Professor Michael Cronin has been named AcademicDirector of Boston College – Ireland. In making the an-nouncement University Professor of History Thomas E. Hachey, the Executive Director of the BC Center forIrish Programs headquartered at Connolly House on theChestnut Hill campus, hailed Cronin as an accomplishedacademic and an experienced program administrator. Theappointment concludes a several month search for anAcademic Director whose task it will be to develop andmanage a diverse and challenging set of University projects in Ireland.

Cronin earned BA and MA degrees in history at theUniversity of Kent at Canterbury, and completed a PhDdegree in Irish history in 1994 at Oxford University. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow in History atDeMontfort University in Leicester, England. The author of several monographs, including The Blue Shirts and IrishPolitics (Four Courts Press, 1997), Cronin has also edit-ed, or co-edited, a half dozen volumes and has publishedsome three dozen articles in scholarly journals and otherbooks. During the past decade, moreover, Professor Croninhas been actively engaged in acquiring a substantial num-ber of external grants, sponsoring conferences, and pro-viding consultancy services in both the United Kingdomand Ireland.

Professor Hachey, to whom the new Academic Directorwill report, said he was confident that Cronin possessesboth the vision and the talent needed to implement BostonCollege’s ambitious plan for the Center’s Dublin opera-

tions. The assignment involves working closely with theIrish Studies Co-Directors in sponsoring academic sym-posia; with the Director of the Irish Institute in supportof its government-funded peace process initiatives; andwith the Director of the Burns Library, which will occa-sionally exhibit some of its exceptional holdings at theSt. Stephen’s Green facility. The Academic Director ofBC-Ireland will also liaise with faculty coordinators onIrish campuses where BC students are in attendance;work with the Center for International Partnerships andPrograms in monitoring student internships; and pro-vide a resource center in Dublin for visiting students,faculty, alumni and friends of Boston College. Cronin’sappointment commences on March 7, 2005.

irish studies

Center for Irish Programs Hires New BC-Ireland Director

spring 2005. vol. 08 no. 2 1

center for irish programsirish studies irish institute burns library bc-ireland

BC- Ireland Director Michael Cronin.

Irish Studies is delighted to welcome Irish languageand literature scholar Joseph Nugent to the Universityas Assistant Professor in the English Department andthe Irish Studies Program. Nugent is already popu-lar among students at Boston College for his workteaching Irish language courses here as a visiting in-structor this past year. Faculty and students lookforward to continuing to work with him in the yearsto come.

Joe is originally from Mullingar in Ireland and comesto BC from the University of California at Berkeley,where he taught Irish language, college writing,pedagogy, Joyce’s Ulysses, war literature of the 20thcentury, and imperialism in the Victorian novel as adoctoral candidate. His research interests include ped-agogy, curriculum development, expository writing,technology in the classroom, Joyce, Irish nationalism,the popular culture of Irish religious experience, themodern Irish language, and the Victorian novel.His dissertation focuses on constructions of mas-culinity in Irish nationalism.

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Joe Nugent

The Belfast-born poet Gerald Dawe was among tenscholars elected Fellow of Trinity College Dublin inspring 2004. A pupil of Orangefield Boys’ School inBelfast during the 1960s, Dawe studied at the Uni-versity of Ulster before moving to National Universityof Ireland, Galway in 1974, where he researchedthe work of the 19th-century Irish novelist and shortstory writer, William Carleton. His first collection of poems, Sheltering Places, was published by theBlackstaff Press in 1978. He taught at the NationalUniversity of Ireland, Galway for many years until1987, when he took up a lectureship in English atTrinity College. In 1999 he was appointed Lecturerin English and Director of the Oscar Wilde Centrefor Irish Writing at Trinity. Along with BrendanKennelly he established the first graduate creativewriting program to be offered by an Irish university.Author of six collections of poetry, including TheLundys Letter (for which he was awarded the MacaulayFellowship in Literature), Sunday School, Heart ofHearts, The Morning Train and, most recently, LakeGeneva, Gerald Dawe has also published The Rest isHistory (1998), an innovative study of Belfast’s culturalroots in the work of Van Morrison and Stewart Parker,among others. With Nicholas Allen he is preparinga volume of his collected essays, The Proper Word:Ireland, Poetry and Politics and, with Marco Sonzogni,he translated The Night Fountain, the uncollectedpoems of Italian Nobel laureate Salvatore Quasimodo.He will be working on an anthology of Irish warpoetry during his time at Boston College.

