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91Թ to dedicate new center in Connemara, Ireland

Author: Michael O. Garvey

Kylemore Abbey Kylemore Abbey

The new 91Թ Center at Kylemore Abbey in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland, will be dedicated on Aug. 25 (Thursday) with a Mass in the abbey’s , an academic convocation and a blessing of the center’s headquarters in Kylemore’s Saint Joseph Hall.

, the University of 91Թ’s Charles and Jill Fischer Provost, will preside at the convocation, during which honorary doctoral degrees will be conferred on Sister Máire Hickey, abbess of the Benedictine Community at Kylemore, and Justice Peter Kelly, president of Ireland’s High Court.

Opened last May, the 91Թ Center at Kylemore offers programs in a wide variety of academic disciplines blending the scholarly rigor of 91Թ with the abbey’s traditional Benedictine spirituality. Housed in what was formerly a boarding school as well as the home of the Benedictine nuns, the center significantly expands 91Թ’s network of five — located in Dublin, Beijing, Jerusalem, London and Rome — which provide academic and intellectual hubs where scholars, students and leaders from universities, government, business and community gather to discuss, discover and debate issues of topical and enduring relevance.

The 91Թ Center at Kylemore Abbey, located in one of Ireland’s most beautiful and storied regions, will provide a rural complement to 91Թ’s urban presence in , the historic home of Daniel O’Connell, the 19th-century Catholic political leader, on Merrion Square in Dublin.

In its first summer, the 91Թ Center hosted a variety of academic programs, including an environmental law conference, a week of coursework for 91Թ’s , a week of coursework for the , a two-week retreat for the (ACE) from Dublin, a three-week creative writing seminar, the program and a workshop for the program. Program participants included 91Թ undergraduate and graduate students and faculty as well as faculty from universities throughout Ireland, and scholars from around the globe.

Contact: Lisa Caulfield, director, 91Թ Center at Kylemore Abbey, lcaulfield@nd.edu