As part of the Civic Engagement Festival 2025, Carlow College celebrated two room naming ceremonies, recognising the legacies of poet Eavan Boland and Traveller rights activist Nan Joyce.
April 9th: Celebrating Eavan Boland – A Voice for Irish Women
On April 9th, a room in the College was officially named after Eavan Boland, one of Ireland’s most influential poets. Known for her feminist perspective and exploration of female identity within the Irish literary tradition, Boland’s work profoundly challenged the canon of Irish poetry. The room naming ceremony was led by Michael Sherman, EDI Chair, who gave a sincere speech and officially opened the Eavan Boland Room.
Born in Dublin in 1944, Boland was a pioneering figure whose poetry addressed themes of domestic life, motherhood, history, and mythology—often from the lens of ordinary women. Her publications, including In Her Own Image (1980), Night Feed (1982), and Outside History (1990), redefined the representation of women in Irish culture. She famously discussed the tension between being a woman and a poet in Ireland, a space where those identities were often seen as incompatible.
Boland was also a long-time professor at Stanford University and received numerous accolades for her work before her passing in 2020. Notably, she visited Carlow College and read from her poetry in the College Library—a cherished memory for many staff and students.
The room naming ceremony featured a reading from her poem Mother Ireland, including the lines:
“At first, I was land. I lay on my back to be fields, and when I turned on my side, I was a hill under freezing stars. I did not see. I was seen.”
April 16th: Honouring Nan Joyce
A week later, on April 16th, Carlow College named another room in honour of Nan Joyce (1940–2018), one of Ireland’s foremost Traveller rights activists. The ceremony was attended by members of Nan’s extended family—including her sisters, children, and grandchildren—who offered a deeply personal touch to the event. As a token of appreciation, they gifted Fr. Conn a handcrafted miniature timber horse and cart, symbolising their heritage and community spirit.
Fr. Conn, President of Carlow College, opened the ceremony by acknowledging the work of the College’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee.
In his remarks, Fr. Conn shared Nan Joyce’s remarkable story: born Ann O’Donoghue in Tipperary, she was raised travelling the roads of Ireland. At just 16, she married John Joyce, and together they raised ten children in areas such as Tallaght, Finglas, Coolock, and Belfast—facing intense discrimination and poor living conditions.
In 1982, she co-founded the Committee for the Rights of Travellers and became the first member of the Traveller community to stand for election to Dáil Éireann. Her advocacy intensified after Dublin County Council forcibly removed her family from halting sites, often without providing alternatives.
Nan’s voice was powerful. She wrote a Traveller’s Manifesto and distributed it to media outlets, challenging the harmful narratives that misrepresented her community. In 1983, at a Trócaire seminar in Galway, she delivered a landmark speech to international humanitarians and clergy, famously stating:
“You people are very concerned about the Third World. I think you should also be concerned about us, we are the fourth world.”
Her passionate address drew a standing ovation and widespread attention. She later published her autobiography Traveller and was included in the women’s volume of the Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing. In 2010, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from President Mary McAleese.
Fr. Conn concluded the ceremony with these words:
“In naming this room in her memory, we hope that her activism will inspire others to work for and support civil rights locally, nationally and globally.”
