University of St. Thomas in Houston
The only academic Irish studies program in the Southwest is in Houston, Texas.
The William J. Flynn Center for Irish Studies is an academic program and cultural center at Houston’s University of St. Thomas. It offers an Irish minor for undergraduate students, a masters’ degree for graduate students, and study abroad programs.
The Irish government helped fund the Irish language program – the center offers many scholarships and Irish language textbooks are free. The center sponsors many lectures, cultural events, and concerts. I only wish I knew about this when I was looking for a college!
We paid the center a visit and it was well worth it. We received a tour of the facility and lunch with the director (and with an undergraduate student).
The Center is located in a former personal residence on the campus of the University of St. Thomas, in Houston, Texas. Its primary goals are to promote peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland and to preserve Irish heritage and culture. It offers UST undergraduate students a minor in Irish Studies, a separate masters’ degree for graduate students.
For those of us who are not UST students, the Center offers a wealth of information for historical research. These include Irish books, Irish newspapers from 1760 through 1922, Irish American newspapers, Dublin Castle records from 1889 to 1921, and over 500 works of 19th century Irish writers.
The documents are within the McFadden-Moran Collection in the Doherty Library. I’d love to list everything within the collection, but the list is too long.
The Dublin Castle records, on over 100 reels of microfilm, consist of original documents assembled by the British government in Ireland during a historically critical period. This includes police reports, anti-government investigation reports, judicial proceedings and enquiries, and the like. This is a “must-see” source for anyone researching the War of Independence, the Easter Rising, and events leading up to independence.
University College Galway and National Library Ireland reproduced over 500 works of 19th Century Irish literature, and these works are likewise available at McFadden-Moran. This was a fascinating period of literature. Pre-19th Century Irish writers usually wrote in the Irish language; 20th Century Irish writers usually wrote in English. The 19th Century was the transition, with Irish writers finding their “voice” within English.
Here are a few questions for anyone researching or writing about Ireland. What happened in Ireland between 1760 and 1922? A reasonable answer would be “a lot”. How do we know how people in Ireland reacted to, or felt about, those events? A reasonable answer would be “check out the contemporary newspapers”.
The McFadden-Moran Collection has over 45 newspapers from this 162 year period of history!
It has been a few decades since I’ve looked at microfilm. I’ve become spoiled in this digital age. But I do make one promise:
I will not do any further Irish historical research without making a trip to Houston and viewing the microfilm in the McFadden-Moran Collection.
By the way, a careful researcher at Doherty Library will find one more valuable item – a copy of ClanDonnell: A Storied History of Ireland.