John V. Kelleher Lecture

The John V. Kelleher Lecture commemorates the fondly remembered Professor of Irish Studies. John Kelleher was a distinguished scholar and legendary teacher in many areas, from the early heroic sagas to James Joyce; from the medieval annals and kinglists to the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 and beyond. A native of Lawrence, Massachusetts and a graduate of Dartmouth College, he came to Harvard as a Junior Fellow in 1940, and except for his years of service in Washington during the Second World War, remained at Harvard until his retirement in 1986. He died in January 2004. In inviting our Kelleher Lecturers, we seek out the finest scholars in the world of Celtic studies, speakers whose range and depth is worthy of John Kelleher’s legacy. Seamus Heaney delivered the inaugural Kelleher Lecture in 2004, and a list of subsequent speakers can be found here.

Many thanks go to Prof Barry Lewis of The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies for presenting the 2026 John V. Kelleher Lecture: "The poet in the medieval Welsh court: rereading Phylip Brydydd's encounter with the gofeirdd."  This paper will be published in the upcoming volume of The Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium.

The 23rd Kelleher Lecture is scheduled for October 7, 2027 and will feature Prof. Joseph Eska of Virginia Tech.

More details to follow.

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