Program highlights for Galway, Ireland

• Live in a vibrant, cosmopolitan city with a thriving student culture.
• Enjoy Galway’s lively summer festival season, including the Galway Film Fleadh, Ireland’s most prestigious film festival, and the Galway Arts Festival, one of the most vibrant celebrations of music, theatre, and arts in Europe.
• Explore Dublin on the included tour as a group before traveling to Galway.
• Trace your Irish roots through a genealogy course, or choose from a variety of courses in Irish studies.
• Adjust to life abroad easily with the full-time on-site USAC Resident Director and staff, and participate in exciting cultural immersion activities like field trips to places like the ancient Aran Islands, the rugged mountain landscapes of Connemara, Dublin, and more.

Why study in Galway?

The summer Galway program is perfect for students interested in learning about Irish studies in a lively, student-oriented city on Ireland’s west coast. Galway is the fourth largest city in Ireland and a vibrant, bustling center of the arts and commerce. Founded in the thirteenth century, today it offers a unique blend of medieval history alongside contemporary culture.

Visit the stunning Galway Cathedral, sample local cuisine at a restaurant, enjoy modern shopping facilities, wander along the city center’s streets (it’s closed to traffic), or head to the lovely cliffsides to take in the scenery.

The Galway program consists of one 5-week summer session and offers academic coursework in literature, history, music, theatre, and the Gaelic language taught by established Irish and U.S. scholars. Many of these courses include exciting field trips and excursions that provide hands-on experience with the subject matter, such as walking tours of Galway, outings to the Connemara Gaeltacht (Gaelic-speaking area), live theatre performances, guest lectures by leading playwrights and directors, private Irish film screenings, and private in-class music concerts by leading traditional musicians and singers.

If you have Irish roots, consider taking the 1-credit “Tracing Your Family Genealogy” course. Past students who participated in the course connected with local Irish relatives from their research, and two students even discovered they were related, dating back to the 1600s.