Savannah, GA--David T. Gleeson, professor of history at College of Charleston, will present "Our Cousins Up the Road: The Irish in Savannah and Charleston, on April 25. The talk is being sponsored by the Irish Studies Club at Armstrong Atlantic State University. It will begin at 7:00 P.M. in room 157 of AASU's University Hall.

Gleeson is the author of the book, The Irish in the South, 1815-1877, that explores how the Irish became Southerners as well as Americans. The only comprehensive study of Irish immigrants in the nineteenth-century South, this book makes a valuable contribution to the story of the Irish in America and to our understanding of southern culture.

Gleeson received his Ph.D. from Mississippi State University in 1997. He taught for five years at Armstrong Atlantic before joining the College of Charleston's graduate history department. His current research interests are on immigrant networks in the American South and the role of the Catholic Church in the South during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

The Irish Studies Club meets periodically for lectures on Irish literature, films, history, and politics. It is open to those in the community interested in Irish culture. For more information or to become a member, call Frank Clancy at 921.5624.

April 3, 2003