston's Jews and Irish"

Fine Arts Professor and film maker John Michalczyk's documentary "Of Stars and Shamrocks: Boston's Jews and Irish," is based on the 1993 Boston College conference "Boston's Jews and Irish: Conflict and Communality." The 1995 film, like the conference, discusses historical, religious, social and political aspects of the Irish-Jewish relationship in Boston. It contains footage of the conference and interviews with some of its participants, including former Boston Mayor Kevin White, author and Atlantic Monthly editor Jack Beatty, Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff and James M. O'Toole, author of a biography on Cardinal William O'Connell.

"Out of the Ashes: Northern Ireland's Fragile Peace"

Fine Arts Professor John Michalczyk and Theology faculty member Raymond Helmick, SJ combined their talents and expertise to produce "Out of the Ashes: Northern Ireland's Fragile Peace," a 56-minute documentary offering personal and historical views of the unrest in Northern Ireland from the mid-1960s to present day. Shot on location in Derry, Belfast and Dublin, "Out of the Ashes" features interviews with political and religious leaders, former paramilitaries, and Catholic and Protestant children. Michalczyk produced and directed the film, for which Fr. Helmick served as executive producer along with Boston Theological Institute Executive Director Rodney Petersen. The documentary had its premiere in March 1998 at the Museum of Fine Arts, and was later broadcast on Boston PBS affiliate WGBH-TV.

"Visualizing Ireland"

A companion piece to the McMullen Museum of Art 1993 exhibition, Visualizing Ireland: National Identity and the Pictorial Tradition, contains 13 essays -- seven by BC faculty -- examining Irish artwork from the late 17th to early 20th century. But English Professor Adele Dalsimer, who edited and contributed to the book, says it goes beyond the realm of conventional art history. "It's the first to incorporate visual arts into modern Irish cultural studies," says Dalsimer, co-director of the Irish Studies Program, "showing ways in which Ireland's pictorial tradition complements and challenges the verbal or textual representation of national identity."

THE BURNS LIBRARY

Dedicated in 1986 in the memory of Judge John J. Burns '21, BC's John J. Burns Library houses the university's rare books and special collections, as well as its archives, and frequently exhibits some of these materials. In recent years, Burns Library has come to symbolize the university's dedication to preserving Ireland's rich heritage: in 1990, for example, the library accepted a rare, color facsimile of The Book of Kells from a Swiss publishing firm which used sophisticated technology and methods to make a close reproduction of the book without damaging it.

One of the most acclaimed features of the Burns Library is its Irish Authors Collection, containing original manuscripts, correspondence and other memorabilia of some of Ireland's greatest writers. The collection, which observed its 50th anniversary during the 1998-99 academic year, contains some 17,500 volumes relating to Irish history and literature, and some 13,000 manuscripts. Its roughly 2,500 pamphlets include items relating to the Catholic Emancipation of 1795-1840 and the incorporation of Ireland into the United Kingdom at the beginning of the 19th century.

In the past few years, the library has arranged for several major acquisitions, including the donation of materials relating to Nobel laureates William Butler Yeats and Samuel Beckett. The Yeats materials, formally presented by the Yeats family in October 1993, have made the library's Yeats collection the most comprehensive outside Ireland. In late 1994, the library acquired its third major collection of Beckett materials, making it among the top five in the world. The acquisition consisted of correspondence between Beckett and Alan Schneider, who directed every Beckett play premiere in America from 1955-84. The Beckett-Schneider letters came on the heels of a 1993 acquisition which included correspondence between Beckett and his friend and literary agent Barney Rosset as well as other rare artifacts.

