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The 1970s and 1980s saw the strengthening of Irish Studies at the international level. At the initiative of Profa. Dra. Munira Mutran, at the University of São Paulo (USP), and Profa. Dra. Maria Helena Kopschitz at the Fluminense Federal University (UFF), Irish Studies also gained significant expression in Brazil. Until then, writers like Joyce, Yeats, Beckett, Wilde and Shaw were studied in English literature courses!

The research horizon expanded with postgraduate courses which received visitors sent by the Irish Government to Brazil from 1983 onwards: critics, professors, writers and artists.

The founding of organizations such as the Brazilian Association of Irish Studies (ABEI), in 1989, the Association for Research in Irish Studies (ARIS), at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), in 2004, the W.B. Yeats Chair of Irish Studies, at USP, in 2009, the Samuel Beckett Research Group, at USP, in 2011, the Research Group on Irish Studies at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), in 2012, the Nucleus of Irish Studies (NEI), at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), in 2016, the research group Joyce Studies in Brazil, UFF-UFSC, in 2018, and the Alliance of Irish Studies Chairs in Latin America, in 2022, for example, contributed even more to the consolidation of the Irish cultural scene and the vigour it enjoys in Brazil.

Today, ABEI, presided by Profa. Dra. Mariana Bolfarine, the W.B. Yeats Chair, coordinated by Profa. Dra. Laura Izarra and NEI, coordinated by Profa. Dra. Alinne Fernandes and Profa. Dra. Beatriz Kopschitz Bastos, are institutional partners of the Government of Ireland, with extensive annual programs of visits, congresses, cultural events, scholarships (ABEI-HADDAD, M.H. Kopschitz, W.B. Yeats Chair) and publications: books, lectures, articles, theses, translations and periodicals, notably the ABEI Journal.

Gradually, intercultural relationships were strengthened with universities from Ireland and other countries in the international community of Irish Studies, as well as international associations: International Association for the Study of Irish Literatures (IASIL); Society for Irish Latin American Studies (SILAS); Association of Irish Studies from the South (AEIS); Canadian Association for Irish Studies (CAIS); American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS); Spanish Association of Irish Studies, (AEDEI); European Federation of Associations and Centers of Irish Studies (EFACIS); International Yeats Society; among others.

One particularly special development occurred in 2018, when Profa. Dra. Munira Mutran received the Presidential Distinguished Service Award from the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, in recognition of her contribution to Irish Studies.

This sketch reveals, above all, that “the spring flowed continuously, forming different streams that, over the years, became rivers, each one following its path, but all interconnected, flowing into the mighty river of Irish Studies in Brazil” (Munira Mutran).