About this Prize
Born in Astoria, Queens, New York, in 1916, James S. Donnelly, Sr., attended St. Francis College in Brooklyn in the mid-1930s and received his Master’s and doctoral degrees from Fordham University. He completed his doctoral dissertation in 1942 under the guidance of the distinguished medieval historian Jeremiah F. O’Sullivan. This work was published in 1949 by Fordham University Press in its history series under the title of The Decline of the Medieval Cistercian Laybrotherhood.
Donnelly joined the Fordham faculty in 1943 and rose to the rank of associate professor and director of graduate studies in the history department. His impressive administrative talents led to his appointment as dean of Fordham’s School of Education in 1955, a position he held with distinction until 1962. In those years, the School of Education, located at 302 Broadway in Manhattan, was an institution for undergraduates seeking the credentials necessary to become elementary- and secondary-school teachers. The leadership of such an institution appealed greatly to Donnelly, who was recognized as an outstanding teacher himself and dedicated to developing excellent faculty for the Catholic schools of New York City and its suburbs.
A prior interest in Catholic educational publishing blossomed into a new career in 1962, when Donnelly was named chief editor of Catholic publications by the Silver Burdett Company, based in Morristown, New Jersey. Donnelly subsequently became the head of Silver Burdett’s college division and worked with academics in editing and co-authoring textbooks for students at both community colleges and universities. From 1967 to 1972, he continued in publishing, first with Random House and then with McGraw-Hill, where he directed computer-based instruction and edited a series of social studies books. In 1973, he joined Bell Telephone Laboratories as an editor of scientific reports and retired from Bellcore, a Bell successor company, in 1986. He died in 1989 at the age of 73.
The James S. Donnelly, Sr., Prize, named in honor of this tremendous scholar, editor, and teacher, was first awarded in 1999.
Prize Committee
Chair: Emmanuel Destenay
Eligibility and Submission Instructions
Books dealing with Irish medieval/modern/contemporary history, Catholic education, Irish/Irish American culture/history/identity are eligible.
Books submitted for this prize must have a publication date matching the year of the award (2026). Single-author and co-authored books (by no more than two authors) will be considered. Edited collections, anthologies, atlases, and dictionaries are not eligible. Submissions must be in English or Irish. Works originally published in another language and translated into English or Irish will be considered.
No book may compete for more than one of the four disciplinary prizes (Donnelly, Durkan, McCaffrey, Rhodes), but an author’s first scholarly monograph may be submitted to the Donald Murphy prize committee in addition to one of the four disciplinary committees. An Irish-language book may be submitted for a maximum of two of the following awards: the Duais Leabhar Taighde na Bliana (Irish Language Prize), a disciplinary prize, and the Donald Murphy prize if applicable. Committee chairs may choose to reassign entered works to a more appropriate prize if necessary.
The prize includes a cash award of $500 USD. The award money will be split in the case of co-authored texts.
Books may be submitted for consideration by anyone (author, publisher, or other party). All nominations must be submitted through the online form below.
Authors of nominated books are responsible for sending copies of the book to the committee members, whether directly or through their publisher. The addresses of the committee members will be provided to authors when their book is nominated. Hard copies are strongly preferred, but e-copies (such as PDFs) will be accepted if necessary to meet the deadline (especially if your book is scheduled for publication in November or December). Authors are particularly reminded that, whether they mail books themselves or ask their publishers to do so, responsibility rests with the author to ensure that the postmark deadline of January 1, 2027, is observed. Late submissions will NOT be accepted.
For more information, contact the chair of the ACIS awards committee, ACIS vice president Sarah Townsend ([email protected]).