Fordham University's home for Irish Studies and events. Founded in 1998, the Institute has roots dating back to 1927 and Ulster-born poet Joseph Campbell.
Fordham University’s connections with Ireland are many and longstanding. From its inception in 1841, Fordham was staffed by many faculty who were themselves Irish-born or of Irish descent and who, over generations, counted a disproportionately large number of Irish-Americans among their students. It is perhaps fitting, then, that Fordham University boasted the first programme of Irish Studies in t
he United States. In late 1927 the Belfast-born poet and republican Joseph Campbell, founder and director of the School of Irish Studies based in Lower Manhattan, together with Rev. Miles J. O’Mailia SJ, then dean of the graduate school at Fordham, oversaw the incorporation of the School into Fordham University. In Campbell’s words: ‘Other American universities have chairs of Celtology, but this will have the distinction of being the first school of its kind devoted to study in the Irish arts as a whole.'
Nearly seventy years later, in 1998, Dr. John McCarthy, now professor emeritus of history, established the modern program of Irish Studies at Fordham with the creation of the Institute for Irish Studies. The purpose of the modern incarnation of the Institute was (and remains) two-fold: to offer Fordham undergraduates an holistic understanding of Ireland through a minor in Irish Studies; and to sponsor academic lectures and special events each year.