In May of 1997, Burns Library obtained the collected works of prominent Irish writers Flann O'Brien and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill. Flann O'Brien was a pen name of the late Brian O'Nolan, who earned critical acclaim for his novels and a long-running series of newspaper columns. The collection includes typed manuscripts, extensive correspondence, a library of more than 400 books and various personal effects. Ní Dhomhnaill, whose books include Pharaoh's Daughter and The Astrakhan Cloak, is widely considered one of Ireland's finest contemporary poets writing in the Irish language, and also served as the 1998-99 Burns Library Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies. The Ní Dhomhnaill collection includes drafts of poems, as well as copious notebooks on the Irish folklore from which her poems have often evolved.

BC librarians also have made thousands of pages of Irish literature more accessible to scholars, having catalogued the Galway Resource for Anglo-Irish Literature, or GRAIL, a microform set containing hundreds of 19th-century Anglo-Irish literary works, and placed records on more than 1,400 Irish serials on the Internet. The collection was purchased by O'Neill Library 10 years ago, but its contents were largely unknown to library users. With the listing of 547 new bibliographic records available, many of the titles in the set are now accessible at BC for the first time.

A searchable database at http://www.bc.edu/irishserials lists more than 1,400 newspapers, magazines and scholarly journals pertaining to Ireland. These holdings range from 1685 to the present and cover Irish history, literature, politics, art, archaeology, economics, genealogy, music and law.

In 1999, The Boston College Libraries struck a resource-sharing partnership with the Linen Hall Library in Belfast, Northern Ireland, that created between them the largest repository of Irish publications in the world.

IRISH MUSIC AND DANCE

Curriculum

The university offers for-credit courses in Irish fiddle, tin whistle and step-dancing, but students, faculty and other members of the Boston College community are furthering the spread of Irish music and dance on campus through participation in an assortment of activities and events. Several members of the Irish Society, an undergraduate student group, are experienced Irish step-dancers, and three of them took part in the 1998 world competition held in Ennis, Co. Clare.

Gaelic Roots
In an area celebrated for its offerings of traditional Irish music, Boston College has become a regular contributor, thanks to the combined efforts of the Irish Studies Program and the Music Department, and Irish Studies Music Director Seamus Connolly in particular. A highly respected musician, Connolly was a participant in BC's 1990 Irish Fiddle Festival titled "My Love Is In America," highlights of which were released on a recording by Green Linnet Records; the Library of Congress later cited the album as an important contribution to recorded traditional music.

Connolly since has helped organize a regular series of traditional music concerts and events on campus, including a 1992 festival showcasing the Irish harp. Connolly also has been responsible for the highly successful "Gaelic Roots" festivals, featuring some of the most popular performers of Irish, Cape Breton, Scottish, Appalachian and French Quebec folk music, and offering workshops, informal sessions, lectures and even Gaelic Masses. In 1997, "Gaelic Roots" expanded to a full week of activities and performances, all of which are attended each year by Irish music and dance enthusiasts from across the US. Excerpts from the first two "Gaelic Roots," in 1993 and 1995, are now available on a double CD. In addition, internationally acclaimed Irish musician Phil Coulter often has performed on campus and has served as a visiting professor in the Irish Studies Program.

Irish Music Center

Burns Library is also the location of the university's Irish Music Center, established in 1998. The center is the outgrowth of an archive of traditional Irish music that was founded at Boston College following the 1990 musical festival "My Love Is in America: The Boston College Fiddle Festival," which tapped an immense reservoir of interest in Irish music both locally and nationally. In response, the BC Music Department, Irish Studies Program and Burns Library came together to establish the Irish Music Archives at the library in 1991. The archive has received hundreds of recordings of Irish music, some of them extremely rare and dating as far back as 1903, donated by alumni and friends of the university. In 1998, Elizabeth Sweeney, a BC librarian and musician in the Irish tradition, was appointed librarian for the center.

