Kylemore Abbey
The new Notre Dame Center at Kylemore Abbey in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland, will be dedicated on Aug. 25 (Thursday) with a Mass in the abbey鈥檚 , an academic convocation and a blessing of the center鈥檚 headquarters in Kylemore鈥檚 Saint Joseph Hall.
, the University of Notre Dame鈥檚 Charles and Jill Fischer Provost, will preside at the convocation, during which honorary doctoral degrees will be conferred on Sister M谩ire Hickey, abbess of the Benedictine Community at Kylemore, and Justice Peter Kelly, president of Ireland鈥檚 High Court.
Opened last May, the Notre Dame Center at Kylemore offers programs in a wide variety of academic disciplines blending the scholarly rigor of Notre Dame with the abbey鈥檚 traditional Benedictine spirituality. Housed in what was formerly a boarding school as well as the home of the Benedictine nuns, the center significantly expands Notre Dame鈥檚 network of five 鈥� located in Dublin, Beijing, Jerusalem, London and Rome 鈥� 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 Notre Dame Center at Kylemore Abbey, located in one of Ireland鈥檚 most beautiful and storied regions, will provide a rural complement to Notre Dame鈥檚 urban presence in , the historic home of Daniel O鈥機onnell, the 19th-century Catholic political leader, on Merrion Square in Dublin.
In its first summer, the Notre Dame Center hosted a variety of academic programs, including an environmental law conference, a week of coursework for Notre Dame鈥檚 , 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 Notre Dame undergraduate and graduate students and faculty as well as faculty from universities throughout Ireland, and scholars from around the globe.
Contact: Lisa Caulfield, director, Notre Dame Center at Kylemore Abbey, lcaulfield@nd.edu