"A shared heritage. . . A shared future"

The Center for Irish Partnership fosters collaborations and partnerships with educational institutions in Ireland and Northern Ireland across an interdisciplinary spectrum including the social sciences, the natural sciences and engineering, the humanities and health and education fields.

These international partnerships embrace faculty exchange and joint research ventures and to work with Irish partners to create a dynamic model for Cross-Atlantic collaboration that will promote and advance University of Massachusetts Lowell's goals to enhance the student experience by providing a global perspective to teaching and research, while contributing to Irish interests through exchange and service.

The Center has three Co-Directors:

  1. Ruairi O'Mahony
  2. Michael Rutherford
  3. John Wooding, Ph.D.

Emeritus Directors include: Frank Talty, Stephen McCarthy and Ann Marie Hurley, professor emerita.

Since its inception in 2009, the Center for Irish Partnerships has forged special transatlantic relationships with Irish educational partners on both sides of the border.

Why Lowell?

Lowell is a vibrant city that has always been home to waves of immigrants, the first of whom were the Irish. The Irish played a fundamental role in the development of the new town and it is a role that they continue to play to this day.

Why UMass Lowell?

 
The contributions of the Irish immigrants to Lowell, and to the United States as a whole, has been widely recognized within the education sector. 

In September 2009, Chancellor Marty Meehan and Provost Ahmed Abdelal established the Center for Irish Partnerships at UMass Lowell, one of six international partnership centers. The aim of these centers is to strengthen and coordinate ongoing international partnerships as well as to develop new education and research partnerships in areas of the world that pose strategically important opportunities.