The land on which Belmont Abbey and Belmont Abbey College now stand was presented to the Benedictine monks of Saint Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, by Fr. Jeremiah O’Connell. Fr. O’Connell was a native of Donoughmore, County Cork, Ireland, so the Abbey has had an Irish connection since its foundation.
It has also hosted some of Ireland’s most famous political leaders. In 1920, Éamon de Valera, then president of Dáil Éireann, the fledgling independent Irish parliament, visited the Abbey while touring the United States to build support for Irish independence. De Valera’s successor as Taoiseach, or Prime Minister, of Ireland, Jack Lynch, followed in his footsteps by visiting in 1979. More recently, Abbey students have regularly toured Ireland as part of study-abroad programs, including those associated with the Christianity and Culture minor.
This connection is symbolically reflected in the fact that one of the stained-glass windows in the Basilica contains an image of St. Patrick, Ireland’s patron saint, and by the participation of the Abbey in the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Charlotte.
In recognition of these connections, Belmont Abbey College hosts an occasional lecture series on Irish Studies. A list of previous lectures is provided below. For more information, please contact Dr. Patrick Wadden, Associate Professor of History, at patrickwadden@bac.edu.
Irish Studies Lectures at Belmont Abbey College
April 20, 2023, “America, Belmont Abbey, and the Cause of Irish Freedom: an Event Marking the Centenary of Éamon De Valera’s Visit to Charlotte”, featuring Mary Elizabeth Lennon (NYU), Patrick Wadden and Daniel Hutchinson (both BAC).
March 27, 2019, Professor Joseph Kelly (College of Charleston): “England’s Deserters: How Ireland Helped Invent America”.
April 12, 2018 Fr. James Murphy CM (Director of Irish Studies, Boston College): “An Irish Catholic Odyssey: From the Counter-Reformation to 1900”.
March 20, 2018, Professor Jaroslav Folda (UNC): “The Book of Kells: a Masterpiece of Irish Art”
April 27, 2016, Professor Richard Russell (Baylor University): “Seamus Heaney, Ireland, and the Gospels”.
April 18, 2016, Br. Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB (Glenstal Abbey, Co. Limerick, Ireland): “Saints, Shrines, and Sinners in Later Medieval Ireland”.
September 15, 2014, Mr. John O’Connell (Donoughmore, Co. Cork, Ireland): “The Connells, from Donoughmore to the Carolinas: a Colonial Experience”.
April 30, 2014, Professor Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (National University of Ireland, Galway): “Bringing it All Back Home: Jean Ritchie’s Music-Collecting Tour of Ireland, 1952–53”.
