Gerard Mannion–In Memoriam

I ndil chuimhne ar Gerard Mannion

Our friend, colleague and Co-Founder of the Global Irish Studies at Georgetown University, Gerard Mannion, passed away suddenly on Saturday, September 21. Gerard taught in the Georgetown University Theology and Religious Studies department, where he held the Joseph and Winifred Amaturo Chair in Catholic Studies. He was also a fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs.

Gerard brought to all of his many academic pursuits an extraordinary intellect and breadth and depth of knowledge. To the Global Irish Studies Initiative, from our very first meeting in February 2016, when the Initiative was embryonic, he brought enthusiasm, bonhomie, and boundless energy. Gerard worked tirelessly on behalf of Georgetown in general and Global Irish Studies in particular, building networks of friends and colleagues across the university, the DC area, the field of theology, and the Irish Studies community.

He played a key role in several of our events, including the 2017 Mid-Atlantic meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies; a meeting in March 2018 to commemorate the 20^th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, with keynote events featuring Senator George Mitchell, Congressman Bruce Morrison, and diplomats from the Irish, Northern Irish, and British missions to the U.S.; and a Symposium on the African American Civil Rights movement’s influence on and crossover with the Civil Rights movement in Northern Ireland. Gerard also arranged for a panel discussion focusing on Ireland as part of the Berkley Center’s 2019 conference on Exiting Violence. At the time of his passing he was completing a hotly anticipated monograph on religion and the Irish revolution, and was planning a new class on the Vatican and Ireland.

The Global Irish Studies Initiative, a dream in February 2016, is now an established branch of the Georgetown Humanities Initiative. Gerard was a critical force in this achievement and will be sorely missed. Although his death leaves a void among his many friends on campus and in the Irish and Irish Studies communities in DC, he would expect us to continue our forward movement together as a community of scholars and friends.

You will find a generous tribute to Gerard from his colleagues at the Berkley Center here. The Irish Times published an obituary for Gerard on November 9, 2019.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

Irene Jillson and Cóilín Parsons