Montana-Ireland Connection
Explored at Irish Studies Program
MISSOULA, MT - The Irish Studies program at the University of Montana in Missoula is the only Irish Studies Program which integrates rigorous academic research with a commitment to the preservation and promotion of the Irish language, literature, history, music, dance and performing arts.
The program currently offers a minor in Irish Studies (with an emphasis on the language) and was formally launched and endorsed in May 2006 by a visit from Mary McAleese, the President of Ireland, and enjoys support, enthusiasm, and some funding from the Irish government.
The program is extremely popular, the teachers are accomplished and talented, the classes are full and flourishing and the students are lining up to participate.
There are also plans in progress to develop a student exchange program with the University College Cork.
This is the only Irish Studies program of its kind west of the Mississippi and, unlike Notre Dame or Harvard, the University of Montana is affordable to most everyone who wants to study Irish.
The quality and level of education at the University of Montana is respected and world class. One of the professors, Dr. Steve Running was a co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with Al Gore for his studies on global warming.
Montana, unknown to most, has a strong link with Ireland most specifically with western Cork and the Beara Peninsula area.
The state is home to the largest per capita population of people of Irish descent in the western United States.
This community is comprised largely of descendants of those Irish-speaking miners who left the destitution of rural Ireland to seek their fortunes mining copper in the town of Butte.
Butte soon grew to such an extent that it began to exert an influence that was not only local and regional in reach but stretched all the way back home to Ireland.
Dr. Douglas Hyde, then president of the Gaelic League and the future president of the Irish Republic, visited in 1906 and the then fugitive Eamon DeValera found refuge and support in Montana in 1919.
The legacy of Ireland's people, traditions, and struggle still resound strongly in Montana and the University of Montana program is a vibrant and enthusiastic link with that heritage. For more information, visit: www.cas.umt.edu/irishstudies.
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