The Center for Irish Studies at Villanova University Podcast Series

Stephen Sexton is an Irish poet and a lecturer at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at Queen's University Belfast. While on campus in March 2025 he sat down with the Center for Irish Studies Director Joseph Lennon to discuss howpoetry can help us navigate the world. He reads poems from his two books ___________________Stephen Sexton the author of two books of poems – If All the World and Love Were Young, published in 2019 and Cheryl's Destinies, published in 2021.  He is a recipient of multipleawards, which include winning the National Poetry Competition in 2016, the Eric Gregory Award in 2018, the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the Shine / Strong Award for Best First Collection in 2019, the E. M. Forster Awardfrom the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2020.   Sexton has been teaching creative writing at the ⁠Seamus Heaney Centre⁠ for Poetry at Queen's University Belfast for six years.  Sexton was ten years old when the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 brought a formal end to the Troubles in the North of Ireland, which later in life made him realize that he was growing up in a time that he did not understand, and he became aware of a profound generational divide between him and his parents.  Sexton explains that in a sense, there is a “kind of ghostly history that is all around you, but you can't access it in the same way that other people can, so as a consequence, it doesn't necessarily show up in my writing.”  In his book, If All the World and Love Were Young, which happens to be set in 1998, there is one moment that addresses the Omagh bombing – a single deadliest attack in thirty years of violence that he remembers hearing about on the radio and then seeingon television.  But beyond that, the book is a blend of childhood memories that uses the analogy of a nineties Nintendo videogame, Mario Brothers, that digs into Sexton's more personal recollections about the house that he grew up in and memories of his mother.   Sexton's more recent book of poems, Cheryl's Destinies, was written during the COVID lockdown, where he explored a desire to bring together the improbable and the sensitive, hence the section of poems that imagines a collaboration between Billy Corgan lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins and Irish poet W.B Yeats. The book's general theme of being obsessed with and anxious about the future came through the conversations between two strangers separated by a century, where they discuss the difficulty of making art. Sexton's book questions the role of a poet and its connection to the role of a medium, as they both perform a similar function -- look at the world and interpret it.

Dan Colley is an Irish theater and film writer and director whose play Lost Lear had its North American premier at Villanova's Mullen Center for Performing Arts in February 2025. While on campus Dan sat down with with Irish Studies and Theater faculty member Bess Rowen, to discuss his career in theater in general and Lost Lear, specifically. Lost Lear is an adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear, is told from the point of view of Joy, a retired actor with dementia, who is living in an old memory of rehearsing “King Lear.” The staff of the nursing home where Joy lives facilitate her care by acting out her happy memories. Joy's delicately maintained reality is upended by the arrival of her estranged son who, being cast as Cordelia, must find a way to speak his piece from within the limited role he is given. https://www.dancolley.com/theatre/lostlear__________Dan Colley is a theater and film writer and director from Dublin. He specializes in ensemble-devised theater, young audience theater, comedy, community participation and outdoor spectacle. He has been the Artist in Residence in the Riverbank Arts Centre in County Kildare, Ireland since 2019.https://www.dancolley.com/

The 1st episode of our 6th season features a conversation between Irish author and 2024 Heimbold Chair Emilie Pine, Villanova creative writing professor Adrienne Perry, Villanova student Charlotte Ralston and Center Director Joseph Lennon. They have a wide-ranging discussion about the writing process, flow and the role of the reader. - - - Emilie Pine is an award-winning Irish creative writer and scholar. Dr. Pine is professor of Modern Drama in the School of English, Drama and Film at University College Dublin. She has published widely as an academic and critic, including The Politics of Irish Memory: Performing Remembrance in Contemporary Irish Culture (Palgrave, 2011), and most recently The Memory Marketplace: Witnessing Pain in Contemporary Theatre (Indiana University Press, 2020). Dr. Pine served as editor of the Irish University Review from 2017 to 2021. Widely regarded as a leading scholar of Irish cultural memory, Dr. Pine led Industrial Memories, an Irish Research Council funded project to witness Ireland's historic institutional abuse. She continues to run the ongoing oral-history project Survivors Stories with the National Folklore Collection. As a writer, Dr. Pine collaborated with ANU Productions on the Ulysses 2.2 project in 2023, creating All Hardest of Woman at the National Maternity Hospital. Her first play, Good Sex, was a collaboration with Dead Centre Theatre Company, and was shortlisted for Best New Play and Best Production at the 2023 Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards. She is the author of the bestselling essay collection, Notes to Self, which won the 2018 Irish Book of the Year award and has been translated into 15 languages. Her novel Ruth & Pen (2022) won the 2023 Kate O'Brien First Novel Award. Adrienne Perry, earned her MFA from Warren Wilson College, and her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston. From 2014-2016 she served as the Editor of Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts. In 2020, Adrienne received the inaugural Elizabeth Alexander Prize in Creative Writing from Meridians journal. Adrienne's work has appeared or is forthcoming in Copper Nickel, Black Warrior Review, Indiana Review, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere. She is an Assistant Professor of literature and creative writing at Villanova University. Charlotte Ralston recently graduated in 2024 with a BA English and Psychology with minor in Irish Studies.

