Celtic Junction Arts Center has launched a new semester of classes that cover a wide range of topics including the Irish language, history and literature, and the Celtic creative arts.
As part of Celtic Junction's "Irish College of Minnesota", fifteen online classes will take place on a rolling basis beginning from now through April 7, 2022.
Course Highlights
Irish language classes: Connemara-born native speaker, Lavinia Finnerty, has created her own comprehensive Irish language foundations class sequence that takes students from beginner to conversationalist.
Meet Lavina Finnerty, the Irish language teacher at Irish College of Minnesota:
The Irish Cottage: Culture, Design, and Controversy: This course will focus on the type of Irish cottage initially built and continuously used during the 1860s to 1960s in rural Ireland; a period of great change politically, socially, and culturally.
The distinct design characteristics of these cottages, the materials used, and the realities of cottage life will be looked at. Through exploring various aspects of the Irish cottage, we will experience a revealing look into the minds and beliefs of our Irish ancestors.
Irish thatched cottage. Credit: Tourism Ireland
Patrick Kavanagh, his life and poetry: Considered the greatest Irish poet in the decades, the great County Monaghan-born Patrick Kavanagh came from a modest rural background and left formal schooling at the age of 13 to ‘dabble in verse.’
Held in the warmest affection precisely because of his unsentimental and caustic views of the realities of Irish deprivation, he achieved a kind of compassionate down-to-earth vision that found the extraordinary in the ordinary.
Statue of Patrick Kavanagh in Dublin. Credit: Peierls/ Creative Commons
Celtic Junction Arts Center in Minnesota
Celtic Junction Arts Center is a non-profit art and cultural center located in the Midway neighborhood of Saint Paul, Minnesota.
The Irish College of Minnesota was founded in 2017 due to the desire of the local community for stress-free and affordable educational opportunities for adults on Celtic topics.
The Irish College quickly transitioned to online offerings via Zoom at the beginning of the pandemic and has grown rapidly ever since, demonstrating a regional and national interest in their classes.
Celtic Junction Arts Center was voted “Best Irish Center/Festival in North America" by Irish Central's Creativity and Arts Awards in 2018.
Celtic Junction Arts Center is a proud supporter of the Irish Heritage Tree Program.
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