Top 100 Irish America’s Finest in Education
“To the extent that we are all educated and informed
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James J. Murphy
Jim Murphy teaches courses in Modern Irish Literature and Culture at Villanova University. Since its founding in 1842, Villanova has had a rich connection to Ireland. With a nod to that history and to his own personal background, Murphy initiated the university’s Irish Studies program in 1979.
Since that time he has nurtured and developed the program, which is now one of the oldest and largest undergraduate programs of its kind in the U.S.
Students study Ireland and Irish America from the interlocking perspectives of traditional academic disciplines and through courses taught by a visiting distinguished Irish writer-in-residence. In Ireland, the Villanova Center for Irish Studies is based at The National University, Galway, where students now study throughout the year.
The first of his family to receive a college education, Murphy went from St. Augustine’s HS in Brooklyn to Manhattan College (BA ’62), Niagara University (MA ’63) and then on to Temple University (Ph.D. ’71).
Both of his parents emigrated in the 1920s – his mother Kathleen Sloyan from Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo, and his father Patrick Murphy from Cloone, Co. Leitrim.
Jim says, “My work is a way to thank them and to reach back to the world that they left behind. Growing up in an Irish world in Brooklyn has been one of the great shaping experiences of my life.” He is working on a memoir based on his parents’ experiences. “For me, being Irish-American has given me two rich and complex worlds to explore.”
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Murphy, James J. [MC1962]
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