The Irish Music Center seeks to collect, preserve and make accessible a complete record of Irish music as performed in America, as well as document the history of traditional Irish music through collecting, research and publication. It also seeks to record important and unique performances, such as cultural festivals, that would otherwise be lost to posterity, and to sponsor events that will recognize and promote greater awareness of the contribution of Irish music to culture, especially American culture. It also may publish selected recordings, songs and musical scores. The center houses not only audio recordings in all formats (78s, 45s, LPs, compact discs, audiocassettes, DAT, reel-to-reel), but also: music videos in all formats (film, video cassettes and video discs); printed music (sheet music, musical scores and books); manuscripts (holograph musical scores, diaries, correspondence, journals); music-related photographs, posters, ephemera and memorabilia; musical instruments, and archival records of groups, organizations and individuals related to Irish music as performed in America. To enhance access to the collection, the center will catalogue it on an international database and maintain a World Wide Web site.

Visiting Fulbright Scholars in Music and Dance

Boston College is serving as the host site for two newly established Fulbright Commission of Ireland scholarships that will utilize, and enhance, the University's resources in Irish music and dance. Sponsored through the Irish Studies Program, the Riverdance Fulbright Scholarship in Irish Dance and the Claddagh Records Fulbright Scholarship in Traditional Irish Music will support a performer in Irish dance or music at the University for the 1999-2000 academic year.

The Riverdance scholar, funded by the corporation managing the world-renowned stage production, will enroll in the Theater Department and work with Jesuit Artist-in-Residence Robert ver Eecke, SJ, director of the University's residence dance group the Boston Liturgical Dance Ensemble. During the year, he or she will attend lectures and classes in areas such as dance history and performance, choreography, costuming and promotional design. The Claddagh Records scholarship, sponsored by one of Ireland's most eminent record companies, will be awarded to a performer of traditional Irish music. The recipient will enroll in the Music Department and study under Irish Studies Music Programs Director Seamus Connolly. Padraigin Caesar, an accomplished harper and student at Trinity College in Dublin, is the inaugural Claddagh Records Scholar. The co-winners of the first Riverdance Scholarship were Fiona Harold and Yzanne Cloonan, who have performed with the popular shows "Lord of the Dance" and "Riverdance," respectively.

IRISH THEATER, ART AND FILM

In addition to spotlighting Irish music and dance, Boston College is a regular venue for Irish performance and visual arts. Its Robsham Theater has staged the one-man shows "Joycemen" and "Patrick Gulliver" featuring Abbey Theatre actor Eamon Morrissey, as well as productions of well-known Irish plays like "Ulysses in Nightown" and rarer ones such as "Spancel of Death," which had been lost during the 1916 Easter Week Rising and was reconstructed by Irish Studies Program Co-Director Adele Dalsimer. In 1986, Robsham Theater was the site of "The Ireland Project," a month-long festival of Irish plays and symposia which featured performances by members of the Boston Shakespeare Company and appearances by actress Helen Hayes, former Irish prime minister Garret FitzGerald and several noted scholars.

In September of 1994, a group of Boston College graduate students primarily in Irish Studies and English formed the Bridge Theatre Company, performing both contemporary works as well as dramas by Yeats and Beckett. They appeared at the Ninth Annual Graduate Irish Studies Conference at the University of Notre Dame and a mini-festival of Yeats plays held by the Boston Yeats Society. The troupe also performed Beckett monologues as part of the week-long celebration of the Burns Library's acquisition of the Samuel Beckett-Alan Schneider Correspondence.

Thanks to the Irish Studies Program and the Boston area cultural group Irish Focus, the university has held an annual festival of contemporary Irish films. The films, few of which have been seen outside Ireland, included early works by directors such as Neil Jordan ("The Crying Game"). [NOTE: for faculty documentary work on Ireland, see "Faculty Pursuits" section.]

In 1993, the Boston College Museum of Art -- dedicated as the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College in 1996 --re-opened with an exhibition of 75 watercolors and drawings from the National Gallery of Ireland, rarely displayed even in their own country. The only US appearance for the exhibition -- titled "Irish Watercolors and Drawings from the National Gallery of Ireland" -- garnered enthusiastic reviews from the public and media. Periodically, Irish painters such as Brian Maguire and Patrick Hall, and photographers like Fergus Bourke and Rachel Giese also have displayed their work at the university.

