Sender: The Irish Diaspora Studies List
From: Jane McGaughey
Subject: Re: Irish Studies at St. Mary's University Twickenham
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Please add my name as well.

Best,
Jane

Dr Jane G. V. McGaughey
Assistant Professor of Diaspora Studies
Irish Studies, Concordia University
President, Canadian Association for Irish Studies/L'association canadienne =
d'=E9tudes irlandaises

Tel: (514) 848-2424 poste 5122
jane.mcgaughey[at]concordia.ca
1455 Boulevard de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montreal, QC H3G 1M8

________________________________________
From: The Irish Diaspora Studies List on behalf of Jo=
e Bradley
Sent: July 18, 2016 8:59:31 AM
To: IR-D[at]JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: Re: [IR-D] Irish Studies at St. Mary's University Twickenham

I will pass this around Tony
And please add my signature to anything of relevance that supports your cas=
e

Dr Joseph M Bradley
Senior Lecturer
University of Stirling
Scotland


-----Original Message-----
From: The Irish Diaspora Studies List [mailto:IR-D[at]JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On Behal=
f Of Tony Murray
Sent: 18 July 2016 10:25
To: IR-D[at]JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: [IR-D] Irish Studies at St. Mary's University Twickenham

Dear friends and colleagues,

You may be aware that the MA Irish Studies programme and the Centre for Iri=
sh Studies at St. Mary's University in Twickenham are currently under threa=
t of closure.

Find below my letter of support for colleagues at St. Mary's which will app=
ear shortly in the Irish Post. Also copied below are similar letters from P=
rof. Roy Foster and from Prof. Mary Hickman & Prof. Shaun Richards.

Please circulate to raise awareness of this matter amongst the wider Irish =
Studies community.

Thank you.


Regards,

Tony



Dr. Tony Murray

Director, Irish Studies Centre

Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities

London Metropolitan University

Tower Building,

Holloway Rd

London N7 8DB



Tel: 020 7133 2593

*http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/faculties/faculty-of-social-sciences-and-humani=
ties/people/surnames-k-to-m/tony-murray/
*

londonmet.ac.uk/irishstudiescentre






15 July 2016





I am writing to express my dismay at the stated intention by the senior man=
agement at St. Mary=92s University to terminate both the Centre for Irish S=
tudies and its degree programme in the subject.



The work of our colleagues at St. Mary=92s University has long complemented=
our activities here in the Irish Studies Centre at London Metropolitan Uni=
versity. The proposed closure of the only remaining degree programme in Iri=
sh Studies in the south of England along with the distinguished research wo=
rk of the CIS, especially in recent years under the visionary directorship =
of Prof. Lance Pettitt, is extremely concerning. It would be a severe blow =
to Prof. Pettitt and his team, but it would also diminish all of us who hav=
e worked to build and support the profile of Irish Studies over the last th=
irty to forty years.



It is especially regrettable that a move like this seems possible now when =
people in Britain require the unique knowledge, expertise and perspective t=
hat Irish Studies can bring to a rapidly changing European and global envir=
onment, not least in regard to the potential consequences of Brexit for Ang=
lo-Irish relations.



The loss of Irish Studies at St. Mary=92s would be a deeply disturbing deve=
lopment and I sincerely hope that the university reconsiders it position.



Yours sincerely,





Dr. Tony Murray

Director, Irish Studies Centre

London Metropolitan University



londonmet.ac.uk/irishstudiescentre







21 June 2016

I find it both shocking and stupefying that the management at St Mary=92s h=
as apparently decided to put an end to the long-lived and distinguished tra=
dition of Irish studies there, by suspending the successful MA in Irish Stu=
dies and effectively withdrawing support from the Centre of Irish Studies. =
The university has maintained a distinguished record in the field for decad=
es, boosted in recent years by the appointment of Lance Pettit as Director,=
the longstanding input of Ivan Gibbons, and the imaginative recruitment of=
pioneering scholars such as Professor Mary Hickman to professorial researc=
h fellowships. I have visited the Centre, lectured there, and attended stim=
ulating and high-octane symposia organised by its staff. It also has a dist=
inguished record of producing students and winning grant-aided support, not=
ably from the Irish Government, as well as encouraging research in new grow=
th-areas such as film studies and diasporic patterns. With Oxford and Liver=
pool, St Mary=92s is one of the higher education institutions that has kept=
up a consistent strength in Irish studies, a subject of great interest for=
students at undergraduate and postgraduate level- especially those based i=
n London. The study of Irish society and culture, and the country=92s ancie=
nt and complex relationship with Britain, has been increasingly relevant th=
rough the past decades, and never more so than at the present moment. For t=
he university to wilfully cut off this area of strength and potential seems=
extraordinarily counter-productive, at a time when demand is high and othe=
r institutions of higher education (including my own) are putting resources=
firmly into this subject as an intellectual growth area. It is also a cava=
lier and unjust way to treat distinguished and hardworking academics. They,=
and the subject, deserve better.

