
Save 15 Ushers Island


As academics from around the world in the field of Irish studies, we wish to add our voices to the chorus calling upon Josepha Madigan, the Minister for Culture, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht, and Owen Keegan, Dublin City Manager, to intervene for the preservation of the house at 15 Usher’s Island and against its conversion to a hostel. Known to scholars and Joyce aficionados worldwide as “Joyce’s house of ‘The Dead’,” this cultural and historical landmark not only housed Joyce’s great-aunts for some time; it is, critically, also the setting for “The Dead”-- arguably the best known, most loved, and perhaps most frequently taught of Joyce’s short stories. As some of us have already argued (see “Artists and Writers call for protection of Joyce’s ‘House of the Dead’,” Irish Times,8 November), it would be difficult to overstate the lost opportunity the planned use of Usher’s Island would constitute—and it would be a sad irony, indeed, to see the year that Dublin celebrated the opening of the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) also mark the city’s abandonment of a landmark so thoroughly imbued with the history of one of its own greatest authors.
The undersigned are members of the American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS), the largest academic Irish studies organization in the world with a membership approaching 700 scholars. Hailing from 43 U.S. states, 15 countries, and nearly 400 institutions worldwide, we have dedicated our professional lives to studying, supporting, and promoting Irish literature, history, and culture. On behalf of our field and our students, and for the good of Dublin’s literary and cultural heritage, we urge you to reverse course and protect Usher’s Island for posterity.
Respectfully submitted,
The American Conference for Irish Studies Executive Board
Kate Costello-Sullivan, Le Moyne College, USA—President
Kelly Matthews, Framingham State University, USA--Vice-President
Tim McMahon, Marquette University, USA—Past President
Justin Dolan Stover, Idaho State Universisty, USA--Treasurer
Malcolm Sen, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, USA-- Secretary
Nicole McClure, Kutztown University, USA—Web and Communications Editor
Ray Cashman, Indiana University, USA--Social Sciences Representative
Cian McMahon, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA—History Representative
Kelly Sullivan, NYU, USA—Arts Representative
Julia Obert, University Wyoming, USA—Literature Representative
Úna Ní Bhroiméil, Mary Immaculate College, Ireland—Irish Language Representative
Margot Backus, University of Houston, USA—Women, Gender, and Sexualities Studies Rep
John Roney, Sacred Heart University, USA—New England Representative
Matthew Reznicek, Creighton University, USA—Mid-Western Representative
Donna Potts, Washington State University, USA—Western Representative
Bridget Keown, University of Pittsburgh, USA—Graduate Student Representative
Nathalie Anderson, Swarthmore College, USA—Southern Representative
Deirdre Nic Mhathuna, Dublin City University, Ireland - International Treasurer
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