Other Irish exhibitions have included "America's Eye: Irish Paintings from the Collection of Brian P. Burns" and, in autumn 1997, "Re/Dressing Cathleen: Contemporary Works from Irish Women Artists." This exhibition--the first in America dedicated to the works of Ireland's current female artists--represented a departure from the traditional 19th century romantic visions of Ireland. National Gallery of Ireland President Carmel Naughton attended the exhibition's opening, as did nine of the 13 artists.

The McMullen Museum featured another sampling of Irish art during the summer of 1998 with "Irish Delftware," which examined the development of porcelain ware in Ireland and the relationship of Ireland's delftware within the greater European development and distribution.

The summer of 1998 also saw two exhibits of artwork come to BC, each commemorating an important influence in Irish history. Burns Library displayed some 45 paintings and sculptures by three generations of contemporary Irish artists on themes of the great 1840s Irish famine, while Bapst Library presented paintings by three Northern Irish artists whose murals in the Catholic "Bogside" neighborhood of Derry have been among the signature political artworks of "The Troubles" in Ulster.

VISITORS FROM IRISH GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

In addition to Irish visitors representing academics and the arts, many prominent figures of Irish government and politics also have appeared on campus in recent years, among them (in alphabetical order):

Bertie Ahern: Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern made two noteworthy visits during the 1997-98 academic year, speaking at the Dec. 16 inauguration of the Boston College Irish Institute [see separate entry], where he praised the University's relationship with his country as "a connection we're very proud of." In May, Ahern returned to campus for the 1998 Commencement Exercises--only days before his country's historic referendum on the Northern Irish peace accord--to accept an honorary Doctor of Laws and address the graduates.

Garret FitzGerald: The former prime minister has served as a visiting professor and conducted a seminar on Anglo-Irish relations.

Seamus Heaney: Renowned poet Seamus Heaney has appeared at BC often and received a honorary Doctor of Letters degree in 1991.

John Hume: Prominent Northern Irish politician and Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume, widely credited with helping to initiate negotiations between Britain and the Irish Republican Army, has been a frequent visitor to Boston College in the past few years, most recently in 1999, when he spoke to members and guests of the university community about the Northern Ireland peace process. As visiting lecturer in the History Department during the 1996-97 academic year, Hume spoke at the university's annual Laetare Sunday alumni gathering in March and a few days later presented a special address to the Boston College community, expressing confidence in his country's peace process. A year before, Hume had shared his observations with an audience of faculty, students and guests after signing copies of his book, A New Ireland, and touring the university's McMullen Museum of Art. In 1995, Hume gave a much-anticipated address at the Boston College Commencement, where he received an honorary Doctor of Letters Degree, urging graduates to embrace the American tradition of diversity as they face the massive leadership challenges into the next century. "When people are divided they can only be brought together by agreement and never by guns and bombs," he said.

Five months prior to his Commencement address, Hume came to Boston College to present his views on his country's nascent peace process. Hume spoke at a dinner sponsored by the non-profit foundation New England Circle, which had also helped organize an appearance by Northern Irish Unionists.

Hume has been offered a visiting professorship at Boston College, pending his participation in the Northern Ireland peace process.

Sir Patrick Mayhew: In 1994, Northern Ireland Secretary of State Sir Patrick Mayhew spoke to faculty and administrators on the British presence in Northern Ireland.

Mary McAleese: In October 1998, Irish President Mary McAleese visited the University to participate in the formal opening of Connolly House, the new home of the Irish Studies Program and the Irish Institute, and to attend a reception hosted by University President William P. Leahy, SJ.

Mary O'Rourke: Irish Minister for Public Enterprise Mary O'Rourke spoke at the University's annual Laetare Sunday breakfast for alumni in March, 1999.

