NYU Announces New Irish Master's Program

NEW IRISH AND IRISH-AMERICAN STUDIES MASTER OF ARTS PROGRAM ANNOUNCED

Dr. John Waters,

Director, MA in Irish and Irish-American Studies

Photo credit: Patricia Jameson-Sammartano

New York University announces its new Master of Arts degree program in Irish and Irish-American studies, beginning in September of 2007. The program will provide an interdisciplinary look at the Irish at home and abroad, with courses in history, literature, music, and cultural studies, with distinguished faculty. The course of study will take three semesters.

This is NYU's first major in Irish Studies; previously, they offered the discipline as a minor on the undergraduate level. There is no doctorate in Irish Studies; students seeking a Ph.D. on a topic related to Ireland must apply to a department that grants the Ph.D. degree, such as History, English, or American Studies.

We at WGT congratualate the faculty and staff of Ireland House at NYU for their accomplishment and wish them go n'éirí an t-ádh leat.

Patricia Jameson-Sammartano

Culture Editor, www.thewildgeesetoday

http://irelandhouse.fas.nyu.edu/page/graduate

Last chance for Irish Immigrant(s) remains found on Staten Island

YOU CAN HELP PROVIDE A PROPER BURIAL FOR IRISH IMMIGRANTS EXHUMED ON STATEN ISLAND. SEND A LETTER OF SUPPORT FOR THE REINTERRMENT TO S.I. CEMETERY.
Last month Friends of Abandoned Cemeteries of Staten Island NY sent out a plea for letters of support for the proper re-interrment of the immigrant remains that were EXHUMED from a municipal parking lot once the site of the NYC Quarantine Hospital/cemetery. This particular NYC Quarantine station operated from 1799-1858. The Irish immigrants who came to the USA during the Great Hunger and were ill (as many were) passed through the S.I. Quarantine Hosp and ultimately many were buried at the cemetery now a MUNICIPAL PARKING LOT.
These human remains were EXHUMED in 2006. They are now held at a facility located in Brooklyn in storage boxes.
Friends of Abandoned Cemeteries has offered a large section of a historic cemetery that we maintain for the proper reinterrment of these HUMAN remains. The Ancient Order of Hibernians Nationally has backed the plan.
Without letters of support from you the Irish community, these remains will be PUT BACK INTO THE PARKING LOT! Paved over once again and forgotten.

Please, we ask that you take 1 minute of your time, send a letter of support
to: _SICemetery@aol.com_ (mailto:SICemetery@aol.com) . Support the
reinterrment to Staten Island Cemetery.
Time is once again running out for these unfortunate travelers. Please
send
a letter of support today.
Thank you.
Lynn A. Rogers
Executive Director 917-545-3309
Friends of Abandoned Cemeteries, Inc. Staten Island

Letters are needed ASAP. Emails are acceptable.

Patricia Jameson-Sammartano
Culture Editor, WGT

MacGahan book reissued

One of the first great war correspondents in history was Ohioan and Irish-American, Januarius MacGahan, who is credited by some Bulgarians as the father of their country. MacGahan was born in the tiny farm town of Pigeon Roost Ridge, Ohio, on June 12, 1844.

Januarius MacGahan, right.

As Januarius grew to manhood he realized that farming was not for him. MacGahan ended up in St. Louis and took up newspaper reporting during the Civil War. A chance post-war meeting with Civil War General Phil Sheridan changed the course of his life. While many were advising America's youth, "Go West, young man," Sheridan advised MacGahan to do the opposite to find the adventure he sought. Go East, he said, far to the East, in fact, all the way to Europe. MacGahan decided to take this advice.

He was living in Paris when the Frano-Prussian War began, and became a war correspondent covering that war for The New York Herald. He would spend the last eight years of his short life traveling all over Europe reporting on their seemingly never ending conflicts. His reports on Turkish excesses in Bulgaria in 1876 so incensed people around the world that the British government was forced to withdraw their support for the Turks, eventually leading to their ouster from Bulgaria. It is that feat that earned MacGahan’s fame in that country.

Unfortunately Januarius MacGahan died in Constantinople of typhus on June 9, 1878, 3 days short of his 34th birthday. It is also unfortunate that he is little known by most of his countrymen here in the US. The man who has done more to try to alleviate that than anyone else is author Dale Walker. Walker is a four time winner of the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America and well known author on historical subjects.

He wrote the only full length biography of MacGahan in 1988, which has now been reissued: Januarius MacGahan: The Life and Campaigns of an American War Correspondent. You can buy Walker’s story of this remarkable man by clicking on the title above.

Related links:

JANUARIUS A. MacGAHAN: DARING TO TELL THE TRUTH

Januarius MacGahan: The Life and Campaigns of an American War Correspondent by Dale Walker

Other Books by Dale Walker

An interview with Dale Walker

Short biography of Dale Walker

The MacGahan American-Bulgarian Foundation