The 2018 Hibernian Lecture marks the fortieth anniversary of the relationship between the Hibernians and the Cushwa Center. In 1978, the Ancient Order of Hibernians and Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians undertook a campaign to establish an endowment at the University of Notre Dame for illuminating the Irish heritage in America. Thanks to this support, since then the Cushwa Center has administered a variety of programs—including the Hibernian Research Award—promoting the study of the Irish experience in Ireland and America. Each year, the center invites a distinguished scholar or author to deliver the lecture on some aspect of the Irish experience.
This year’s lecture is “America and the Irish Revolution, 1916–1922″ presented by Dr. Ruán O’Donnell. Dr. O’Donnell is the senior lecturer in history at the University of Limerick. His current research examines Irish radicalism and international pro-Irish Republican networks during the Irish Revolution. In 2010, he held the Patrick B. O’Donnell Visiting Chair of Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough-Naughton Institute. He is the founding and current director of the Irish Life and Literature Summer School at the University of Limerick.
The lecture played before a standing room only crowd.