Yours sincerely


R.F. Foster

Carroll Professor of Irish History

Hertford College, Oxford





The end of the Centre for Irish Studies (CIS) at St Mary=92s?

Following a decision made by senior management the MA Irish Studies at St M=
ary=92s University will not be recruiting a new cohort of students for Sept=
ember 2016. The University has further decided not to include the Centre fo=
r Irish Studies in its plans for strategic development for 2016/17, decidin=
g to back Bioethics (CBET), Human Slavery and the Benedict Centre for Relig=
ion and society amongst others. The contracts of the four Research Fellows =
have all come to the end of their term this year and they have been made re=
dundant. The contract of the Director of the Centre ends in July and it too=
will not be renewed. Ivan Gibbons is retiring after seven years service at=
the end of August.

CIS has been in existence since 1991 when the BA Irish Studies degree began=
. The University has long had links with Ireland since its inception in 185=
0. While the current MA students will be =93taught out=94, London will not =
have a university-backed centre for research and postgraduate teaching in I=
rish Studies for the first time in a generation, despite the capital being =
home to the largest Irish community in Britain.

It is deeply ironic that this decision has been taken in 2016 after all the=
renewal of relations between Britain and Ireland so far this century, incl=
uding reciprocal Head of State visits. The cultural and social analysis and=
understanding that is provided by =91Irish Studies=92 is needed now more t=
han ever as the relations between the UK and Ireland are tested, and the po=
litical nature of these islands is being recast internally and within Europ=
e.

The University decision has been taken despite the CIS distinguishing itsel=
f in many ways in the past five years. For the record, it is the only such =
centre at St Mary=92s to have been part of an AHRC research network grant (=
2015-17 Irish modernisms); CIS staff won British Academy grants (one grant =
being the largest single amount in the School of Arts and Humanities in 201=
4-16, on the Irish diaspora ); as a small, new unit of assessment
(U36) in the 2014 REF submission it achieved highly and out performed other=
more established units in areas of its submission (60% 4* and 3* weighted =
overall); MA graduates have gone on to PhD study and we had two PhD complet=
ions and two current part time students have recently successfully complete=
d MPhil/PhD transfers within the past 6months; a succession of Culture Irel=
and grants, delivered a vibrant programme of pubic engagement and impact pr=
ojects that took Irish Studies to Luton and Leeds, and from Brazil and to t=
he Bronx; it ran and developed an increasingly popular set of community lan=
guage programmes (with 38 students in 2015/16), funded by the Irish Governm=
ent, recognized annually at the Embassy and most recently (May 2016) CIS su=
ccessfully applied for 3 year, funded programme from the Irish government=
=92s An Roinn Arts, Culture and Gaeltacht to develop the Irish language wor=
th =80104,000.

CIS worked in partnership with the Irish Cultural Centre (ICC) in Hammersmi=
th, the APPG in Parliament on an annual lecture series, with the Irish Lite=
rary Society likewise and undertook research and publications with the Iris=
h Film Institute in Dublin and the theatre company Cia Ludens/University of=
Sao Paulo in Brazil. Other colleagues gave invited lectures in India in No=
vember 2015. In September 2015, CIS hosted the British Association of Irish=
Studies annual conference, in January 2016 it worked with the ICC to host =
a conference on Trauma and the Troubles, and in

January the University also had the vision to appoint Prof McAleese as a Vi=
siting Professorship with significant Irish input, teaching and public enga=
gement.

All this is now being jettisoned.

Prof. Mary J. Hickman
Prof. Shaun Richards
Former Professorial Research Fellows St Mary=92s University, Twickenham

4 July 2016

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