Picture Liam Burke/Press 22
MARY Immaculate College (MIC) is to establish “a strong and significant national and international footprint in the developing areas of Irish Studies”, according to Dr Eugene O’Brien, director of the Institute for Irish Studies, which was launched this week at the college.
According to Dr O’Brien, the aim of the Institute is to create “a constellation of scholars, academics and teachers, which will establish MIC as a locus for a distinctive style of Irish Studies which is differentiated from other programmes in the area”.
“MIC has a significant profile in many areas in the arts and humanities, and this new institute will allow academics from the different disciplines to combine in a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary structure which will offer new perspectives on issues in Irish culture and society,” he said.
Officially launching the Institute was Prof Brian Ó Conchubhair,, from the Keough-Naughton Irish Studies Institute in the University of Notre Dame and vice president for the American Conference for Irish Studies.
He commented: “It is both apt and fitting that Limerick, a city, steeped in history, whose motto is ‘Cuimhnigh ar Luimneach’, be home to a world class institute for Irish Studies that is dedicated to not only remembering but interrogating the multifaceted, multi-layered meanings of Irishness”.
Prof Ó Conchubhair, who is also a proud alumnus of MIC, said that Limerick, as a Georgian city on one of Europe’s great rivers, would prove an attractive destination for scholars from Europe, North and South America and Asia when they attend the international conferences and symposia planned by the new Institute.
The Institute is also in the process of designing summer schools and postgraduate degrees in the area of Irish Studies.