Irish Language Professor Joe Nugent Joins IrishStudies

Gerald Dawe Named Burns Scholar for Spring 2005

For the first time, the Burns Library is exhibiting itsextensive George Bernard Shaw Collection to the pub-lic. The show opened in November 2004 and will con-tinue to be shown through April of this year. Titled“Mr. Shaw’s Time Is Filled Up for Months to Come,”the exclusive exhibit is free and open to the public.

Burns Library showcasesthe Shaw Collection

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Phil O’Leary

Philip O’Leary’s GaelicProse In The Irish FreeState, 1922-1939Professor Philip O’Leary’s new book, GaelicProse inthe Irish Free State, 1922-1939, will be launched onApril 26th at Boston College. Declan Kiberd, Professorof Anglo-Irish Literature at University College Dublin,will introduce the book. The work is a continuationof Professor O’Leary’s path-breaking book on theprose literature of the Gaelic Revival. The period fol-lowing the War of Independence and Civil War sawan outpouring of book-length works in Irish from thestate publishing agency An Gúm. The frequencyand production of new plays, both original and trans-

Summer ResearchFellowship Awarded to Dr Timothy J. MeagherThis year’s Summer Research Fellowship has beenawarded to Dr Timothy Meagher, Associate Professorof History at the Catholic University of America inWashington, D.C. Dr Meagher will use his time atBC to further his research on Irish America. He willlook specifically at how regional origins in Irelandaffected Boston Irish immigrants’ adaptations toAmerica. Dr Meagher teaches American immigra-tion history, Irish American history, and public his-tory. He has also served as the Director of the Centerfor Irish Studies and as Archivist, Museum Directorand Curator at the Catholic University of America.His published works include: A Guide to Irish AmericanHistory (Columbia University Press, forthcoming),and Inventing Irish America: Generation, Class and EthnicIdentity in a New England City, 1880 to 1928 (Universityof Notre Dame Press, 2001), for which he won theAmerican Conference for Irish Studies’ James DonnellySr prize. He has also edited several volumes, mostrecently The New York Irish (Johns Hopkins Uni-versity Press, 1996) with Ronald Bayor.

It is one of the largest exhibits ever at the BurnsLibrary, occupying all display areas on the building’smain floor. The Burns Library acquired the collection,which contains over 3,400 items, in 2002 from col-lector Samuel Freedman in an acquisition made possibleby the Brian P. Burns Endowed Acquisitions Fund.Burns Librarian Robert O’Neill said of the collectionthat it is “considered by many to have been the finestShaw collection in private hands,” and that “it catapultsour holdings into a place among the major Shawcollections in the world.”

lated, have never been approached since. ProfessorO’Leary has investigated all of these works as wellas journalism and manuscript materials and dis-cusses them in a lively and often humorous man-ner. He also discusses the contribution of writers likeLiam O’Flaherty, Sean O’Faolain and Frank O’Connor,who, while better known for their work in English,also either wrote on occasion in Irish or engaged indebates within the Gaelic movement. The publica-tion will be an essential reference book for anyoneinterested in Irish literature in the twentieth century.Philip O’Leary is Associate Professor in the Irish Studiesprogram at Boston College and co-General Editorof the forthcoming Cambridge History of Irish Literature.His book, The Prose Literature of the Gaelic Revival,1881-1921: Ideology and Innovation, was awarded the1995 Donald Murphy Prize by the American Con-ference for Irish Studies.

