March 2004 NUI Galway celebrates Irish Studies in the United States

The second annual lecture series in memory of Martha Fox, who has supported the Centre for Irish Studies at NUI Galway, will take place this week and next in the United States. Dr. Niall Ó Cíosáin, of the University's History Department, will deliver a lecture on "Print and the Irish Language", in New York, Boston and Chicago on March 23, 25 and 29, respectively. Each lecture will be introduced by NUI Galway President, Dr Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh.

Upon her death in 1999, Martha Fox, a Wakefield Massachusetts schoolteacher, generously endowed NUI Galway with funding for Martha Fox House as home to the Centre for Irish Studies and for scholarship programmes. Her support provides the Centre with an opportunity to foster and develop institutional relationships with academic and civic institutions in the USA and to showcase and highlight aspects of the work of the University's Centre for Irish Studies.

Dr. Ó Cíosáin's lecture will trace the culture of print in Irish and explore its complex relationship with the wider questions of language and cultural change. Ó Ciosáin has published Print and Popular Culture in Ireland, 1750-1850 (Macmillan/St Martin s Press 1997) and a number of articles on popular literature, printing and language shift in Ireland.

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