Monday, November 03, 2003

By: Kenneth Luck, PR Intern

WILMINGTON, NC – Paul A. Townend, professor of British and Irish History at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, will receive the American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS) James S. Donnelly Sr. Prize for books on history and social sciences for his book, Father Mathew, Temperance and Irish Identity.

"Townend's book draws on a vast array of fascinating primary sources to produce a scholarly analysis of one of the most extraordinary social movements in pre-famine Ireland. The temperance crusade of Father Theobold Mathew is brought into a broad social, political and cultural context thereby enriching our understanding of a turbulent period in Irish history," according to the ACIS prize committee.

Townend receives a $500 award and will be presented with the prize at the ACIS annual conference, July 12 through 16, 2004.

"The award is a tremendous honor, especially since it comes from ACIS, the preeminent Irish studies organization that has been so intellectually generous and welcoming to me over the many years I was a graduate student putting the book's research and ideas together," Townend said.

Father Mathew, Temperance and Irish Identity was published in 2002 by Irish Academic Press in Dublin.

For more information contact Paul A. Townend in the UNCW Department of History at 910/962-7542.

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