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Tom Murphy as Adam (left) and Mark O’Halloran as Paul in Adam and Paul

Fifth Annual Boston College Irish Studies Film Series

Irish Studies has always considered film to be an integral part of Ireland’s complex culture. Again thisyear Irish Studies will offer a film series featuringthe best of contemporary Irish feature and docu-mentary film. The series has been developed withthe support of the West Newton Cinema, an indepen-dently owned and operated “art house” movie the-ater that has gained a reputation for screening innovativeAmerican and international films. Feature films willbe screened on Sundays between February 27 andMarch 27 at the West Newton Cinema, and a numberof other films will be screened on Mondays begin-ning February 21st at Boston College. The serieswill open with the American premiere of The BoysFrom County Clare, a film set in Ireland during the1970s.The film follows the fortunes of two estrangedbrothers, both fiddle players, who meet up againafter twenty-five years at the All Ireland Ceili BandCompetition where they are playing in rival bands.Director Shimmy Marcus’s film Headrush has won

critical praise in Ireland and Europe for its depic-tion of contemporary Ireland. Headrush is a crimecomedy about two disillusioned youths, strugglingthrough a haze of cannabis, hoping to solve all theirproblems by smuggling a consignment of drugs fora local gangster. In Blind Flight, which tells the storyof Brian Keenan’s and John McCarthy’s internation-ally famous imprisonment, two men from totally dif-ferent backgrounds meet only because of the accidentof captivity and learn to care for each other.

The Halo Effect, a comedy starring Stephen Rea,explores the world of Fatso, the proprietor of whatmay be the worst eatery in Dublin, who is strugglingto keep a sinking ship afloat. His compulsive gam-bling is getting the better of him and he has to con-tend with an endless succession of loan sharks anddebt collectors. Adam and Paul is a film about twolifelong friends who have withered into hapless anddesperate junkies, tied together by habit and neces-sity. A stylized downbeat physical comedy, the film

Boston College’s McMullen Museum of Art will host“GONE: Site-specific works by Dorothy Cross” fromApril 14 to June 30. The opening will be on April 14thfrom 7:00 to 9:00 pm and will feature a talk by Irishartist Dorothy Cross at 8:00 pm in Devlin 008, titled“Gone and Coming/Visual Art: A Talk by Dorothy Cross.”The exhibit was curated by BC Professor of EnglishRobin Lydenberg and designed by Alston Conley,Chief Curator at the McMullen Museum. The showwill open just before the major retrospective exhibi-tion of Cross’s work scheduled for May 2005 at theIrish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin. The exhibi-tion will be organized into three sections: “The Returnof the Repressed,” “The Impossibility of Desire,” and“The Inevitability of Loss.” Unlike the austere peda-gogical thrust of much contemporary site-specificwork, Cross’s projects are distinguished by their sen-suality and wit. Using a variety of media—sculpture,photography, video, performance—Cross engageswith the particularities of time and place, and at thesame time inclines toward the psychic commonality

of our anxieties and desires. Although her work ishighly conceptual and theoretical, she never gives upthe actuality of place, the materiality of the objectand her eye for unexpected beauty. Consequently,the works on display will include twenty-five beauti-ful large color photographs of the finished installa-tions, three stunning videos, and several evocativesculptural objects directly or indirectly related tothe nine major projects.

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follows the boys over the course of a single day, whichlike every other, is entirely devoted to the businessof scrounging and stealing money for drugs.

The other feature films include Gerry Stembridge’ssatirical drama Black Day at Black Rock. The film chron-icles an extraordinary day in the life of a small Irishvillage, Black Rock. When the population is surprisedby the news that they are to be home to thirty asylumseekers, soon the whole place is in turmoil. MargoHarkin’s You Looking at Me? is set in contemporaryBelfast where Mei, a young Chinese girl, finds thatfalling in love with a local Protestant boy is not goingto be easy. Another film set in Belfast is Holy Cross, afictional drama set within real events. Two familiesare caught up in the headline events of 2001 on theArdoyne Road in Belfast where a dispute arose overthe rights of schoolgirls from the Catholic Ardoynearea of north Belfast to walk a few hundred yardsthrough the predominantly Protestant area of Glen-bryn to the Holy Cross primary school.

