About Galway
Galway, a university town with a vibrant artistic and cultural atmosphere, is the administrative capital of County Galway and the largest city in the West of Ireland. This area of the country is noted for its geographic and cultural distinctiveness. Students will encounter a variety of physical landscapes in the West, ranging from the long, jagged coastline, numerous lakes and rivers to the rugged terrain of the countryside. With the largest concentration of Gaelic-speaking communities in Ireland, the West is widely recognized as the most typically "Irish" part of the country. The Gaelic heritage is perhaps most evident in the Aran Islands (Inishmore, Inishmaan, and Inisheer), located just off the coast at the entrance to Galway Bay.

The Program
This program is based at the National University of Ireland, Galway (formerly University College, Galway) and consists of a combination of special courses taught for the group and regular university courses. The affiliation with NUIG provides students with the opportunity to live and study alongside Irish students at an Irish university. Participants in the program are also encouraged to join one of the many university clubs and organizations in order to directly experience Irish student life and culture. A service learning project, required of all students and linked to the Director’s Seminar, will provide a unique opportunity for students to gain access to the local community.

Courses
This program consists of a combination of special courses taught for the group and regular university courses. All students will take two required courses:

Contemporary Irish Culture and Society (1 credit)
Professor Louis De Paor is Director of Irish Studies at NUIG and serves as our Local Program Coordinator. He and several guest lecturers from NUIG and the local community will offer this survey of Irish culture and society.

Fall 2008 Director’s Seminar: Finding Home/Recovering the Self: Irish Literature Since the Sixties (1 credit)
Starting with a look at the poems of Yeats and the fiction of Joyce -- grandfathers of all modern and contemporary Irish writing -- the course will explore such concerns as the tension between a national and an individual identity, the relationship of place to self, the physical to the mythic, memory to fact, public history to private experience, the experience of exile and return, of language lost and language found, ideas of class, gender and sexuality, in a literature that has in some sense been defined by (or against) --or at least has had to negotiate -- the violence of what has come to be known as "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland. Our readings will include work by such poets as Seamus Heaney, John Montague, Thomas Kinsella, Derek Mahon, Paul Muldoon, Eavan Boland, Medbh McGuckian, Paula Meehan; fiction writers William Trevor, John McGahern, Colm Toibin, Jennifer Johnston, Glenn Patterson, Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright; playwrights Brian Friel, Tom Murphy, Anne Devlin, Paula Meehan. Specific readings will depend on availability of books. In conjunction with the poetry, we will, to some extent, explore the rhythms of traditional Irish music (exemplified by the recordings of Sean O Riada, The Bothy Band, De Dannan, Altan, others). In conjunction with the fiction we will explore narrative in such films as Cal (Pat O'Connor, 1984), Hush-a-Bye Baby (Margo Harkin, 1989), The Crying Game (Neil Jordan, 1992), In the Name of the Father (Jim Sheridan, 1993), Nora (Pat Murphy, 2000).

ELECTIVE COURSES
In addition, students will select two electives from the regular NUIG catalogue. Following are examples of courses taken by students on previous programs. Consult the NUIG website for further details on course offerings. Course listings begin on p. 13 and you should just look at courses that are offered in Semester 1 (the Fall Semester).

Introduction to Northern Irish Politics
Short Plays of Samuel Beckett
Drama and Theatre Studies
Devolving English Literature
Church and State in Irleand
Irish Art from the Early Iron Age to the 8th Century
Medieval Ireland 5th-9th Centuries
Shakespearean Comedies
Irish Famine in a European Perspective
Scottish Short Stories
The English Language in Ireland
Feminist Thought
Women in Irish Society
Contemporary Irish Poetry
Climatology
Europe in the Age of Metal
Ritual and Royalty: the Royal Sites of Ireland from Prehistory
Gaelic Language 

Academic Focus
The Galway program is accessible to students from virtually any academic discipline as participants will be able to select two courses from the NUIG catalogue. Note that access for international students to some NUIG courses is limited due to such factors as the duration of the course and the nature of course prerequisites.

Accommodations
Students on this program will be housed alongside Irish and international students in flats in a complex called “Gort na Coiribe”, a new facility located on the Headford Road about a 10-minute walk from the NUIG campus. Fully equipped kitchens are included in the flats and a large shopping center and a cinema complex are nearby. As you are responsible for your own meals on this program you may choose to prepare your own at home; in addition, full meals may be purchased at the university canteen at government subsidized prices. To view the accommodations, visit the Gort na Coiribe website at http://www.gortnacoiribe.com

Excursions
Several excursions linked to the Irish Culture and Society course are included as part of this program. They typically includes visits to Northern Ireland, Dublin, Cork, Kerry, and the Aran Islands. Some local excursions in and around Galway may be organized as well.

Additional Information
For further information on application procedures, eligibility, and program costs and financial aid, HWS students should contact the Center for Global Education (Trinity Hall) and Union College students should contact Professor Bill Thomas in the International Programs Office (Humanities 211).

Please note that the information in this brochure is subject to change. Please contact the PGE for more information.

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