Circling Back

Abstract

Circling Back David Gardiner our twenty-fifth anniversary is a celebration—a celebration of twenty-five years of the Center for Irish Studies, New Hibernia Review, and the works of the many who have shaped the center’s efforts. My first thought was to select the best articles from the previous one hundred issues. I would simply mine databases like Project MUSE, identify the most popular articles, and start from there. As with many ideas, this was a bad one. By the time I was done looking over some of the most downloaded articles, I had also delved into the most important. This resulted in a manuscript of 1,038 pages. Not wishing to publish a trilogy, I realized a more appropriate approach would be to publish our interviews, the actual voices that have spoken out of New Hibernia Review over the past twenty-five years. This collection is not nearly representative of Irish Studies throughout the globe, but each conversation is of great interest, and together they offer an accurate impression of the journal’s work. In celebration of this anniversary, the indomitable Judy Gilats has undertaken a complete redesign of the journal—and, thankfully, the result is not more than a thousand pages long. We hope you enjoy these voices of Irish Studies, past and present. ________ The University of St. Thomas has been a part of my life for a long time. Irish Studies, thanks to Thomas Dillon Redshaw and James Silas Rogers, has shaped my experience. Years on, both of my daughters attended the university, so it’s also become a family affair. For me, though, this connection has been an accident—a very happy and very unexpected accident. I was lucky enough to be fully scholarshipped from my first year at university [End Page 5] through my PhD. That’s where St. Thomas comes in. I was a basketball player on scholarship at the University of Chicago, that powerhouse athletic institution. (U of C did indeed found the Big Ten, and Jay Berwanger, the first Heisman Trophy winner, in 1935, and scourge of Gerald Ford, was a frequent visitor to my fraternity house.) After two knee operations and one ankle reconstruction and with a vertical leap heading quickly south, my “academic” scholarship was in danger, and my tenured coach at U of C called the College of St. Thomas to arrange for a transfer. Fortunately, the St. Thomas basketball coach was connected with the admissions office. (I’m still not sure that I was actually accepted to the college.) I was quite excited since the scholarship was guaranteed and I’d be living in the Virgin Islands. Or so I thought. As it turns out, the College of St. Thomas, now the University of St. Thomas, is as far away from the island of St. Thomas as one may get. St. Thomas at that time was very similar to the University of Chicago. It had buildings and professors and classes. More importantly, I couldn’t lose my scholarship in spite of losing my ability to play basketball. There was one mysterious and enigmatic professor whom I was continually steered toward. He was and is a true scholar and educator and, I’m grateful and honored to say, now a friend. Tom Redshaw was my connection and introduction to John Montague, Tom Kinsella, and Seán Lucy, and through them to some of my best friends in Cork, Moyclare Park, Galway, and Belfast. As do Éire-Ireland and New Hibernia Review, he opened up a world to me and to others. This expansive connectedness is very evident in his memoir that follows. As an undergraduate, I barely saw this happening. In more than one English class, a professor might be unable to answer my question and would say, “you need to ask Dr. Redshaw about that.” This Redshaw character was something between Gandalf and the Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland. He remains so. It was in Redshaw’s office that I learned how to learn. To this day I love Tom’s directness because it is a laser into the life of the mind. In his office, I’d look at his shelves filled with Dolmen...