The series will also feature a number of documen-taries, including Vinny Cunningham’s Battle of theBogside. The film documents a fateful day in the his-

tory of Ireland, August 12, 1969. The disaffectedCatholic and Nationalist population in the Bogsidearea of Derry, Northern Ireland took to the streetsto confront the Royal Ulster Constabulary in thewake of a Protestant Apprentice Boys parade in thecity. The disturbances that ensued would mark thebeginning of a sustained period of political unrestin the province. Robert Quinn’s Cinegael Paradiso isa fascinating insight into one of the most influen-tial and pioneering figures in Irish filmmaking his-tory, Bob Quinn. The series will end with a screeningof Fáilte Mr. President, which tells the story of PresidentReagan’s controversial visit to Ireland in an electionyear, 1984. Unexpected anti-Reagan sentiment inIreland was to unite diverse sectors of Irish societyfrom the Catholic Church, to left- wing groups, tothen Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald. The result was a widely supported and multifaceted protest, and allplayed out on the US evening news…Fáilte Mr. Presidentmarks a turning point in Ireland’s traditional loveaffair with America. For dates, times and locationsplease see our website at www.bc.edu/irish.

McMullen Museum of Art to host exhibit: “GONE: Site-specific works by Dorothy Cross”

Ghost Ship by Dorothy Cross

The Irish music staff--Seamus Connolly, SullivanArtist-in-Residence, Ann Spinney, ethnomusi-cologist and music professor, and Beth Sweeney,Irish music librarian--have put together a greatlineup this spring. The quality and virtuosityvisitors to Connolly House encounter is rarelyfound in such an intimate environment, allow-ing the audience to interact and join in withartists who could easily fill concert halls to over-flowing. First on the spring schedule, on January25, is a performance by Mairín Uí Chéide, oneof Ireland’s finest interpreters of sean-nós. Inan evening of sean-nós singing, listeners aretransported to the Gaelic-speaking areas ofIreland, while experiencing the beauty of thecountry through old Irish airs sung undilutedand without translation.

On February 15 at Connolly House, fiddlerSeamus Connolly, accordionist Joe Derraneand guitarist John McGann will launch theirnew CD recording, The Boston Edge. In 2004,The Boston Globe called this recording one ofthe year’s ten best, and Joe Derrane receivedthe National Heritage Award, the Americangovernment’s top honor for a traditional musi-cian. On the same night, the Boston CollegeCenter for Irish Programs and ComhaltasCeoltóirí Éireann’s Hanafin-Cooley Branchwill launch Jimmy Hogan’s CD, A Clareman’sMusic. This dual CD launch with performancesby all the artists and a reception will provideIrish music fans with an unforgettable night.

Matt Cranitch from Cork City will join us onMarch 1 to give an illustrated lecture and recitaltitled “The changing face of Irish music.” This

multimedia presentation combines a scholarlylecture with images and sounds, making it amust-see event for those knowledgeable aboutIrish music as well as those new to the genre.Bruce Molsky arrives on March 15 with hisAppalachian fiddle. This is a return visit forMolsky, whose performances are exciting andvibrant with a strong Gaelic influence.

The music of Scotland, Cape Breton and Irelandwill be performed in Gasson Hall’s Irish Roomon April 8 by one of the leading ensembles inNorth America, Ferintosh. The group, com-prised of cellist Abby Newton, fiddler DavidGreenberg and harpist Kim Robinson, delightsaudiences wherever they perform. Suggesteddonation for the concert is $10. On April 21,we welcome Ed Miller to Connolly House. Dr. Miller, from Edinburgh via Texas, was aninstructor at Boston College’s Gaelic RootsSummer School. He is one of Scottish music’sforemost ambassadors, singing the traditionalLowland and Highland airs.

