The Villanova campus community is cordially invited to a series of lively events held in honor of St. Patrick’s Day: Nova Feis 2015!  The festivities, presented by the Irish Studies Program in conjunction with Falvey Memorial Library, celebrate Irish history and culture. Events will include an Irish dance showcase, film viewing, several talks and a reception.

Joseph Lennon, PhD, associate professor and director of Irish Studies; Joyce Harden, administrative assistant/events assistant, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; and Eoin McEvoy, visiting Fulbright foreign language teaching assistant, Irish Studies, are the main organizers of the Nova Feis 2015 series of events. This feis (aka festival) has been held at Villanova since March of 2012. The Irish Studies Program hopes to continue this timely celebration for years to come to highlight Irish culture and tradition.

Please see a detailed line-up of the Nova Feis ‘15 events here.

In addition to the feis every March, the Irish Studies Program honors Irish history, culture and language in other ways throughout the year, including a wide array of classes and activities. Eoin McEvoy, who currently teaches the Irish language at Villanova this school year and has become heavily involved in Irish Studies programming, remarks: “I am very impressed by the Irish Studies Program at Villanova and hope that it will continue to grow. Dr. Joseph Lennon and the other Irish Studies lecturers, with the support of the indefatigable Joyce Harden, are doing great work in the field and the Fulbright program continues to provide its valuable assistance in growing the Irish language offerings on campus.

“At the moment, we are offering two beginners classes and one intermediate class to registered students, but we also offer events that anybody, on or off campus, can attend:

……– a group of Irish-language learners meets to eat lunch
………together and chat at 12:30 p.m. on Mondays in Café Nova;
……– I host an Irish language club in the Library on Thursdays at
………6:30 p.m. where we play games in Irish, learn songs and
………have general conversation;
……– The War of the Buttons, a fun Irish adventure film with
………phenomenal child actors, will be screened on March 16 at
………4:00 p.m. in the Library. This film, the third in a series of
………four, is in English, and everybody is welcome to drop in –
………for even part of it, if their schedule is tight at the time.
……– the full schedule of Irish Studies events is available on the
………Program’s webpage.

“The community at Villanova has been extremely welcoming, and I have learned a lot from both my lecturers (I’ve been taking a number of classes while here) and my students since August. I’ve learned many things about East Coast America and about the Irish-American community and it is really striking that, although their experience is vastly different from the experience of the Irish in Ireland, they remain still so closely connected to their heritage. The students I have the pleasure to teach here are a credit to Villanova and to Irish-America and they are an inspiration for speakers of Irish at home.”

McEvoy invites anyone, with or without Irish heritage, who is interested in finding out more about the program, Irish language classes or events, to contact him with questions. He will continue this semester to teach Introductory Irish II and Intermediate Irish to Villanova students.

Be sure not to miss out on all of the Nova Feis ’15 fun; it’s just one of the many endeavors in which the Irish Studies Program is involved!