Mícheál McCann is a poet from Derry City. His poems have appeared in Poetry Ireland Review, The Poetry Review, Queering the Green and elsewhere. He is the author of Safe Home (Green Bottle Press, 2020), Keeper (Fourteen Publishing, 2022) and Waking Light (Skein Press, 2022) alongside Kerri ní Dochartaigh. He is the co-editor of Hold Open the Door (UCD Press, 2020), Trumpet (Poetry Ireland, 2020), the founding editor of catflap, and will be the editor of Poetry Ireland Review in summer 2024. His first collection of poems, Devotion, is forthcoming with The Gallery Press in May 2024.    Bebe Ashley lives in County Down. Her work is recently published in Granta, The Stinging Fly, Poetry Ireland Review, and Modern Poetry in Translation. Her debut collection Gold Light Shining is published by Banshee Press and her second collection forthcoming in 2025. In 2023, Bebe received the Ivan Juritz Prize for Creative Experiment (Text) and a Creative Practitioner Bursary from Belfast City Council. Her 3D-printed Braille poems will be featured in a six-month exhibition at the Museum of Literature Ireland from February 2024. www.bebe-ashley.com   Dara McWade is a writer and workshop facilitator from Dublin, living in Belfast. He writes fiction and screenplays. His work can be found on BBC Radio Ulster, the Books Beyond Boundaries NI Anthology, and in the Apiary magazine, where he currently serves as editor-in-chief. He is the co-writer of the upcoming animated short “To Break a Circle,” and currently studies as a PhD candidate at Queen's University Belfast. Dara McWade

Poets Catherine Phil MacCarthy, Katie Donovan and Jane Clarke write about an ethos of sustainability in their poetry.  Having grown up on farms in Ireland, they share insights on our interactions with the natural world and our place within it.  In this podcast Joseph Lennon discusses with them culture's role in spreading an ethos of sustainability and living in harmony with the planet.  If the work of the poet is to see clearly, to remember without avoiding pain, and to imagine futures beyond the trials of the present, how does the poet represent climate change and sustainability?  We have many solutions to climate change, but one of the greatest challenges lies within ourselves and our will to prioritize climate action and climate care. 

Conversation with the 2023 Heimbold Chair of Irish Studies, award-winning writer, translator, and editor, Mary O'Donoghue, and award-winning Irish writer and editor, Lisa McInerney, about the craft of writing, translation, editing, and process and where the arts of each intersect and work together, police one another, or pull apart. This event was recorded on 4/19/2023 and was part of the Conversation with the 2023 Irish Studies Heimbold Chair event.

Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon talks to Dr Cera Murtagh, Assistant Professor of Irish and Comparative Politics at Villanova, about her recent trip to Ireland as part of the presidential delegation with President Joe Biden, the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement and women's role in the Northern Ireland peace process. This conversation was part of the event Women as Peacemakers: 25 Years On co-hosted by the Irish American Business Chamber and Network, Villanova's Center for Irish Studies and Villanova's Anne Welsh McNulty Institute for Women's Leadership.   Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon has dedicated her career to serving the most vulnerable — first as a lawyer and now in Congress. She was first sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives on November 13, 2018 following a special election, and currently represents Pennsylvania's 5th Congressional District.    Congresswoman Scanlon's legislative priorities include voting rights, access to justice, education, supporting economic growth for her region, common sense gun safety, and ending hunger. All of these priorities align with Congresswoman Scanlon's main goal as an elected official: protecting and improving the lives of America's children, families, veterans, and seniors. She currently serves on the House Committee on Rules, House Judiciary Committee, and serves as Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government. She also chairs the House Caucuses on Access to Legal Aid, Youth Mentoring, and Foster Youth.   As a staunch believer that everyone is entitled to equal protection under the law, Congresswoman Scanlon previously worked as national pro bono counsel at a major U.S. law firm, where she directed and supervised over 600 lawyers across 15 offices in providing more than 50,000 hours of pro bono legal services annually to low-income clients and nonprofit organizations. Under her leadership, the pro bono program worked on critical issues, including voting rights, child advocacy, immigration, public benefits, and criminal justice reform.   Before her election to the U.S. House of Representatives, Congresswoman Scanlon also served as an attorney at the Education Law Center, president of her local school board, and co-chair of the Voting Rights Task Force of the Association of Pro Bono Counsel. She is a graduate of Colgate University and University of Pennsylvania Law School. The Congresswoman and her husband, Mark, reside in Swarthmore and have three adult children.

Bio: Rosie O'Gorman was born and raised in Wexford. Time spent on the farm as a child with her three sisters encouraged her love of inventive playfulness. Rosie is a mother of two boys Michael and Emmet; she is an artist, a dedicated teacher, and her ancestral home is now the place where Cow House Studios resides. Rosie attended the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, receiving her BA in Art and Design Education. During that time she became devoted to making contemporary art relatable and personally meaningful to her students. She was awarded two national Irish awards: the Larkin Memorial Award for her teaching and the Taylor Award for her painting. From Dublin, she moved to San Francisco where she received her MFA from San Francisco Art Institute with the support of a Fulbright Scholarship. Her practice grew to include drawing, painting, installation and sculpture. Through Cow House Studios Rosie shares her home, family and her love of art and education. Cow House Studios: Cow House Studios is a progressive artist-run school and residency set in the farmland of county Wexford, Ireland. A productive farm to this day, the 180 acres of land provide an authentic and inspirational backdrop while facilitating multidisciplinary practices for artists in residence and students, focusing on cross-cultural learning and creative exchange. Cow House Studios supports contemporary visual arts practice. We hope to foster a deep curiosity for one's surroundings and encourage further engagement with the creative process as a catalyst for independent thought. To this end, we provide art education for children, teens and adults; facilities for colleges, schools and artist-led groups; and an artist-in-residence programme for professional artists.

Joseph Lennon interviews Liz Roche about her performance of Yes and Yes—a modern dance interpretation of Ulysses, which was performed at Villanova University in September of 2022, following its performance in Washington D.C. with Solas Nua. Music credit to Composer Ray Harman.

Philip Arneill is a Belfast-born photographer, educator and AHRC Northern Bridge Doctoral Researcher at Ulster University. He holds an MA in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography from UAL and having lived for 25 years in Scotland, Egypt and Japan, is currently researching a PhD through Creative Practice. Co-creator of the audio-visual documentary project Tokyo Jazz Joints, his work explores the illusory ideas of home and culture by exploring insider-outsider dynamics, interstices, and autoethnographic issues of place and identity. His current research, I am where I am not, explores his inherited Protestant identity through the vernacular architecture of Orange Halls. In this episode of the Villanova Center for Irish Studies Podcast, Philip discusses his work, influences and research with Villanova's 2021-22 Fulbright FLTA Irish Language Instructor, James Ó Conaill. James, a native of Cavan, earned degrees from Trinity College and Maynooth University and has taught Irish and English as a second language in Balbriggan, Dublin, and Indreabhán in the Galway Gaeltacht.