Ian Paisley: Northern Ireland Assembly member Ian Paisley Jr., a representative of the Democratic Unionist Party and son of Unionist firebrand the Rev. Ian Paisley, offered his analysis of his country's peace process during a special campus appearance in February sponsored by the Boston College Irish Institute.

Albert Reynolds: Then-Prime Minister Albert Reynolds joined in marking the debut of the university's Center for Irish Management (now the Irish Institute) in April 1993.

Mary Robinson: In October of 1996, then-Irish President Mary Robinson spoke to about 200 faculty, students and staff, thanking the university for its support of Irish studies. "What you are doing here in Irish Studies is very relevant to what's going on in Ireland today," she told the audience.

In addition: representatives of the Northern Irish Parades Commission spoke before a small group of faculty in March, 1999, and discussed the steps it is taking to prevent violence during the "marching season" -- the period during spring and summer when fraternal groups stage parades that have, in some locales, inflamed Protestant-Catholic tensions. Several years earlier, six representatives of Northern Ireland's Unionist and Protestant communities appeared oat Boston College's Robsham Theater to discuss the prospects for peace in their country and with the Irish Republican Army. The October 1994 visit, co-sponsored by the Irish Studies Program and O'Neill Library in cooperation with the non-profit foundation New England Circle, was the first by Unionists in over a decade to the US. An audience of about 200 listened to a discussion that ranged from political, social and economic analyses to philosophical and personal observations on the long conflict.

HAPPENINGS AND EVENTS
Beckett Celebration

A visit from English actress Billie Whitelaw highlighted a week-long celebration of the life and work of playwright Samuel Beckett at Boston College in April of 1995. The event was held to commemorate the Burns Library's acquisition of correspondence between Beckett and Alan Schneider (see "Burns Library" entry). 1955-84. Whitelaw, who began her association with Beckett at the National Theater in 1964, presented lectures on aspects of Beckett and her own acting career, and performed "An Afternoon with Samuel Beckett." The Beckett celebration also included a performance of "Catastrophe" and other Beckett monologues by the Bridge Theatre Company.

Faculty Exchange

In 1999, the Irish Studies Program began a series of short-term faculty exchanges with the National University of Ireland-University College Galway and Queen's University of Belfast, offering a viable alternative to the conventional semester- or year-long visits. Faculty stay for a brief period - usually a week - and offer classroom and public lectures.

Great Famine Commemoration

The Irish Studies Program sponsored a lecture series during the 1996-97 academic year to mark the 150th anniversary of the Great Famine, one of the most devastating events in Irish history. In December, with the cooperation of the Irish government, the university hosted an event featuring remarks by Irish Studies co-director Kevin O'Neill; Kevin Whelan, a former Burns Scholar; and author Luke Gibbons, a professor of communications at Dublin City University. In February, Irish economic historian and author Cormac O'Grada discussed the Great Famine as a theme in Irish folklore. And, during summer 1998, Burns Library displayed approximately 45 Great Famine-inspired paintings and sculptures by three generations of contemporary Irish artists.

Irish Cantata

In March of 1995, the Boston College Chorale presented the American premiere of a modern Irish cantata, "The Children of Lir," composed by harpist Patrick Cassidy and based on an ancient Irish folk tale. The 165-member chorale performed the work at Boston's Old South Church in Copley Square, with Massachusetts Senate President William Bulger, a BC alumnus, providing narration in Gaelic language. Prior to the Boston premiere, the chorale traveled to Ireland and performed excerpts from the cantata at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, Galway and University College, Cork.

"Peace and Conflict Resolution" in Northern Ireland

Boston College added a new dimension to its educational opportunities in Ireland in 1995 by joining a three-week summer program, "Ireland Today: Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies," at the University of Ulster's Magee College in Derry. Undergraduate and graduate participants undertook field studies that examine social, political and economic development in the region, assisted by faculty from BC and Magee, then chose a project according to their own interests. The program offered students a chance to observe the impact of the Irish peace process as the region seeks to foster economic and employment opportunities.