Villanova
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A Belated Focus on Women As Peacemakers in The Troubles: Peace Activist Monica McWilliams
Photos by Tom Keenan At a youth conference in Northern Ireland recently, a young woman taking her O levels in history approached Monica McWilliams, co-founder of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition political party and a signatory of the Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998. The student had a complaint. The only reference to women during “The Troubles” in the history curriculum, she told McWilliams, “was that women handed out tea and buns when the British […] Read More
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Saving the Irish language, One Student at a Time
Growing up in Gweedore, the heart of Donegal’s Irish speaking region known as The Gaeltacht, Sorcha Ní Ghallachóir’s first encounter with the English language was a children’s television program about a red-haired, red-cheeked puppet named Bosco. She watched, mystified. He was speaking a foreign language. “To me it was double Dutch,” recalls Ní Ghallachóir. “I had no idea what he was saying except for the word or two he said in Irish.” Though Irish is the […] Read More
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My Life with Uncle Jake
The late, legendary Villanova University Athletic Director John “Jake” Nevin wasn’t my uncle by blood, but he was closer to me and my family than any blood relative could be. As the Irish like to say, we’ll begin at the beginning. Jake lived near my maternal grandparents’ humble Bryn Mawr apartment near Lancaster Avenue, in which my mother, Doris, and my aunt, Joanie, grew up. Sadly, their father (my grandfather), Buck, had a stroke in […] Read More
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Irish Poet Takes New Post at Villanova
Each spring since 2000, Villanova University chooses a distinguished Irish writer to hold its Charles A. Heimbold Jr. Chair of Irish Studies. Named for a Villanova graduate who was former CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb and US ambassador to Sweden, the Heimbold chair has since become one of the most prestigious Irish studies positions in the United States. The 2023 Heimbold Chair holder is Mary O’Donoghue, who has published books of award-winning poetry which include Tulle (Salmon Poetry, […] Read More