Irish Studies at Evergreen takes the form of a year-long, upper-division, full-time (16 hours each week) interdisciplinary “program” (“Ireland in History and Memory”) in the humanities and performing arts, with a focus on Irish history, expressive traditions, language, and culture. It begins in fall quarter with a basic introduction to Ireland and to issues of liminality, historiography, and distinctions between linear and cyclic thought. The class then spends several weeks on the culture of ancient Ireland, focusing on spirituality, bardic traditions, and gender issues. The second major segment deals with the development of Christianity and the English conquest of traditional Ireland, including a week on the Famine and subsequent evictions and political unrest. The final three weeks of fall quarter are about the National Irish Literary Revival and the urbanized political chaos of turn-of-the-century Dublin.
Winter quarter begins with post-colonial Ireland and a month of studies on Irish America. It continues with an exploration of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, and concludes with the contemporary cultural explosion from the final decades of the 20th century into the present.
Spring quarter allows the students to take theory into practice by traveling to the village of Gleann Cholm Cille in County Donegal. Every student participates in daily intensive classes in the Irish language. The classes feature work on conversational skills and the enhancement of what they have already learned in the United States, culminating in daily use of all the irregular verbs in conversation. Students are also required to attend weekly seminars, and take a weekly class on linguistic, political, and economic issues in the Donegal Gaeltacht. In addition to these classes, students are expected to participate as well in a wide variety of classes led by local artists and specialists. These classes include archaeology, bodhrán (Irish frame drum), instrumental music, weaving, knitting, poetry writing, dancing, singing, traditional spirituality, herbology, drawing, and others. The group spends two days in Northern Ireland, visiting both the contested city of Derry/Londonderry and the Giants’ Causeway, and visit multiple archaeological sites in County Donegal. The program is taught every three years.
I am an ethnomusicologist and professor of Irish Studies at The Evergreen State College. I specialize in the music of Ireland (and Indonesia, and Brazil, and a few other places). My publications include Focus: Irish Traditional Music (Routledge) and Bright