This spring, in addition to musical performancesthe Irish Music, Song and Dance Program willbe offering two céilís, on March 22 and 29, in Gasson Hall’s Irish Room. All abilities andages are welcome for a fun evening of Irishdance. Michael Smith, one of America’s lead-ing dance teachers and a Boston College pro-fessor, will host the céilís and provide instruction.Our spring program concludes with a perfor-mance by the Boston College music and dancestudents, who will open the Boston CollegeArts Festival on O’Neill Plaza on April 28.

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English

introduction to modern irish IIJoseph Nugent

continuing modern irish ii Joseph Nugent

old irishM.J. Connolly

writing workshop: poetryBurns Scholar Gerry Dawe

irish literature survey — nineteenth centuryJames Smith

the drama of ethnic renaissance:theater and society in early twen-tieth-century dublin and harlemPhilip O’Leary

irish culture in the new centuryVera Kreilkamp

irish heroic literature in modern adaptationPhilip O’Leary

yeatsMarjorie Howes

History

contemporary irelandRobert Savage

public and private in the age ofrevolution: ireland, 1770-1815Kevin O’Neill

ireland since the famineRobert Savage

modern irish history (graduate colloquium)Robert Savage

Irish Music & Dance

introduction to irish folk musicAnn Morrison Spinney

irish dancing: beginnerMichael Smith

irish dancing: advanced BeginnerMichael Smith

irish dancing: noviceMichael Smith

traditional irish fiddle: beginnerSéamus Connolly and Laurel Martin

tin whistle: beginnertin whistle: advanced beginner to intermediateJimmy Noonan

Political Science

politics of northern ireland,1921-presentRobert K. O’Neill

irish studies coursesspring 2005

Ferintosh

Irish Music Events

January 24Lecture: Ireland and the British Empire, 1690-1800Thomas Bartlett, Department of ModernHistory, University College Dublin

*Part of the Ireland and the British Empirelecture series*Connolly House 4:00 pm

January 25Musical performance: Sean-nósAn evening of old-style Irish singing withlocal singers. Presented by Mairín Uí Chéide.Connolly House 7:00 pm

February 14Lecture: Empire and Fiction: The Irish NovelVera Kreilkamp, Department of English,Pine Manor College

*Part of the Ireland and the British Empirelecture series*Connolly House 4:00 pm

February 15Joint CD Launch: The Boston Edge by JoeDerrane, Séamus Connolly, and JohnMcGann and A Clareman’s Music by flute and whistle player Jimmy Hogan.Connolly House 7:00 pm

February 27Film: The Boys from County Clare

*Part of the Irish Studies Film Series*West Newton Cinema 7:00 pm

February 28Documentary Film: The Battle of the Bogside

*Part of the Irish Studies Film Series*Devlin Hall 008 6:30 pm

March 1Illustrated Lecture and Recital: The Changing Face of Irish MusicMatt Cranitch, world-renowned fiddlerConnolly House 7:00 pm

March 6Film: Headrush

*Part of the Irish Studies Film Series*West Newton Cinema 7:00 pm

March 13Film: Blind Flight

*Part of the Irish Studies Film Series*West Newton Cinema 7:00 pm

March 14Documentary Film: Cinegael ParadisoIntroduced by Prof. Philip O’Leary

*Part of the Irish Studies Film Series*Devlin Hall 008 6:30 pm

March 15Musical performance: The Gaelic ConnectionOld-time music with master fiddler Bruce MolskyConnolly House 7:00 pm

March 17Film: The Halo Effect

*Part of the Irish Studies Film Series*West Newton Cinema 7:00 pm

March 20Film: Adam and Paul

*Part of the Irish Studies Film Series*West Newton Cinema 7:00 pm

March 21Lecture: Ireland, the Union, and the EmpireAlvin Jackson, Department of ModernHistory, Queen’s University Belfast

*Part of the Ireland and the British Empire lecture series*Connolly House 4:00 pm

Film: Black Day at Black Rock*Part of the Irish Studies Film Series*Devlin Hall 008 6:30 pm

March 22Irish dance and céilí with live musicGasson Hall, 6:30 pm

March 27Film: Holy Cross

*Part of the Irish Studies Film Series*West Newton Cinema, 7:00 pm

March 28Film: You Looking at Me?

