There has been a strong Irish presence here in Boston since the devastating potato famine sent a diaspora of Celts to our shores in the 1840’s and 50’s. Only a stone’s throw from traditionally Irish enclave of South Boston, UMass Boston is the perfect place to host the 2007 New England Region of the American Conference on Irish Studies meeting.

On November 10, UMass Boston’s harbor campus will become the center point of Irish art and intellect in New England. An entire day of discussion and celebration awaits all who attend. The conference will consist of an entire day of Irish-related discussion and celebration. From scholarly exploration to cultural enlightenment, Ireland will be looked at in many different ways.

In ten sessions throughout the day, scholars will read their work and discuss their ideas. Followed by a post conference reception in the Harbor Gallery. Each session consists of a number of 20-minute readings by various thinkers from around New England and across the Atlantic, from all walks of like, musicologists, literary scholars, historians and others.

The theme of this year’s conference “The Parish, the Universe” encompasses much of Irish thought and culture. Including everything from public schooling to globalization.

The sessions are broken into categories that range from politics to poetics to contemporary Irish writing. So, if you like Ireland, there is something for you.

In Ireland, the parish is a collection of towns or villages, a close-knit community where neighbors often feel like family. In many ways as the Irish left their homeland and moved across the globe they brought this idea with them. Forming a sort of “portable parish,” this community feel is explored through many of the works at the conference.

Another theme found in the writings at the conference is the role of Ireland as a budding country, a member of the EU; Ireland is seen as one of the world’s most quickly growing economies.

At the conclusion of the conference there will be a post conference reception held in the Harbor Gallery on the first floor of the McCormack Building. Poet Greg Delanty will read his work and photographer Fionan O’Connell will present an exhibition of his photographs.

Delanty, born in Cork and now living in Vermont, is the author of several award-winning books of poetry. Speaking to the overall themes of the conference, Delanty’s poetry will give a literary life to the ideas of the day’s sessions. Fionan O’Connell’s “In the Heart of the Hibernian Metropolis,” an exhibition of photographs of modern Dublin helps provide visual quality to those ideas. Giving the viewer a glimpse of the Ireland few ever think of, the modern, urban Ireland.

For more information on the conference, contact Professor Thomas O’Grady or Professor Matthew Brown in the English Department.