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Center for Irish Studies

Center for Irish Studies

irish studies logo

Villanova’s Irish Studies Program was founded in 1979 and elevated to a Center in 2016 thanks to the generosity of the Connelly Foundation. The Center for Irish Studies provides innovative courses in seven disciplines open to all University students to study Ireland and its diaspora. 

The Center recognizes its role at Villanova University, founded by Irish Augustinians in Philadelphia in 1842, to explore the global dimensions of the Irish experience.  Irish Studies provides students in all colleges the opportunity to participate in vigorous conversations about Irish identity, history and culture through our multidisciplinary Minor in Irish Studies.

The Center sponsors two Villanova student groups—the Irish Cultural Society and the Irish Dance Team—and collaborates on events with local Philadelphia and Delaware Valley Irish-American groups, such as the Consul General of Ireland, the Irish Immigration Center, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, the Philadelphia Ceili Group, and the Irish American Business Chamber and Network.  

 

larry kirwin

FALL 2017

The Center for Irish Studies is excited to host Larry Kirwin of Black 47 on Villanova's campus Thursday, September 7th from 7pm-9pm at the Connelly Cinema!

THIS IS A FREE, FAMILY-FRIENDLY SHOW.  NO TICKETS REQUIRED 

IRELAND – A HISTORY IN SONG is a new and exciting one-man show by Larry Kirwan that combines his 25 years experience leading Black 47 with his parallel careers as playwright, author, journalist and radio host. Through a mixture of story-telling, acting, and singing Kirwan brings Irish history alive with emphasis on The Great Hunger of 1847, Emigration to America, The Celtic Revival, 1916 Uprising, and the recent “Troubles.” You’ll be introduced to and get to the heart of James Connolly, Michael Collins, Countess Markievicz, James Joyce, WB Yeats, Bobby Sands & Bernadette Devlin McAliskey among others.

The show will include classic Kirwan songs such as Black 47, James Connolly, The Big Fellah, extracts from his plays and books, Mr. Parnell, Blood, Hard Times, A History of Irish Music, and Green Suede Shoes in a seamless story that will entertain & educate.

Larry Kirwan is one of the most popular performers/personalities in Irish-America.

Apart from his groundbreaking work with Black 47 – the band that spearheaded the Celtic Rock movement - he also hosts Celtic Crush on SiriusXM, writes a bi-weekly column for the Irish Echo, and is president of Irish-American Writers & Artists. In a 25-year career Black 47 played 2,500 gigs, released 16 CDs, and appeared on all major TV shows including Letterman, Leno, O’Brien & Fallon.

A critically acclaimed playwright with 15 plays and musicals, Kirwan will also weave in songs from his acclaimed musical, Hard Times – now being developed for a Broadway production. Always a riveting performer, Kirwan holds audiences spellbound with his intensity, insightfulness and wit. He will conclude the evening with a selection from the rollicking side of the Black 47 catalogue including hits like Funky Ceili, 40 Shades of Blue, Livin’ in America.

Kirwan's songs have been featured in many movies and recent editions of Sons of Anarchy and Gossip Girl; they are also used in hundreds of college and high school history classes. His latest book, A History of Irish Music, not only illuminates the music but links it to the social and political changes of the last 75 years in Ireland.

Now booking - a powerful new solo show with all the fire and vision of Black 47 by Larry Kirwan, named one of the Top Fifty Most Interesting New Yorkers by The Daily News.

 

Upcoming Events

Announcing the Villanova University Center for Irish Studies

Beginning this fall, we will inaugurate our new Center for Irish Studies by hosting an academic conference, "Who's/Whose Irish? Philadelphia Stories of Inclusion and Exclusion" on October 15th. We will also welcome the Abbey Theatre to Philadelphia with a Villanova Night at their performance of The Plough and the Stars by Sean O'Casey at the Annenberg Center on October 14th. The performance is part of a tour to commemorate the Easter Rising of 1916. 

The Center for Irish Studies is being made possible by a generous gift from the Connelly Foundation. To honor the gift the Center's directorship will be named for Emily C. Riley, Executive Vice President for the Connelly Foundation and a former member of the Villanova University Board of Trustees. For more on the educational philanthropy of the Connelly Foundation and their gift click here.

We will also host the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick on September 20th for their quarterly meeting. Professor Joseph Lee, Director of Glucksman Ireland House at NYU, will deliver a lecture on "Easter 1916" at 7:30 p.m. in the Villanova Room of the Connelly Center, which is open to the community.

