Irish American Cultural Institute

Providing leadership and resources to preserve, interpret, and promote Irish and Irish American Cultures

Welcome


Founded in 1962, the Irish American Cultural Institute (IACI) is the leading Irish American cultural organization. The IACI is a federally recognized 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit national organization devoted to promoting an intelligent appreciation of Ireland and the role and contributions of the Irish in America. The IACI is strictly apolitical and nonsectarian, and is the only Irish American organization that has as its patron, The President of Ireland.

Over the past six decades, the IACI has carved an honored place for the Irish dimension in American life. No comparable body has such an impressive track record of achievement and sustained programming. 

 IACI Virtual Presentations

Are you looking for intellectual nourishment or just good storytelling about Ireland past and present? Look no further. We offer an attractive menu of options. 

 

Though its connections with American academics, scholars, and practitioners around the world, the Irish American Cultural Institute is able to draw on the deep knowledge and painstaking training of experts in a broad array of fields related to the rich history and culture of modern and contemporary Ireland. 

 

Already the Institute has successfully launched a series of talks (each lasting 45-60 minutes) on such topics as the Great Famine and Irish emigration over the period 1845-1900; Daniel O'Connell and Irish anti-slavery; Irish traditional music (with performance intermixed); Irish art and politics in the twentieth century; and Ireland and Brexit. 

 

Realtime access and participation in the Q&A portion of these events is free to members of the IACI. If you are an IACI Member you will automatically receive a link to the program. If you are not a member and would like to take advantage of this member benefit Join Now.

Please click here to learn more about upcoming programs.

All presentations are archived and become available soon after each event. Please click here to see archived presentations

IACI Announces Special Edition of Eire-Ireland:  Ireland and Irish America at America's 250th 

The year 2026 marks two significant milestones. In the United States it is the semiquincentennial commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It is also the sixtieth anniversary of the journal Éire-Ireland, which published its first issue in 1966. What could be a more appropriate time, then, to take stock of the relationship between Ireland and late colonial, revolutionary, and early national America to assess the myriad connections that bound Irish and Irish American peoples during the age of Atlantic revolutions? As historians have long argued, this era spanning the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was a dynamic but also tumultuous and often contradictory one marked by the American Revolution, the momentous revolutions in France and Haiti, the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and by additional revolutions in Latin America and Europe. Together, these upheavals, which interactively fed upon each other, gave rise to republics that prized participatory forms of governance, celebrated individual rights and liberties, and placed unprecedented value on equality among men. At the same time, however, many of these same new states, including perhaps most notably the United States, simultaneously embraced capitalism, slavery—and the racism undergirding it—and continued inequality between the sexes.


This special issue of Éire-Ireland, which is generously funded by a grant from the Government of Ireland with the assistance of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, features ten essays from the journal’s back catalog focusing on the relationship between Ireland and America during this period of momentous transformation and nation building. 


We invite you to access this special edition here: https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/57949.
O'Malley Art Award Recipient - 2026

The Irish American Cultural Institute is delighted to announce that the 2026 O’Malley Visual Arts Award of €5,000 goes to

Orla Barry (artist and sheep farmer)


The O’Malley Visual Arts Award was inaugurated in 1989 and is given in memory of Ernie O’Malley and Helen Hooker O’Malley. Previous winners include Tony O’Malley, James Coleman, Dorothy Cross and Alice Maher. The award is given to mid-career artists for outstanding work which has been created during the period since the last award (2024).


The selection panel for the O’Malley Visual Arts Award 2026 was composed of Angela Griffith, Associate Professor, History of Art Department, Trinity College, principal investigator of the Cuala Press Project, Schooner Foundation, Trinity College Library; Padraic E. Moore, curator, art writer, Artistic Director, Ormston House, Limerick and Helena Tobin, Director, South Tipperary Arts Centre, Clonmel. The Award process was chaired by Catherine Marshall, curator, art writer and founder-member of Na Cailleacha.


Orla Barry was selected from a shortlist of nine artists for her 2026 exhibition, The Collie, The Cheviot & The Crouched Skeleton at Rua Red, in Dublin, where Barry had been invited to create a new work in response to the rural communities of South Dublin. It continues her ongoing exploration of the connection between nature, art and rural life.


Referring to her recent work, Barry said; “With the brand-new works Donie’s Language and Chaddy and the Leylandii Gods, I try to create a personal map, touching on the poetics of place and farm life. I’m using fable-telling as a form of retrieval, in which each evocation of memory alters its perception of the past. I touch on breeding and bloodlines, friendship, heritage, and the destructive nature of tourism in rural areas, as well as how the necessity to survive pushes farmers into other forms of work and also into the transformation of the landscape in which they live and work. Discovering the Dublin Mountains in this way felt a bit like Sir Walter Raleigh discovering potatoes in his own parish.”


Her work Shaved Rapunzel's Shepherds and Form is Destroyed was acquired by MACS (Musée des Arts Contemporains au Grand-Hornu) and Shepherd, Scavenger, Slave for SMAK (Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst) in Belgium for their collections.


The Award will be presented at a ceremony at the University of Limerick on Tuesday 3rd of November 2026, when the inaugural lecture in the Irish American Cultural Institute (IACI) Lecture Series, will also be presented, marking an exciting new opportunity to celebrate and strengthen connections with Irish culture and heritage.


The lecture, “The Fionn Folklore Database: Creating Connections to Irish Cultural Heritage at Home and in the Diaspora”, will be delivered by Associate Professor Natasha Sumner, Associate Professor of Celtic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University.

A Message From Our Patron


"I am delighted to be Patron of the Irish American Cultural Institute, an organisation that does such valuable work in strengthening and maintaining the important links that exist between Ireland and America.  Here in Ireland we are very proud of our wider global family, and feel a special connection with the United States who have welcomed so many generations of Irish emigrants into their communities.  We are deeply appreciative of all that the Irish American community contributes to our country, of the pride you still feel for your Irish heritage and culture and of your dedication to maintaining and showcasing that culture to other communities across the globe." 

MICHAEL D. HIGGINS, President of Ireland

Duchas

 

This informative e-newsletter offers members insights into Irish culture, history, and the latest happenings at the IACI. Besides providing updates on IACI programming, this publication offers feature articles, educational information, book reviews, and a wealth of other information.  It's Irish American culture, delivered straight to your e-mail inbox!  Click here to sign up!
 
We invite IACI members to share their stories, events, pictures, book/movie reviews, recipes, etc.    To submit material, click here.  
Eire-Ireland

The Irish American Cultural Institute is the proud publisher of the journal Éire- Ireland, which since its first appearance in 1966 has been the premier journal devoted to Irish Studies in North America. The journal is published twice a year, with Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter issues. It is interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary in scope, though articles on modern Irish history and modern Irish literature dominate the wide-ranging fare. The journal also features articles dealing with the literature and history of Irish America. One issue each year is devoted to a special theme or subject, with the 2019 special issue slated to examine “Irish Music” and the 2020 special issue scheduled to explore “Ireland and the Environment.” The journal is available in print and electronic versions.  Learn More