Dowling Library at the UICC

09/17/2026

With United Irish Cultural Center – I just made it onto their weekly engagement list by being one of their top engagers! 🎉

09/17/2026

Such an interesting event coming up here at the United Irish Cultural Center
Hope to see you there!

09/13/2026

Friday, September 18. Edit: St. Francis room, United Irish Cultural Center. Reserve your FREE seat here.

An evening of discussion about Integrated Education and its ongoing role in building a brighter future for Northern Ireland.

09/11/2026

Just released! Citizens from WI, MN, IN, IL, OH and MI, we need you! Call your Congressional reps and ask them to sign this letter before 9/16.

https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-closure-of-the-national-archives-at-chicago/u/35273789

09/11/2026

This 2-day course (2 sessions being offered) led by Pati Traktman, Chair of the Patrick J. Dowling Library Genealogy Club, will start you on your journey to tracing your Irish roots.

Topics to be covered include: general genealogy tips, historical events that make Irish family research unique, Irish naming patterns, finding vital records, using the Irish Censuses, Griffiths Valuation of land, Petty Session Court records, Registry of Deeds, newspapers, research websites (free and fee) and much more.

The sessions will combine some history and cultural context to help you find your family information and to make sense of it.

Register:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1998830692408?aff=oddtdtcreator

09/11/2026

**Learning Together for a More Peaceful Future 🇮🇪**

What role can education play in building a more peaceful, connected, and prosperous Northern Ireland?

Join the **Dowling Library at the United Irish Cultural Center** on **Friday, September 18**, for an evening conversation with the **Integrated Education Fund (IEF)**.

IEF Chief Executive **Paul Caskey** will discuss the growth and future of integrated education in Northern Ireland, joined by an alumnus of an integrated school who will share a personal perspective on the experience of learning alongside students from different backgrounds.

The evening will also feature **Christopher Donnelly**, a participant in IEF’s International Consulting Group—and a volunteer with the **Dowling Library at the UICC**—bringing this important conversation to our San Francisco community.

Together, we'll explore the connection between education, peace, social cohesion, and opportunity, and consider how integrated education can help shape Northern Ireland's future.

📅 **Friday, September 18, 2026**
🕕 **6:00–8:00 p.m.**
📍 **St. Francis Room, United Irish Cultural Center**
🎟️ **Free admission | Registration required**

Light refreshments provided. Bar drinks and snacks available for purchase.

Come learn, connect, and hear how you can play a part in building a more integrated future.

**Register in advance — space is limited.**
REGISTER: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/learning-together-for-a-more-peaceful-future-tickets-1995106000755

09/10/2026

Calling all High School students!

📍San Francisco/Bay Area
🗓️ Sunday, October 4th
⏰ 1:00 - 3:00pm
🏨 United Irish Cultural Center

05/25/2026

All gave some. Some gave all.
For your service and your sacrifice we honor you.

☘️🇺🇸 On this Memorial Day, we pause to remember a legacy of sacrifice deeply woven into Irish-American history. ☘️🇺🇸

For generations of Irish immigrants—many arriving in America amid hardship and exclusion—military service became a powerful, and often painful, path toward belonging. From the battlefields of the Civil War to conflicts that followed, Irish Americans served in extraordinary numbers, offering their lives in defense of a country that was still becoming their own.

Nowhere is this legacy more visible than in the Civil War, where Irish volunteers—most famously the Irish Brigade—endured devastating losses at places like Antietam and Gettysburg. Their memory is marked today by Celtic Cross monuments, by the statue of Father William Corby granting absolution before battle, and by countless graves tended each Memorial Day.

Irish Americans also hold a remarkable place in the history of military valor. A disproportionate number of recipients of the Medal of Honor—the nation’s highest military decoration—have been Irish born or of Irish descent, a testament to courage forged under unimaginable circumstances.

We also remember the often-overlooked service of Irish and Irish-American women religious—the “Angels of the Battlefield”—who crossed front lines to nurse the wounded, comfort the dying, and bring dignity amid chaos. Their compassion is memorialized today in Washington, D.C., and in the living traditions of faith and service they left behind.

Here in San Francisco and across California, this remembrance continues: at the Presidio’s National Cemetery, at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, and through the stories of Irish immigrants who served, settled, and helped shape the West.

On Memorial Day, we honor not only named heroes, but also the many young Irish immigrants who fought and died far from home, with no family left to mourn them. In remembering them, we become their community of remembrance.

May we hold their stories with gratitude—and carry forward the values of courage, service, and solidarity they embodied.

☘️🇺🇸
Lest we forget.

05/23/2026

“All gave some, some gave all” As the long Memorial Day weekend begins, we feature books from our collection which tell the story of the Irish Americans who served and died in the US harmed forces.
The Library will be Open Saturday, May 23.
Come explore the collection, join in the pop up , and stay for the trad session.