Other news: Vicky Brady from Cork joins the Villanova Irish Studies Center to teach Irish Language courses this year, Introductory Irish I & II and Intermediate Irish. Failte romhat Vicky!

larrykirwin

 

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 7pm-9pm

This is a free, family-friendly show, no tickets required

IRELAND – A HISTORY IN SONG is a new and exciting one-man show by Larry Kirwan that combines his 25 years experience leading Black 47 with his parallel careers as playwright, author, journalist and radio host. Through a mixture of story-telling, acting, and singing Kirwan brings Irish history alive with emphasis on The Great Hunger of 1847, Emigration to America, The Celtic Revival, 1916 Uprising, and the recent “Troubles.” You’ll be introduced to and get to the heart of James Connolly, Michael Collins, Countess Markievicz, James Joyce, WB Yeats, Bobby Sands & Bernadette Devlin McAliskey among others.

The show will include classic Kirwan songs such as Black 47, James Connolly, The Big Fellah, extracts from his plays and books, Mr. Parnell, Blood, Hard Times, A History of Irish Music, and Green Suede Shoes in a seamless story that will entertain & educate.

Larry Kirwan is one of the most popular performers/personalities in Irish-America.

Apart from his groundbreaking work with Black 47 – the band that spearheaded the Celtic Rock movement - he also hosts Celtic Crush on SiriusXM, writes a bi-weekly column for the Irish Echo, and is president of Irish-American Writers & Artists. In a 25-year career Black 47 played 2,500 gigs, released 16 CDs, and appeared on all major TV shows including Letterman, Leno, O’Brien & Fallon.

A critically acclaimed playwright with 15 plays and musicals, Kirwan will also weave in songs from his acclaimed musical, Hard Times – now being developed for a Broadway production. Always a riveting performer, Kirwan holds audiences spellbound with his intensity, insightfulness and wit. He will conclude the evening with a selection from the rollicking side of the Black 47 catalogue including hits like Funky Ceili, 40 Shades of Blue, Livin’ in America.

Kirwan's songs have been featured in many movies and recent editions of Sons of Anarchy and Gossip Girl; they are also used in hundreds of college and high school history classes. His latest book, A History of Irish Music, not only illuminates the music but links it to the social and political changes of the last 75 years in Ireland.

Now booking - a powerful new solo show with all the fire and vision of Black 47 by Larry Kirwan, named one of the Top Fifty Most Interesting New Yorkers by The Daily News.

Presented by Kevin Dettmar of Pomona College

Any reader familiar with Joyce’s fiction (especially Ulysses) who then sets out to read his voluminous correspondence encounters a jarring dissonance. In the fiction, correspondence serves a dazzling variety functions; in Joyce’s own correspondence, which is almost always business correspondence of one kind or another, the generosity that characterizes the fiction is replaced with an unattractive and unappealing self-interest. We’ll consider Joyce’s correspondence in three aspects: the circulation of letters, postcards, and telegrams in Joyce’s fiction; the tenor of Joyce’s own correspondence, including the unpublished letters forthcoming from Oxford University Press; and in particular, Joyce’s correspondence with publisher Grant Richards, which paved the way for his critical reception, putting into play terms that populate the criticism to this day.

Bio: Kevin Dettmar is W. M. Keck Professor and Chair of English at Pomona College. He has published widely in the fields of literary modernism and popular music studies. He is executive editor of the forthcoming Oxford University Press edition of James Joyce’s ~1,800 unpublished letters; recently, with Jonathan Lethem, he edited Shake It Up: Great American Writing on Rock and Pop from Elvis to Jay Z (Library of America).

This lecture will take place Tuesday, October 18th from 5pm-7pm in the Idea Accelerator in Falvey Library

Contact Information

Center for Irish Studies
Villanova University, SAC Room 105E
800 Lancaster Avenue
Villanova, PA 19085

Director, Dr. Joseph Lennon
Email: joseph.lennon@villanova.edu
Phone: (610) 519-4647

Assistant Director,
Dr. Jennifer A. Joyce
Email: jennifer.joyce@villanova.edu
Phone: (610) 519-8953


Administrative Assistant II, 
Wendy Wunderlich
Email: wendy.wunderlich@villanova.edu
Phone: (610) 519-7517

ireland
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* 2017 Spring Calendar.pdf
A listing of all our Irish Studies events for the Spring 2017 semester