Prof. Catherine McKenna joined the faculty at Queens College in 1974 and served as director of the Irish Studies Program from 1984 to 1997. Having published research on Welsh poetry and prose and Irish saga and hagiography, her move to Harvard University’s Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures in 2005 points to the strong foundation from which Irish Studies grew at CUNY. One of the early Queens adjunct instructors for history was James McHugh whose Irish Studies library has recently been donated to the college by his family. Other adjunct instructors for history have included Kevin McKenny, Vincent Carey, and presently Patrick McGough. Several courses in Anthropology and Film Studies were taught by Thomas Wilson in the 1970’s and early 1980’s. Prof. Paul Lonigan from Romance Languages also taught courses for the Irish Studies program, especially in early Irish history.

Prof. Clare Carroll, the current director of Irish Studies at Queens College continues a great tradition of such programming at CUNY. Prof. Carroll has several books and articles in publication, her most recent book being Ireland and Postcolonial Theory (2003). She has been instrumental in sharing the Irish Studies Program with all of CUNY through her role as Chair of the Institute for Irish-American Studies Faculty, establishing CUNY study abroad programs in Galway in drama, literature, and history, and in continuing a tradition of engaging events at Queens, most recently (2008) student performances of J.M. Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World with Stephen Rea as Artist in Residence.