International students flock to Ireland for Celtic Studies Summer School

Fifty undergraduate and postgraduate students from all over the world will descend on Dublin this week for a Celtic Studies Summer School, run by the School of Celtic Studies at Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS). The course was officially launched by Mary Mitchell-O’Connor, Minister of State at the Department of Education with special responsibility for Higher Education, today (03.07.17).

The Summer School, which takes place every three years and runs from July 3-14^th, will be attended by students from countries all over the world including: United States, England, Scotland, France, Canada, Russia, Italy, Finland, Sweden and Ireland.

Commenting on the launch of the 2017 Summer School, Liam Breatnach, Senior Professor at the School of Celtic Studies, DIAS said they were delighted to have so many international attendees this year.

“The Summer School is a fantastic opportunity for us to promote Celtic Studies. While they are here, the students will have the opportunity to attend lectures on Early Modern Irish, Middle Welsh and Mediaeval Lordship and Gaelic Literary Tradition, amongst others.

“With over fifty students attending from across the world, it is great to see the continued interest and work being done in this area. We are committed at DIAS to providing a centre of excellence for Celtic scholars and scholarship to conduct exemplary, standard-setting research and the Summer School is a very important aspect of this”

Officially launching the Summer School today, Minister Mitchell-O’Connor welcomed the students to Ireland. “It is fantastic to see this level of interest in Celtic Studies from countries all around the world and I am delighted to welcome them here.

“The demand for places, with fifty participants from Ireland, United Kingdom, Europe and North America, is an indication of the Summer School’s international significance and the leadership role of the School of Celtic Studies in global research.” (The Minister’s speech in full is available here)

The School of Celtic Studies is one of three schools that comprise DIAS. The broad remit of the Institute, is to provide research facilities for advanced study and specialised branches of knowledge and for the publication of the results of advanced study and research.

The School of Celtic Studies carries out advanced research in many areas of the languages and literatures of the Celtic Countries, with a particular emphasis on Irish.

ENDS

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Notes to Editor

The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) is a statutory corporation established in 1940 under the Institute for Advanced Studies Act of that year. It is a publicly-funded independent centre for research in basic disciplines. DIAS has three constituent schools: The School of Celtic Studies, The School of Theoretical Physics, The School of Cosmic Physics.