The death has occurred in the United States of Dr Eoin McKiernan, a patriarch of Irish Studies in the US who laid the ground for the explosion of interest in Irish arts in recent years.
Founder of the Irish American Cultural Institute, based in Minneapolis, Dr McKiernan was a fluent Irish speaker. In the 1960s he gained national recognition when he scripted and hosted a series of 16 films and 53 half-hour TV programmes on Irish history, literature and culture. Born in New York in 1915, McKiernan spent much of his childhood in Co Clare. He was the first American inducted into the Royal Dublin Society in 265 years. Dr McKiernan died on Sunday, aged 89.