Imagallamh, which means “mutual discourse,” seeks to emphasize the international and comparative elements of Irish studies. It also aims to bring the next cohort of scholars in the field into meaningful dialogue with one another and with key figures in Irish scholarship, the arts, and society. Barry McCrea, the Donald R. Keough Family Professor of Irish Studies and Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, serves as director.
Applications
Applications for 2026 are now closed. Stay tuned for the 2027 dates.
Imagallamh: The Keough-Naughton Summer School in Irish Studies is open to all graduate students who are currently completing a PhD (or, in exceptional cases, a Master’s degree) in any discipline and who have an interest in Irish studies. Students from both within and outside the University of Notre Dame are warmly encouraged to apply.
This is a fully funded program. All successful applicants will receive comprehensive support from the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies, covering travel, tuition, accommodation, and on-site meals in Kylemore.
Kindly direct all questions to kylemore@nd.edu.
2026 Imagallamh
The 2026 session of Imagallamh will take place June 4-18, 2026.
This year will be devoted to the theme of “Urban Ireland.” Across two weeks, participants will explore the historical, cultural and literary dimensions of settlement on the island, from its earliest origins, including prehistoric settlements, early monastic complexes, Viking towns, and British garrisons, through to the life of Ireland’s modern cities.
Participants will spend Week I (June 4–11) in residence at Kylemore Abbey, Connemara, engaging with Irish writers including Kevin Barry, Caitríona Lally, Danny Denton, and Rachael Hegarty, through seminars, readings, and guided field trips in the surrounding region. Week II (June 11–18) moves to O'Connell House, Dublin, with seminars on early modern urban Ireland featuring Finola O'Kane, Michael Pierse, Catriona Crowe, and Notre Dame faculty Rory Rapple, Peter McQuillan, and Susan Harris, plus a special lecture by Declan Kiberd; participants will also visit sites across Dublin, take an overnight trip to Derry including Seamus Heaney HomePlace, and be accommodated at Trinity College Dublin.
2025 Imagallamh
“Ireland and France” was the theme for the 2025 session of Imagallamh. The first week of the session was held at Kylemore, while the second week was based at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris.
The group of writers in residence during the week at Kylemore included Anne Enright, Mike McCormack, and Annemarie Ní Churreáin.
The week in Paris focused on the historical and literary links between Ireland and France. Over the Bloomsday weekend, participants were part of a symposium on Joyce in Paris. In the following days, they attended a seminar given by Professors Peter McQuillan and Rory Rapple on Irish exiles on the continent in the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as lectures by invited speakers, including Roy Foster, Ciarán O’Neill, Pascale Sardin, Laurent Colantonio, and Slimane Hargas. Topics covered included Yeats in France, Irish revolutionaries in 19th-century Paris, Samuel Beckett, and French colonialism.
2024 Imagallamh
In 2024, Imagallamh selected 20 students who came from Argentina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. The participants included students of history, literature, linguistics, cultural theory, and other disciplines, ranging chronologically from the medieval period to the present.
Four prominent contemporary writers were in residence with the group in Kylemore: former Ireland Professor of Poetry Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, much-lauded first-time historical novelist Ferdia Lennon, New York Times book of the year author Paul Murray (also short-listed for the Booker Prize in 2024), and Pulitzer Prize-winning former Poet Laureate of the US, Natasha Tretheway.
History
Imagallamh launched in 2024 as a new iteration of the Keough-Naughton Institute’s Irish Seminar, which ran from 1999 to 2022.