Irish Studies explores the history and culture of the Irish people from the different perspectives of literature, history, art, politics, and folklore, enabling students to understand the richness of Irish culture. It is a culture which traces itself back to the dawn of Western Civilization when the earliest Celts, who were known to the Greeks and challenged by the Romans, established an art which influenced the early Christians. In the ensuing centuries, Irish culture has continued to influence life in Europe and North America while exploring its own directions.

In our time, a renewed awareness of the historic and mythic past led to the Irish literary revival at the beginning of the twentieth century and contributed to those political upheavals in modern Irish life which continue to reverberate. The Irish Studies concentration develops a program whereby students can discover the evolution of modern Ireland from its past.

News & Events

• Faculty/Staff Tour of Ireland - Join Jim Murphy, Director of the Irish Studies program, on a two week journey through Ireland. The trip will visit many places in Ireland including Kenmare, Kinsale, Kilkenny, and Dublin. Date to be determined.
   
• Villanova Irish Festival - The department of Theatre and Irish Studies presents a lecture series delivered by several renown Irish writers. March - April 2007.
   
• Visiting Irish Studies Professor Enlivens Courses with Creativity Expanding Techniques - Dr. Justin Quinn’s advanced creative writing class assignments did, by his own admission, get “a bit weird.” Students were asked to lose, not find, their voices. They were required to write poetry using edgy literary devices such as “flarf,” a collage-based form of avante garde poetry that combines “capture” phrases from Google searches, and “cento,” a technique that assembles a poem from excerpts of other authors' writings. Blogs and spam were also mined for experimental literary treasure. And, no one walked away unchanged...Read more. (Blueprints - May 2007).