*Part of the Irish Studies Film Series*Devlin Hall 008 6:30 pm

March 29Irish dance and céilí with live musicGasson Hall, 6:30 pm

April 4Film: Fáilte Mr President

*Part of the Irish Studies Film Series*Devlin Hall 008 6:30 pm

April 8Musical Performance: Cape Breton FiddleWith cellist Abby Newton, harpist KimRobinson, and violinist David Greenberg.Gasson Hall 8:00 pm

April 11Lecture: Ireland, the Empire, and theCommonwealthDeirdre McMahon, Department of History,Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick

*Part of the Ireland and the British Empire lecture series*Connolly House 4:00 pm

April 13Poetry Reading Gerald Dawe, Burns ScholarBurns Library Thompson Room, 4:00 pm

April 14 Lecture: Gone and Coming/Visual ArtDorothy Cross, Irish multimedia and installation artist

*Part of the Lowell Humanities Series*Devlin 008, 8:00 pm

April 20Lecture: The Sunken Boat; The 'Lusitania' and Irish ModernitySeamus Deane, Keough Professor of IrishStudies, University of Notre Dame

*Part of the Lowell Humanities Series*Higgins 300, 7:30 pm

April 21Musical performance: The Highlands and the LowlandsAn evening of Scottish song presented by singer and folklorist Dr. Ed MillerConnolly House 7:00 pm

April 25Lecture: Ulysses and UsDeclan Kiberd, University College DublinConnolly House 4:00 pm

April 26Launch: Gaelic Prose in the Irish Free State, 1922-1939Philip O’Leary, Department of English and Irish Studies ProgramConnolly House 4:00 pm

April 28Musical Performance: Boston College Arts FestivalStudents and instructors from BostonCollege’s Irish Music, Song, and DanceProgram performO’Neill Plaza 12:00 pm

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irish studies calendar

Two Irish National Tales: ‘Castle Rackrent’ by Maria Edgeworth and ‘The Wild IrishGirl’ by Sydney Owenson, part of the NewRiverside Edition Series and edited byProfessor James M. Smith, was publishedearlier this year by Houghton Mifflin.

center for irish programsirish studiesConnolly HouseChestnut Hill, MA 02467–3808

Non-Profit Org.U.S. PostagePAIDBoston, MAPermit No. 55294

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Irish Studies is written and edited by Marjorie Howes and Robert Savage with Elizabeth Sullivan and Rebecca Troeger, and published by the Center for Irish Programs, Irish Studies.

For information please contact: Irish Studies at Boston College, Connolly House, 300 Hammond Street, Chestnut Hill MA 02467, 617-552-3938 or email irish@bc.edu. See our website at www.bc.edu/irish.

Irish Studies AuthorsThis past year two graduates of the Irish StudiesProgram published their first books. Margaret Preston,Assistant Professor in the Department of Historyat Augustana College, published Charitable Words:Women, Philanthropy and the Language of Charity inNineteenth-Century Dublin (Praeger/Greenwood). DrPreston completed her PhD in 2000 before joiningthe history faculty at Augustana College in Sioux CitySouth Dakota. Joseph Lennon, Assistant Professor ofEnglish at Manhattan College, completed his MAat BC in 1996. His book, Irish Orientalism: A Literaryand Intellectual History was published by SyracuseUniversity Press.

Dalsimer FellowshipThe Dalsimer Graduate Research Fellowship wasestablished in honor of Professor Adele Dalsimer,co-founder and co-director of the Irish Studies Program.The fellowship is awarded annually to a deservingBoston College doctoral candidate in Irish Studies.The scholarship provides funding for advanced graduate students nearing the completion of theirdissertations.Doctoral candidates interested in beingconsidered for the Dalsimer Graduate ResearchFellowship should submit a letter of interest explain-ing how this fellowship would enhance the appli-cant’s scholarship, a cv and two letters of reference.Applications should be sent to Liz Sullivan, c/oBoston College Irish Studies Program, ConnollyHouse, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467. Deadline: March 15