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Eoin McKiernan’s 1960s TV Programs

In the early 1960s, Dr. Eoin McKiernan produced groundbreaking television programs about Irish culture, current events and history. Filmed at the recently completed KTCA-TV studio on Como Avenue in St. Paul, the 53 half-hour episodes of Ireland Rediscovered and Irish Diary proved very popular and, by 1965, were being broadcast in 36 cities.

The programs were the launching point for the entire academic discipline of Irish Studies in the U.S. and the impetus for Dr. McKiernan’s Irish American Cultural Institute. To McKiernan, the programs’ success “indicated that there was an audience ‘out there’” for Irish history and culture beyond the romanticized and commercialized depictions he called “shamrockery.”

With help from a Minnesota Historical Society grant, the McKiernan Library has digitized these fascinating programs and has made them available online.