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Meets Wednesday from 6:45 - 7:45 p.m.
Elms College will welcome Donegal native and Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Maitiú de Hal to campus in September. He will teach a three-credit Irish language course, as well as two noncredit Irish language courses in conjunction with the Irish Cultural Center each semester. The first semester runs from September 7 to December 7. All three courses will continue in the second semester beginning in January.
The three-credit course, “Novice Irish 1,” will be offered Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. To enroll, visit or call the registrar’s office at 413-265-2314. For people 65 or older, or who wish to audit the course, the cost is $100, plus a $20 registration fee.
A noncredit course, “Introductory Irish 1,” is for people who have no prior knowledge of the language, and for those who have had only one or two semesters of study. The class will be offered Tuesdays beginning September 14, from 6:45 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.
A second noncredit course, “Irish Conversation: Advanced Practice 1,” will meet Wednesdays beginning September 15, from 6:45 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. The course is for people who have a good basic knowledge of Irish.
To register for either noncredit course, call the Elms College Division of Graduate studies and Continuing Education at 413-265-2218. Cost for each course is $150, or $100 for Cairde members of the Irish Cultural Center.
Maitiú de Hal has taught Irish in varying settings: in the state system, Irish summer colleges, extra tuition courses for trainee primary schools teachers, and at a summer program in Chicago. He will receive his master of arts degree in Nua-Ghaeilge (modern Irish) in September from the National University of Ireland, Galway. He earned his bachelor of arts degree in Irish and history and a post-graduate diploma in education from the same university.
For the modern Irish master’s, he has focused on sociolinguistics, specifically language acquisition, language shift and language in an educational context. He bases his thesis on the effect of children of returning emigrants on Gaeltacht (Irish speaking area) education. He measured the impact of those who come into the system late-on, assessed support levels for their varying needs. He says he hopes to become a better teacher with an understanding of these principles.
de Hal is involved in an Irish language drama society at the university; he has a passion for music, both traditional and modern. He plays drums and the bodhran and is learning sean-nos singing.
For further information, call the Irish Cultural Center at 413-265-2537, or Tom Moriarty at 413-592-6951. The Irish Cultural Center at Elms College offers programs in art, music, literature that promote the Irish language in order to “keep the Irish arts alive.”
Elms College is a co-educational, Catholic college offering a liberal arts curriculum that gives students multiple perspectives on life. Founded in 1928 by the Sisters of St. Joseph, Elms College has a tradition of educating reflective, principled, and creative learners, who are rooted in faith, educated in mind, compassionate in heart, responsive to civic and social obligations, and capable of adjusting to change without compromising principle.
