The Irish Arts Center Presents:
Féile na Gaeilge / Irish Language Day 2026
Our annual Irish language celebration!
Sat, Mar 28, 2026, 12:00pm - 6:00pm
Location
Irish Arts Center
726 11th Avenue
Hell's Kitchen, NYC$56 (inclusive of fees)
For tickets, click here: http://bit.ly/4c82aJQ
Contact: info@irishartscenter.org
Overview
This year's event celebrates the storytelling practices that sustain and evolve the Irish tradition today. The afternoon's program includes story-focused workshops, conversation circles, Irish language short films, and a special storytelling session curated and hosted by Seanchoíche, a Dublin-based global storytelling collective.
Feile na Gaeilge is a bilingual event for speakers of all levels, including absolute beginners and those simply curious about Irish cultural heritage.
SCHEDULE
12pm–1:30pm // Workshops (Pick from one of three sessions, details coming soon)
1:40pm–2:20pm // Lunch break and conversation circles
2:30pm–4pm // Gearrscannáin na Gaeilge / Irish Language Shorts Screening
Guthanna Nua na Gaeilge (New Irish Voices) presented in partnership with the Galway Film Fleadh
4:15pm–4:45pm // Tea and conversation
5pm // Seanchoíche: An evening of live storytelling in Irish
6pm // Libations and conversation
Complimentary tea and coffee served throughout the day
Presented with generous support from Culture Ireland, CIE Tours, the Emigrant Support Programme, the Irish Institute of New York, National Endowment for the Arts, and the St. Patrick's Day Foundation, NYC.
Crossroads Concerts: Irish & Turkish Fusion
Thursday, February 26, 2026
7:00 PM 9:00 PM
New York Irish Center, 1040 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101
Blending compositions drawing from Irish traditional music and Turkish music, this concert features the renowned musicians Eren Erdogan (kaval), Taulant Mehmeti (çifteli/guitar), Nezih Antakli (Darbuka, Riqq, Bendir), Eileen Goodman (flute/tin whistle), Dylan James (banjo/fiddle/ dance), Colin Harte (vocals, piano, bodhrán).
Spring 2025 Class
History of Ireland (HI 231)
The goal of this course is to provide students with an overview of Ireland from the end of the 17th century to the present. We will examine the major scholarly debates about Ireland, its connection to England, and the different eras of Irish history. Topics will include the development of Ireland as a colony, to demands for Catholic emancipation, the Famine and through the twentieth century with Independence and the Troubles. Attention will be paid to the revitalization of Irish culture and its diasporic roots. We will study the ways the Republic of Ireland emerged as a member of the European Union and the controversy over Brexit in the 21st century. By the end of the semester, students will be able to discuss the key aspects of Irish history, as well as place Ireland into broader geopolitical and international contexts.
ENGL 366 Introduction to Irish Literature
This course will provide a thorough introduction to a selection of some of the most interesting and important works of Irish literature from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, with a special focus on the continuity and transformation of tradition as well as on the shifting aesthetic, political and social contexts in which Irish literature has been produced. Readings will include Old and Middle Irish poetry and saga, verse from the 18th and 19th centuries, and selections from the work of W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, Eavan Boland, Nuala ni Dhomhnaill and Medbh McGuckian. We will also consider how a number of the major trends in literary theory and criticism have been applied in the interpretation of this diverse material.
EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Irish Arts Center’s Féile na Gaeilge / Irish Language Day 2025
Date
Sat, Mar 29, 2025, 12:00pm
Location
Irish Arts Center
726 11th Avenue
Hell's Kitchen, NYC
For reservations and more information: https://irishartscenter.org/event/feile-na-gaeilge-irish-language-day-2025
The theme of our 2025 Irish language celebration is the music of Ireland’s past, and what it can tell us about our present. Traditional musician, academic, and television presenter Doireann Ní Ghlacáin joins us for the full day’s program of workshops, performances, conversation circles and film, including a screening of Seán Ó Riada—Mo Sheanathair, a documentary about her grandfather, the divisive and iconic composer and arranger Seán Ó Riada, and a multimedia exhibition, the Say a Song Project.
Feile na Gaeilge is a bilingual event for speakers of all levels, including absolute beginners and those simply curious about Irish cultural heritage.
PAST EVENTS
Please join our Queens College and Irish Studies colleague Colin Harte in a special event at the New York Irish Center, on Thursday, February 27, 2025, 7-9 PM
More information and tickets at this link”
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/crossroads-concerts-irish-indian-fusion-tickets-1022860853347?aff=oddtdtcreator
Please click here for video of a recent event hosted by Colin Harte, exporing intersections between Irish and Indian music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCZMveMRIVs
Featuring renowned musicians Sameer Gupta (tabla), Jay Gandhi (bansuri), Arun Ramamurthy (violin), Jerry O’Sullivan (Uilleann pipes), and ethnomusicologist Colin Harte (keyboard/bodhrán/voice).
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The Irish Studies program at Queens College is deeply grateful to Eric Patterson for generously donating his impressive collection of Ireland-related books to our program.
These books are treasures of Irish history and culture, and we plan to incorporate them into our dedicated Irish Studies Library, available for check-out by students and researchers, and soon to be located in Rosenthal Library.
Call for oral historians!
Are you interested in gaining training and skills in doing oral history?
Would you like to join an exciting ongoing project funded by the Irish government?
Are you interested in interviewing immigrants of all ages born in Ireland? (being Irish not required!)
Please email sarah.covington@qc.cuny.edu or eileen.sprague@qc.cuny.edu
The Oral History of the Irish in New York is funded by the generous support of the Irish government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and is part of the Queens College Irish Studies program.
Please contact Sarah Covington with any questions: sarah.covington@qc.cuny.edu
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The Irish Studies Program presents:
The Irish in New York Covid-19 Podcast
In the spring of this year, the Irish in New York Oral History project, part of the Irish Studies program, embarked on an undertaking to capture the experiences of Irish men and women whose lives changed in the early weeks of Covid-19. Most stayed in New York, including Queens—the worst-hit borough at the time—while others returned to Ireland. Some lost jobs or witnessed their businesses fall into crisis, while others experienced isolation or were forced to reinvent their lives overnight. We appreciate how willing and generous these men and women were in sharing their stories with us by phone and during a moment when the first wave of the virus was still at its height. Thanks to them, to our interviewers Eileen Colleran Sprague and Liza Engesser, and to our editor and producer Claire Butler, we are grateful to have this historical record of resilience and hope at a unique moment in the lives of the Irish in New York.
Please click below for an excerpt of our interviews:
For an interview with Colm Ó Mongáin of RTÉ radio’s Pandemic series about the QC Irish Studies Covid-19 oral history project, please click on this link:
https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2020/0827/1161740-podcast-ep-56-making-covid-history/
If you are interested in volunteering as an interviewer or interviewee for our Irish in New York Oral History Project, please email Eileen Sprague at woodsidehistory@gmail.com or sarah.covington@qc.cuny.edu
We wish to thank Dr. Maureen Murphy, Professor Emerita at Hofstra University, for her generous donation of Ireland-related books. We are honored to have so many great works from the collection of one of the most eminent scholars of Ireland. We will be launching our Irish Studies library and study space later in the year.
Click here for an article by Carmel McMahon for the Irish Times, covering our oral history project:
