Why Irish Studies?

What is Irish Studies?

Irish Studies is an interdisciplinary minor designed to complement a wide variety of majors by providing students with an understanding of the historical and cultural development of the Irish people and the significance of their intellectual, artistic, spiritual, and economic contribution to world civilization, including their experiences as both a post-colonial nation and an emigrant Diaspora.

Taken together, Ireland's historical evolution, its long experience of colonization and cultural oppression; its rich contribution to world literature, art, music; the creative tension in contemporary Ireland between its ancient Celtic heritage and its modern Anglo-Irish/Hiberno-English identity; and its remarkable though often unacknowledged influence upon the countries - chiefly the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa - that make up the far-flung Irish Diaspora constitute a fertile field for intellectual inquiry.

Focused simultaneously on a small nation on the edge of Europe and a far-flung Diaspora and offered within the context of the most culturally diverse city in the world, the minor in Irish Studies is designed to be not merely interdisciplinary but intercultural. At a time when the nearly simultaneous phenomena of a European drive toward unification and an American emphasis on diversity both complicate and enrich our very notions of what constitutes a nation, culture, or people, students minoring in Irish Studies will have the flexibility to explore the richness of the Irish experience from a broad range of perspectives and the opportunity to assess its influence not only in Europe and America but on struggles against cultural and political oppression around the globe.

Study Abroad

Students can earn up to eight credits toward the minor in Irish Studies in the LMU Summer in Ireland Program at Trinity College in Dublin, one of the oldest and most renowned universities in the world. Students can also arrange to spend a semester or year abroad at an Irish university. 

For more information on studying abroad in Ireland, click here.