Pictured (left to right): Professor Fisher, Ambassador Mulhall, and Professor Baker
On 26 April 2022, His Excellency, Daniel Mulhall, 18th Ambassador of Ireland to the United States, visited the campus of The Catholic University of America to participate in the launch of two books by members of the university’s Irish Studies program.
The book presentation celebrated the publication of Bone and Marrow/ Cnámh Agus Smior: An Anthology of Irish Poetry from Medieval to Modern (Wake Forest University Press, 2022), co-edited by Dr. Samuel Fisher (Department of History), and Classics and Celtic Literary Modernism: Yeats, Joyce, MacDiarmid and Jones (Cambridge University Press, 2022). by Dr. Gregory Baker (Department of English, Director of Irish Studies).
Dr. Aaron Dominguez, Provost of the University, welcomed the ambassador to campus by highlighting how the university has been molded by the Irish-American presence. For his part, the ambassador delivered spirited remarks that emphasized the close links of Irish literature and poetry to the Emerald Island’s history and politics. Dr. Fisher and Dr. Baker each introduced their books—the first for each of these early career scholars—by tracing the intellectual and personal journeys that informed the writing of their respective books. A question-and-answer session allowed many interested undergraduates to pose questions to the ambassador and the two authors.
The event was co-sponsored by The Department of History Colloquium Series; The Program in Irish Studies; and The Department of English.