The Notre Dame Dublin Artist in Residence programme was established in 2022 in an effort to provide working artists with time and space for contemplation and creation. Artists spend the year with the students, staff, faculty, libraries, and collections of O'Connell House—the historic home of Irish politician Daniel O'Connell and current home of the University of Notre Dame’s scholarly endeavors in Dublin. The Artist in Residence will teach classes, facilitate workshops, professional development, and mentorship sessions with University of Notre Dame students, deliver a keynote public lecture, and participate in arts and culture events with Notre Dame Dublin.
Grace Wilentz
Writer in Residence (2023-2025)
Poet
Grace Wilentz was born in New York City and grew up in Greenwich Village. A graduate of Harvard University, with postgraduate degrees from Oxford University and University College Dublin, she has published poems in The American Poetry Journal, Cyphers, The Harvard Advocate, The Irish Times, and The Seneca Review. She moved to Ireland in 2005 to study the Irish language and became an Irish citizen in 2015.
Her second collection, Harmony (Unfinished), was published by The Gallery Press in October 2024 during her residency with Notre Dame. Wilentz's first collection, The Limit of Light, was published by The Gallery Press in October 2020 and went on to be selected as a book of the year in The Irish Independent and The Irish Times. In 2019, she published a chapbook, Holding Distance, and received a bursary from The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon. She has taught Creative Writing at UCD and now lives in The Liberties of Dublin.
Past Artists
Mick O'Brien
Musician in Residence (2022 - 2023)
Uilleann Piper
Mick O´Brien is a highly regarded performer and teacher of the Uilleann pipes. Mick was born in Dublin into a very musical family, with all five boys playing Irish music. Dinny, Mick´s father, is an accordion and whistle player and nurtured the love of traditional music in all the lads. At the age of nine, Mick started learning the pipes in the famous Thomas Street Pipers club in Dublin, which was also a meeting house for musicians from all over the country. Now much in demand as a tutor, Mick has traveled to Europe, Canada, and the USA, conducting master classes.
In 1996, Mick released his first solo album, entitled May Morning Dew, to much critical acclaim from the traditional music world. In 2003, Mick released Kitty Lie Over along with fiddler Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh. It was named the No.1 Traditional Album of 2003 by Earle Hitchner in the Irish Echo. As a performer, Mick has broadcast on TV and radio extensively, both as a soloist and with various artists with whom he has made numerous recordings. He has recorded with Charlotte Church, The Dubliners, The Boys of the Lough, Altan and Charlie Lennon, and the Norwegian group Secret Garden, to name a few, and also performed on Broadway with the internationally renowned show Riverdance.
Mick’s music has crossed many boundaries and styles through the years, but it is as a traditional uilleann piper that he is best known. His traditional style shows great delicacy and subtlety, strong in rhythm and enlivened by his unique inflections and nuances, his performances always throw new light on even the most familiar tune. He is a retired school teacher and lives in Dublin where he is married with three children.