Tag Archives: Boston College

The ‘Irish Literary Supplement’ says slán

This summer, Robert G. Lowery published the final issue of the Irish Literary Supplement, a biannual journal that provided readers approximately 2,000 reviews since 1982.

“I’m grateful to all those reviewers and editors who were with me from the start, and those who joined the journey at stops along the way,” the editor and publisher wrote on the American Conference of Irish Studies (ACIS) Facebook page.

Lowery’s message generated more than three dozen supportive comments and nearly 100 positive emoji reactions as of the date this story was published.

“You have rendered the world of Irish Studies, indeed anyone interested in this country, its diaspora and its rich cultural history, a dedicated and generous service,” wrote Piaras Mac Éinrí, lecturer in Migration Studies and Geography at University College Cork.

Lowery, 84, has been a member of ACIS since 1975. He is the author of six books on Irish dramatist Sean O’Casey (1880-1964). In the 1970s, Lowery was founder and editor of the journal The Sean O’Casey Review. Simultaneously, he was editor of the ACIS Newsletter for 10 years and the Irish Arts Center (New York City) magazine Ais-Eiri for five years. He organized numerous conferences and centenary celebrations about Casey, and in 1986 delivered his extensive archive of O’Casey memorabilia to the Boston College Library.

The final issue of the ILS.

For most of its run the ILS was a cooperative venture between Lowery, ACIS, which provided mailing labels of its membership, and the Irish Studies program at Boston College, which provided sponsorship. Circulation fluctuated depending on ACIS membership, while at peak about 400 libraries subscribed to the journal.

“Before ILS, which most people can’t remember, there were very few outlets for book reviews on Irish subjects,” Lowery wrote in reply to my outreach. “The Times Literary Supplement would have one issue per year where Irish books filled the pages. And of course, the Irish newspapers carried book reviews, but this was before the internet and the only way to get Irish papers was at a few newsstands in New York City, Boston, and maybe Washington, D.C.

Before the internet … Today book publishers routinely bypass independent reviewers to promote their titles through web pages, email lists, and social media feeds. It seems to me that ILS readers and the Irish Studies scholars who wrote the reviews are shortchanged by these newer marketing strategies.

“Bob listened to many of us try out our work, which meant that he also had a sense of who might be able to review works that crossed his desk,” Timothy G. McMahon, Ph.D., associate professor of Modern Irish and British Empire History at Marquette University, Milwaukee, and a past ACIS president, wrote in an email. “A lot of us, therefore, got experience reviewing in the pages of the ILS, including learning how to deal with a tough-minded editor who cast a critical eye over the text.”

The final issue of ILS featured 21 reviews of books from 13 U.S., U.K., and Irish publishers, with a display advertisement from Wake Forest University Press, a supporter of the journal for decades. “I think it’s a strong ending,” Lowery wrote.

So what’s next?

Is there a future for the ILS?

Lowery, who owns the title through a Long Island, N.Y., entity called Irish Studies, said he hopes “an enterprising scholar” will pick up where has left off.

“The key to keeping such a publication going is to get the endorsement of ACIS,” he continued. “If you’re going digital, you can simply post the paper on the ACIS Facebook site; but I don’t know how you will fund it. It is too expensive to print, and print is somewhat passe anyway. When I started in 1982, first class postage for a 20-page paper to Ireland and England was 60 cents. Today, it’s $6.00. There is no 2nd or 3rd class postage.”

The endeavor also requires “a good strong Irish editor,” Lowery added. “I was lucky to have them.”

I reached out to ACIS and Boston College. I welcome members of the Irish Studies community to provide their thoughts about continuing the ILS in some format.

Back to D.C. — thanks New England archivists & librarians

The Burns Library holds BC’s Irish and Irish American collections.

I’m back in Washington, D.C., after 10 months in Boston for my wife’s Nieman Foundation fellowship at Harvard. It was a great experience for both of us. I visited several libraries and archives in the region to research my book on American journalists in revolutionary Ireland. In appreciation, I’ve listed the institutions and two individuals below, followed by more photos:

  • Boston College: Thomas P. O’Neill, Jr., and John J. Burns libraries.
    • Thanks to Guy Beiner, Sullivan Chair of BC’s Irish Studies program, Connolly House.
  • Boston Public Library: “Irish Papers” collection and newspaper microfilm.
  • Cambridge Public Library and associated Minuteman Library Network.
  • Colby College (Waterville, Maine): James A. Healy Collection at Miller Library.
    • Thanks to Patricia Burdick, head of special collections and archives.
  • Harvard: Widener, Lamont, Houghton, and Divinity School libraries, and
    • Radcliffe Institute: Schlesinger Library.
  • Tufts University: Tisch Library.
  • University of Massachusetts at Boston: Joseph P. Healy Library.
  • Yale University (New Haven, Conn.): Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Plaque at the entrance of Harvard’s Widener Library describes the fate of its namesake.

Bates Hall, the main reading room at Boston Public Library.

Hallway leading to special collections and archives at Yale University.

Miller Library at Colby College in Maine.

Burns still waiting on Senate vote for Irish ambassadorship

“To think of it: my grandfather was a very poor immigrant in County Kerry in 1892 and a little over 120 years later I am being selected as a representative of 35 million or 40 million Americans of Irish heritage and this president to go to Ireland. It is astonishing; I have to pinch myself.”

U.S. Ambassador to Ireland nominee Brian Burns in The Irish Times.

“The extraordinary support provided by Brian Burns, members of the Burns family, and their associates and friends has helped make Boston College one of the world’s leading centers for the study and appreciation of Ireland and the Irish diaspora.”

Christian Dupont, head librarian at the John J. Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections at Boston College (Brian Burns is a son of John J. Burns. This is a great collection, which I visited in 2013.)

“I read the Irish papers from time to time, and I see nothing but criticism for President Trump. That’s a huge error.”

Burns quoted in the Palm Beach (Fla.) Daily News

As of 20 February, a Senate vote to confirm Burns has not been scheduled.

Brian Burns at BC in 2012.

B.C.’s Irish Institute exchange fellows visit D.C.

In a forlorn corner of Dublin, a sign at the entrance of a youth diversion community center warns against bringing alcohol inside the building. At a similar youth center in a low-income neighborhood of metro Boston, the sign at the front warns against bringing in guns.

That’s just one of many differences between the criminal justice system in Ireland and the United States, as detailed by 13 professionals in the fields of law enforcement, youth justice, and law visiting Boston from Ireland and Northern Ireland. The Irish Institute at Boston College hosted the exchange fellows, who spoke to Irish Network-D.C. on 3 June before returning home.

Youth justice worker Ashling Golden of Dublin made the observation about the two signs. She said programs that divert young people from the criminal justice system have resulted in youth crime dropping to seven in 100 from 13 in 100. Such programs, she said, are much less expensive than imprisonment.

Sgt. Gavin O’Reilly of An Garda Síochána said gun crimes are on the rise in Ireland. He observed that Boston and other American police agencies seem to do a better job of sharing information across agencies, but added the relationship between law enforcement in the Republic and the Police Service of Northern Ireland is improving. O’Reilly also said the U.S. does a better job of engaging third-party partners from the community to help police deal with troubled youth.

Maura McCallion, division head for the Attorney General for Northern Ireland, told me that while many Catholic and Protestant youth in the north have fallen away from the practice their religion, they still hold tightly to those community identifications. And that continues to cause problems in the flash points of Belfast and other parts of Ulster.