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Top ten Irish Studies programs in North America

Irish Studies programs at North American universities is a growing trend.


Notre Dame University, Indiana
Notre Dame University, Indiana
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Read More: Links to Irish Studies resources

Irish Studies programs at North American universities is a growing trend.

Today, there are dozens of programs across the U.S. and Canada, many of which provide an interdisciplinary approach to learning about a rich Celtic culture that's existed since the dawn of Western civilization.

IrishCentral has compiled a list of 10 exemplary Irish Studies programs in North America, complete with each program's philosophy and what they have to offer.

Here are our editor's picks:

NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY
- Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies

Location: Notre Dame, Indiana

Program: Undergraduate Minor, Graduate Degree

About:

The Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies is an interdisciplinary project devoted to teaching and research in Irish culture in all its internal and external relations. Established in 1993 under the intellectual leadership of Professor Seamus Deane, the Keough-Naughton Institute’s faculty now includes leaders in Literature, History, Film, Television and Theater and it is regularly supplemented by visiting professors, some of whom come to Notre Dame as Naughton Fellows in a reciprocal arrangement with Irish universities.

BOSTON COLLEGE - Center for Irish Programs

Location: Chestnut Hill, MA

Program: Undergraduate Minor, Graduate Degree

About:

The Center for Irish Programs at Boston College brings together all University Irish Initiatives. It has oversight responsibility for the Irish Studies program, the Irish Institute, the Burns Library Irish Collections, the Center for Irish Programs - Dublin, and the Irish Music Program. Boston College was founded, in part, to educate the sons of famine emigrants from Ireland who settled in Boston. The Center for Irish Programs continues this important aspect of the University's mission and heritage.

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY - Glucksman Ireland House

Location: New York, NY

Program: Undergraduate Minor, Graduate Degree

About:

Located in the heart of New York's Greenwich Village, Glucksman Ireland House is the center for Irish Studies at New York University, with courses in history, Irish language, literature, music and politics. NYU undergraduates may pursue a minor or a B.A./M.A. in Irish and Irish-American Studies. Graduate students may earn a Masters in Irish and Irish-American Studies

For the New York community, they present a weekly public events series during the academic year, as well as a monthly traditional Irish music series.

CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY
- Center for Irish Studies

Location: Washington D.C.

Program: Master’s Degree

About:

Irish studies at Catholic University has been present for over a century: the university established the first professorship devoted to teaching the Irish language in 1896. They offer an interdisciplinary Master’s degree in Irish Studies. The interdisciplinary nature of the program gives students the opportunity to take a range of courses from various university departments, as well as a semester-long Parliamentary Internship in Dublin.


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"clevelander," Boston University, with over 33,000 students, more than 4000 faculty, is the largest private University in the United States. BU is nonsectarian, but historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church. You are mistaking BU for the Jesuit school, Boston College.
Bythebay, I am staying on topic. You are saying that we should stop banging on about the past. So if that's what we should do, why have any history departments in Irish universities at all. Sorry, but Ireland doesn't have an alternate history. There was no Industrial Revolution, there was no Irish Empire, there was no spreading of the Irish language around the world (apart from Scotland, and the Isle of Man), so what do you propose instead?
Geez! I don't believe it. I actually agree with Bythebay for once? Being based in Ireland for 'post-grad.' work would allow travel across Ireland's four provinces:- Ulster/Northern Ireland - Munster/Southern Ireland - Leinster/Eastern Ireland - and Connacht/Western Ireland! And after studying here, they could "move on" (sic) to denying the past and cultivate a fashionable historical amnesia much beloved of contemporary Irish middle-class revisionists. Sometimes factual reflux is purposeful, though. Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. But then, perhaps that's the agenda after all? Still, live and let live is what I say. I believe Oliver Cromwell wasn't such a bad guy after all. And good company to have a pint of the devil's buttermilk with at your local Tavern in the town. As long as he didn't have a hangover. And he did come from a dysfunctional family also, poor chap.
Just don't tell anyone at Boston U about your past, even if it is for Historical reference.
I mean, why did England develop into such a world power? Is it important to know why? Do we need to know why everybody speaks English and not French or Spanish? Or is only X-factor and the latest i-phone relevant to our lives? How did the i-phone come about? Did it come out of a cardboard box, or is it necessary to know about Alan Turing's machine? Does anyone care as long as they can download their apps? If you don't take and interest in history, you'll probably believe anything you're told.
Well, we could say we have heard ad nauseum about Henry VIII and William the Conquerer and the Great fire of London here in England, but if you lose touch with the past and people don't know anything about the development of the country, that is when you get people rewriting history. If you know nothing about the past, and it's not recorded, how are you going to contradict somebody when they come out with some wacky perspective? You're going to have to take their word for it, if you don't know anything about history (you in a general sense, not addressing you directly with that Bythebay). Those who fail to learn the lessons from history are doomed to repeat them. That is probably one reason why there is so much emigration from Ireland today, just like in the past!
Ireland was one of the greatest, if not the greatest European centres of learning and scholarship in the 12th century. That was before before it suffered repeated invasions from England and all that was ruined, setting the scence for 8 centuries of turmoil. So you see, in order to understand Ireland today, you must look into its distant past and follow the thread until the modern day.
Bythebay, they want to learn about Irish 'culture' from the 12th century. They arent interested in us now.
 




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