Irish Studies at Boston College
@bc-irish-studies
The Irish Studies program at Boston College offers a richly interdisciplinary study of Irish and Irish-American culture, history, and society.
This summer, #BCIrishStudies hosted Burns Summer Fellow Christina Morin from the University of Limerick. Morin explored holdings at the Burns Library for her current project, Irish Gothic in the Global 19th Century. @burnslibrary.bsky.social @drtinamorin.bsky.social @unioflimerick.bsky.social
#BCIrishStudies PhD candidate Cassidy Allen has a chapter in the recently published 'Sally Rooney: Perspectives & Approaches' "The Gothic Gaze," examines how Rooney's work reimagines the Gothic subject through digital forms of self-exposure & surveillance. www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
Next Wednesday, July 22, the Burns Library is hosting an event titled "The Story of US" at 5:30 pm Learn about the newly released 1926 Irish Census database, search for family histories, view the National Archives of Ireland's special exhibition, & have some refreshments @burnslibrary.bsky.social
Congrats to our former #BCIrishStudies student Rachel Brody on her appointment to Washington and Jefferson College!
Congratulations to Dr. Theodore Lehre! Dr. Lehre defended their dissertation, titled "The Othered Mother: Queer & Alternative Motherhoods in 20th Century Irish Literature," with their committee this past weekend. #BCIrishStudies could not be more proud!
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” — Frederick Douglass
Professor Joe Nugent celebrated Bloomsday this week by launching his new app JoyceWays at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow!
Professor Joe Nugent successfully launched JoyceWays at #BCIreland. JoyceWays is not just a map. It is a time machine. An augmented reality layer of literature over the streets of Dublin. There are more launches to come in Paris and in Krakow. joyceways.vercel.app
Comhghairdeas lenár ndaltaí! Congratulations to our students!
This weekend, we invited all #BCIrishStudies graduates and their families to Connolly House for a celebratory brunch! Congratulations to all our 2026 grads! We cannot wait to see what you do next!!
Our faculty and graduate students held a talk-back session with The Longwood Players following their production of Translations by Brian Friel this weekend.
Another productive year of seminars, conferences, symposiums, and concerts has come to an end at #BCIrishStudies! Many thanks to all of our speakers, faculty, students, and audience members who participated in or attended our events in 2025/2026.
The novels and short stories of James Joyce continue to inspire creativity in the arts and everyday life. Drawing on the work of scholars and our students, we held a conference today to celebrate and examine how Joyce's intricate wonders continue to shape the world we live in.
#BCIrishStudies graduate students Jessica Oyler (PhD) and Quinn Fisher (MA) have won the university's Von Hendy Award for Graduate Student Writing. Congratulations to both writers!!
Thank you to BC's AADS program for another fantastic collaboration! Last night, we discussed Irish and African American diasporic connections seen in Sinners with Mary Burke (UConn), Jerry Rafiki Jenkins (University of Georgia), Demetrius Murphy (BC), & Diane Negra (UCD)
Join us tomorrow in Devlin Hall for a roundtable on how vampires & music reveal interconnected stories of the African American and Irish diasporas Participants include Mary Burke (UConn), Jerry Rafiki Jenkins (University of Georgia), Demetrius Murphy (BC), & Diane Negra (UCD)
The Irish Institute is excited to open applications for its next Emerging Scholar. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
We were thrilled to host Natasha Sumner & other folklorists for a discussion of her fascinating new book, Heroes of the Gael, which explores the evolution of the Fenian tradition of story and song over 1,400 years. @burnslibrary.bsky.social @harvard.edu
Models of creative genius in their own right, the novels & short stories of James Joyce continue to inspire creativity in the arts & everyday life. Drawing on the work of scholars and our students, this event celebrates how Joyce's intricate wonders continue to shape the world we live in!
Join us on April 22 in Devlin Hall for a roundtable on how vampires & music reveal interconnected stories of the African American and Irish diasporas Participants include Mary Burke (UConn), Jerry Rafiki Jenkins (University of Georgia), Demetrius Murphy (BC), & Diane Negra (UCD)
PhD candidate Rowan Bianchi presenting "Protest & Policing in the Rockite Insurgency" at QUB's Peasant Movements and Land Agitation in Modern Ireland symposium
Ray Cashman delivered a fantastic Burns Scholar Lecture on how Irish deathcare workers believe, disbelieve, or hedge their bets on the existence of spirits. Cashman's focuses on stories of spirits of the dead making themselves known, a term folklorists call "memorates." @burnslibrary.bsky.social
On 4/16, we're celebrating Natasha Sumner's new work, Heroes of the Gael: A History of Fionn and the Fianna (Princeton Uni Press, 2026) Joining Sumner for a discussion of Irish folklore are Geraldine Parsons (Uni of Glasgow), Ciara Ní Riain (Harvard), & Ray Cashman (Indiana Uni)
Join us in the Burn Library on Wednesday, April 8, to hear Ray Cashman deliver his Burns Scholar Lecture, titled "Exploring Belief in Spirits of the Dead Among Contemporary Irish Death Care Workers." @burnslibrary.bsky.social
The BC Chronicle interviewed Burns Scholar Ray Cashman before his lecture on Wednesday, April 8! issuu.com/bcchronicle/...
Join us this Friday in Gasson Hall for our annual Gaelic Roots céilí! All are welcome!!
Check out our #BCIrishStudies courses for next semester!!
We had a wonderful grad student workshop last night, as QUB student Christian Nsonwu presented research on race-hate incidents in an age of growing multiculturalism in Northern Ireland. We're thrilled to continue this grad student exchange with @irishstudiesqub.bsky.social!
On Monday, March 30, Leanne McCormick will participate in the inaugural Swords History of Ireland Lecture Series at Holy Cross Her talk is titled "Recovering 'Truth'? Investigating Mother & Baby Homes and Magdalen Laundries in Northern Ireland" @leannemccormick.bsky.social @ulsteruni.bsky.social