This episode is a recorded event of a conversation with the 2022 Charles A. Heimbold, Jr. Chair for Irish Studies, Irish author, broadcaster, and scholar, Emma Dabiri, and Kimberly DaCosta, Associate Professor of sociology at NYU. Emma Dabiri has written two very successful non-fiction books: Twisted (published as Don't Touch My Hair in Ireland) and What White People Can Do Next. Her work in the arts, fashion, and the media are complemented by her academic teaching and research in African Studies and Visual Sociology. She is currently completing her PhD at Goldsmiths University, London. The Charles A. Heimbold, Jr. Chair of Irish Studies is held in the Spring semester of each academic year by a distinguished Irish writer. Inaugurated at Villanova University in 2000, it has become one of the most prestigious Irish Studies positions in the United States. Kimberly DaCosta is a sociologist interested in racial inequality and, in particular, the contemporary production of racial boundaries. Her book, Making Multiracials: State, Family, and Market in the Redrawing of the Color Line (Stanford University Press, 2007), explores the cultural and social underpinnings of the movement to create multiracial collective identity in the United States. She is currently writing on how interracial extended kin relationships speak to questions of interracial empathy, care, and politics. She teaches courses on race in different societies, social mobility, consumerism, and the commercialization of intimate life. This event was co-sponsored by the Villanova Center for Irish Studies and Villanova Falvey Memorial Library and took place on April 4, 2022.

Megan A. Curran is the Director of Policy at the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University. Her research explores policy strategies for child poverty reduction, with an emphasis on income supports, poverty targets, and cross-national learning—including how the structure and impact of child allowance programs in other wealthy nations might inform the creation of a national US child allowance. Recent work on how COVID-19 economic relief efforts impact children and families also examines the ways in which a regularly delivered child allowance can support children through the immediate crisis and beyond. Dr. Curran has worked as a legislative analyst in the United States House of Representatives and the Scottish Parliament and as a researcher on child and family poverty and policy solutions in the United States, United Kingdom, and Ireland. Curran holds a PhD in Social Policy from University College Dublin, Ireland.

Kimberly McClain DaCosta is a sociologist interested in racial inequality and, in particular, the contemporary production of racial boundaries. Her book, Making Multiracials: State, Family, and Market in the Redrawing of the Color Line (Stanford University Press, 2007), explores the cultural and social underpinnings of the movement to create multiracial collective identity in the United States. Professor DaCosta is currently writing on how genealogy and interracial extended kin relationships speak to questions of interracial empathy, care and politics. She teaches courses on race in different societies, social mobility, consumerism, and the commercialization of intimate life. DaCosta has held several administrative posts including both the Associate Dean of Students and the Associate Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs at NYU's Gallatin School. She has been involved in NYU's Prison Education Program since its inception in 2013, serving on its Steering Committee and as its Faculty Director. A native of Boston, Kim received a B.A. in Sociology magna cum laude from Harvard University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Our guest on this episode of the podcast is Monica McWilliams, who led the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition's negotiating team in the multi-party peace talks leading up to the Good Friday Agreement. Monica co-founded the Women's Coalition, a political party that became a signatory to the peace agreement in 1998. She represented South Belfast in the first NI Legislative Assembly and acted as Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (2006 -2011) where she was responsible for drafting the advice on a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland which was presented this to the UK government in 2008. Monica had served as an oversight Commissioner for Prison Reform in Northern Ireland and currently serves on the Independent Reporting Commission on the disbandment of paramilitary organizations. She has been involved in peace building in a range of conflict areas, in Colombia and with women negotiators in the Syrian opposition. Monica has contributed testimony to the US Congress Committee on Foreign Affairs on women, peace and security and is a recipient of the John F Kennedy Profile in Courage Award (1998) and holds honorary doctorates from University of York (2018), Lesley College, Massachusetts (1998) and Mount Mary College, Milwaukee (2004).

Award-winning Irish actor of stage and screen Tom Vaughan-Lawlor is our guest on this episode of the podcast. Best known in Ireland for his role as Nigel 'Nidge' Delaney in the RTÉ One series Love/Hate and known internationally for his role as Ebony Maw in Avengers: Infinity War and its sequel, Avengers: Endgame. Tom sits down for a chat about theatre, film, and the arts with his friend and the 2021 Villanova Heimbold Chair of Irish Studies, playwright Hannah Khalil.

