Irish Abroad

THE KENNEDY LEGACY Outside St. Michael’s Theatre, New Ross, County Wexford, Ireland for the Kennedy Summer School (from left): Dr. Michael Howlett, Dean of Social Sciences, Waterford Institute of Technology; Dr. Howard Keeley; Brendan Howlin, Ireland’s Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform; Austin Currie, Irish Civil Rights leader and former Minister of State; and Bobby Kennedy III.

Center for Irish Studies Director Lectures at John F. Kennedy Summer School

Summer school took on a whole new meaning this September, when one Georgia Southern professor participated in a unique event that took him back to his homeland. Howard Keeley, director of Georgia Southern’s Center for Irish Studies, traveled to the historic river port of New Ross in the southeastern Irish county of Wexford as a distinguished speaker at the John F. Kennedy Summer School, a symposium exploring JFK’s legacy. Attended by three generations of the Kennedy clan, the Summer School was motivated by next year’s 50th anniversary of JFK’s historic homecoming trip to Ireland. The President’s family originated in the New Ross area, and the Kennedy ancestral home will soon be designated a national monument.

In addition to Keeley, the exclusive three-day event included sessions featuring major politicians, professors, broadcasters, writers and editors from both Ireland and the United States. Geraldine Kennedy, the former editor of the Irish Times, was on hand to discuss the festival’s themes of the Irish-American relationship and the Kennedy legacy. “The symposium operated by means of different plenary and panel sessions that explored legacy issues and what we can learn from great lives,” Keeley said. He added, “An essential part of JFK’s career was civil rights, and Irish people learned much from his executive, judicial and legislative initiatives in that arena when addressing their own massive and longstanding civil rights challenges during and after the 1960s.”

A packed house attended Keeley’s keynote presentation, “The Kennedy Civil Rights Legacy: Lessons for Modern Ireland,” which was acknowledged on stage by Ireland’s Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform and covered by the national press.

Keeley also had the opportunity to discuss his lecture with around 350,000 listeners during his interview on “Today,” the flagship current affairs program on RTÉ, the country’s national radio service.

In addition to his role directing the Center for Irish Studies, Keeley is the founding co-director of the University System of Georgia’s Study Abroad program at the Waterford Institute of Technology, near New Ross. For the past four summers, Keeley has taken 60 students on a five-week trip to the region. “It offers experiential learning with a very attractive student- teacher ratio,” he said, going on to explain that “students travel to and analyze sites of historic and cultural interest throughout the Waterford region and in Dublin.”