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Educating Minds and Hearts to Change the World
Mary McAleese
President of Ireland
Gives a Major Address And Receives an Honorary Doctorate
At
The University of San Francisco
Thursday, December 11, 2008, 10:00 A.M.
University of San Francisco
McLaren Conference Center
2130 Fulton Street, San Francisco
(Free Parking Adjacent to Campus)
In 2004, Mary McAleese was re-elected to a second, seven-year term as President of Ireland. Her presidency has been noted for its concern and advocacy for justice, equality, social inclusion, anti-sectarianism and reconciliation. Born in Belfast, she is the first president to come from Northern Ireland. The eldest of nine children, she grew up in Northern Ireland during a time that came to be known as ‘The Troubles.’ Her family, one of many affected by the conflict, was forced to leave the area. As a student, she returned to Belfast and graduated in law from the Queen’s University of Belfast in 1973; she was called to the Northern Ireland Bar in 1974. In 1975, she was appointed Reid Professor of Criminal Law at Trinity College Dublin, and in 1987, she returned to her alma mater, Queen’s College, to become the director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies. In 1994, she became the first woman to serve as Pro-Vice Chancellor of Queen’s University of Belfast.
Sponsors: USF’s Office of the President, Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good, University Ministry, Center for the Pacific Rim, and the Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning
The event is free and open to the public.
For further information and to RSVP:
Call the McCarthy Center at 415/422-4260 or visit the Web site http://www.usfca.edu/mccarthycenter
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Danny Cassidy
The Crossroads Irish-American Festival recently lost a great friend, teacher, and mentor in Danny Cassidy. Danny died at his home Saturday, October 11, 2008 of pancreatic cancer. He was 65.
Danny was a leader of the Bay Area's Irish American community and won the 2007 American Book Award for nonfiction for his pioneering book, "How the Irish Invented Slang: The Secret Language of the Crossroads” in which he traced the influence of Irish phrases on the development of American slang in the 1800s, discovering Irish roots in a slew of words that are common today in daily speech - like jazz, scam, brag, rookie, snazzy, fluke, knack, slugger, poker and sucker.
Danny was co-director and founder of the Irish Studies Program at New College of California and co-founder of the Crossroads Irish-American Festival. His creative and quick-silver mind inspired the creation and production of the Festival since 2002. He was musician, screenwriter, union organizer, Irish nationalist, historian, writer, and man of words. His contribution and legacy to the Irish-American community is inestimable. Danny will be deeply missed by his friends and family.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasal, Danny.
Click here to read Danny’s obituary from the San Francisco Chronicle.
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The
Crossroads Irish-American Festival is an annual, cultural arts, and literary event in San Francisco that explores and celebrates the history of the Irish Diaspora throughout the Americas in creative performance, vibrant conversation and debate, music, film, readings, storytelling, theater, and more.
Irish-Americans possess a rich and diverse history that has greatly influenced the cultural, political, and creative landscapes of the United States and beyond. We aim to reveal these many and often hidden histories of the Irish in the Americas by convening public events with noted writers, musicians, actors, film makers, poets, historians, scholars, story-tellers and other local, national, and international figures who reveal the meaning of an Irish-American heritage through their scholarly and creative works. The Crossroads Irish-American Festival is also committed to building an oral archive of the history of the local Irish-American community, as defined by neighborhoods throughout the City of San Francisco. We hope to accomplish all of these goals through the annual production of the Crossroads Irish-American Festival in the month of March.
All events are open to the public and most events are free. Crossroads is a project of Intersection for the Arts.
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