DR. Maureen O’Rourke Murphy is a professor and co-director of the Irish studies program at Hofstra University on Long Island.

O’Rourke Murphy, whose Irish grandparents hailed from counties Leitrim and Longford, is a past president of the American Conference on Irish Studies, and a past chair of the International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures. She is also a board member of the Emerald Isle Immigration Center.

O’Rourke Murphy earned a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Cortland, and master’s and PhD from Indiana University.

A widow, O’Rourke Murphy has made annual visits to Ireland since 1961, traveling to various parts of the country four to five times a year. She also studied at UCD in Dublin from 1965-’66.

“Ireland is the center of my life. It is what has defined me as a person,” she says.

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