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Plans are under way for a four-week program in which students will unearth elements of the Great Irish Famine and resulting wave of emigration through archeological digs in Ireland and Lowell.
Thanks to a partnership between UMass Lowell and Queens University in Northern Ireland formalized during a recent visit by Chancellor Marty Meehan and a UMass Lowell delegation, students will participate in site surveying, excavation and cataloging to uncover clues about life during the Irish Famine. They will spend two weeks at an abandoned rural settlement in Legnabrochy, Cuilcagh Mountain, in County Fermanagh, Ireland, then two weeks at a site to be identified in Lowell.
Queens University Archeology Prof. Colm Donnelly and Pro-Vice-Chancellor Gerry McCormac visited Lowell to meet with Chancellor Meehan and Provost Ahmed Abdelal and to visit potential local dig sites.
Frank Talty, director of academic programs in the Division of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, coordinated the Lowell site preparations and visits, including a tour of St. Patrick’s Church, where archivist David McKean conducted tours of the early Irish gravesites. The National Park Service provided a tour, and made a presentation on the holdings related to early Irish residents, and Martha Mayo of the Center for Lowell History explained the Center’s research and artifact collection.
“The partnership with Queens University is part of the recently announced International Center for Irish Partnerships – the first of six being created to encourage collaboration with schools overseas,” says Abdelal. (See related story.)
The other cultural centers will be devoted to Asia, Greece, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
UMass Lowell and Queens University will also collaborate on an upcoming Emerging Technologies Conference at the Inn & Conference Center on Oct. 19 and 20, bringing attention to biopharmaceuticals, bioprocessing, medical device technologies and nanotechnology.
Plans for the archeological digs are expected to be finalized by summer 2010.
See UMass Lowell's photo gallery for more pictures of the event.