Hannah Khalil, Palestinian-Irish Playwright, and 2021 Charles A. Heimbold Jr. Chair

Emeritus Professor and Founding Director of the Villanova Center for Irish Studies, Dr. Jim Murphy, reads his Irish-American memoir, A Child's Christmas in Brooklyn.

Emer O'Neill, Irish-Nigerian educator, activist, model, athlete, and mother, is our guest as we discuss race in Ireland and in the U.S.

Lillis Ó Laire, from National University of Ireland, Galway, is the guest as we discuss the Sean-nós Irish singer, Joe Heaney.

Fulbright Language instructor, Alene O'Malley and four other FLTAs (Iseult O'Connor, Ellen Corbett, Deidre Murphy and Caroline Gallagher) discuss their experiences teaching the Irish language in various parts of America this year (2019-2020).

Ms Ciara Ni E completed a B.A. in Modern Irish and English at TCD, and an MA in Irish at UCD where she was a tutor. Ciara is a writer and also works as an editor, teacher, and broadcaster. Ciara taught Irish language courses at Villanova as a Fulbright FLTA in 2017-2018.

Irish Studies Podcast Season 1 Episode 5 Our next episode is with Freya McClements, Northern Correspondent with the Irish Times, recorded by Cera Murtagh.

The Center for Irish Studies at Villanova University has been a leader for four decades in interdisciplinary teaching and scholarship on Ireland in a global framework. The Center connects students to local community organizations while also preparing them to become citizens equipped to take on the world's most pressing challenges. Through liberal arts-focused academics across a range of nine disciplines, multi-disciplinary scholarship and key partnerships, the Center provides students with research, study abroad and employment opportunities. The Center is affiliated with organizations including the Abbey Theatre, Irish American Business Chamber & Network, the Jackie Clarke Museum and Library, and Princess Grace Irish Library, and serves as an invaluable resource for the Irish-American community through its programming and digitization projects. The Center's unique academic value is exemplified by The Charles A. Heimbold, Jr. Chair of Irish Studies, a position held each academic year by a distinguished Irish writer which has become one of the most prestigious Irish Studies positions in the U.S. The Center is supported by a generous grant by the Connelly Foundation. This podcast series aims to bring these unique voices and experiences to a wider audience.

The Center for Irish Studies at Villanova University Podcast Series Episode 3: Maurice Fitzpatrick

The Center for Irish Studies at Villanova University has been a leader for four decades in interdisciplinary teaching and scholarship on Ireland in a global framework. The Center connects students to local community organizations while also preparing them to become citizens equipped to take on the world's most pressing challenges. Through liberal arts-focused academics across a range of nine disciplines, multi-disciplinary scholarship and key partnerships, the Center provides students with research, study abroad and employment opportunities. The Center is affiliated with organizations including the Abbey Theatre, Irish American Business Chamber & Network, the Jackie Clarke Museum and Library, and Princess Grace Irish Library, and serves as an invaluable resource for the Irish-American community through its programming and digitization projects. The Center's unique academic value is exemplified by The Charles A. Heimbold, Jr. Chair of Irish Studies, a position held each academic year by a distinguished Irish writer which has become one of the most prestigious Irish Studies positions in the U.S. The Center is supported by a generous grant by the Connelly Foundation. This podcast series aims to bring these unique voices and experiences to a wider audience.

The Center for Irish Studies at Villanova University has been a leader for four decades in interdisciplinary teaching and scholarship on Ireland in a global framework. The Center connects students to local community organizations while also preparing them to become citizens equipped to take on the world's most pressing challenges. Through liberal arts-focused academics across a range of nine disciplines, multi-disciplinary scholarship and key partnerships, the Center provides students with research, study abroad and employment opportunities. The Center is affiliated with organizations including the Abbey Theatre, Irish American Business Chamber & Network, the Jackie Clarke Museum and Library, and Princess Grace Irish Library, and serves as an invaluable resource for the Irish-American community through its programming and digitization projects. The Center's unique academic value is exemplified by The Charles A. Heimbold, Jr. Chair of Irish Studies, a position held each academic year by a distinguished Irish writer which has become one of the most prestigious Irish Studies positions in the U.S. The Center is supported by a generous grant by the Connelly Foundation. This podcast series aims to bring these unique voices and experiences to a wider audience.