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Robert Mauro, a political scientist and academic administrator who has done extensive work in Irish social and political relations, is the new director of the Irish Institute at Boston College.
Mauro will oversee the design and implementation of the institute’s highly acclaimed political, educational and corporate exchange programs for leaders from Ireland and Northern Ireland, offered as a means of helping build lasting peace and prosperity. Headquartered at BC’s Center for Irish Programs, the institute holds conferences, seminars and meetings, supported by funding from Congress, and in collaboration with the US State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
A native of Medford, Mauro recently completed a post-doctoral research fellowship in the Institute for British-Irish Studies at University College Dublin, where he helped build an archive of interviews with more than 90 key contributors to the Northern Ireland peace process and the ratification of the Belfast or Good Friday Agreement.
University Professor Thomas Hachey, executive director of the Center for Irish Programs, praised the talent and experience that Mauro brings to the job, and credited former director Niamh Lynch “with having insured a seamless transition from her own remarkably successful tenure.”
Added Hachey, "Boston College and the Irish Institute have been abundantly well served over the past decade by five previous directors whose legacy has been to make this University renowned for its contribution in promoting peace and reconciliation on the island of Ireland via the networking accomplished by the institute's wide ranging programs.”
“I am continually impressed and inspired by the work of both the Irish Institute and Boston College,” said Mauro, who also has served as a visiting research assistant in political science at Trinity College Dublin and regional conference coordinator for the Political Studies Association, a leading UK-based academic organization.
“I have worked at many universities in several countries on two continents, and I do not believe I have ever been at an institution where the staff has had as genuine a sense of excitement and pleasure to work and to work very hard as the staff at Boston College and the Irish Institute.”
Mauro pointed to his University College Dublin fellowship as a critical experience in his professional development. During that time, Mauro participated in workshops designed to develop a more sophisticated understanding of conflict development and resolution through direct comparisons of the Northern Irish conflict with conflicts in Eastern Europe, Central Africa, and Southeast Asia.
“Historical and developmental studies have given me, I believe, a keen sense that beliefs, institutions, and processes have a logic, which is critical to their meaning,” he said. “Understanding the history and development of Irish and British politics, therefore, helps me to explain contemporary conditions in Northern Ireland and Ireland and to orient my behavior to those conditions in appropriate ways.”
Mauro identified three areas of potential growth for the institute. “Questions surrounding the legitimacy and effectiveness of political institutions, especially legislatures, are of major importance, and developing programs that address these issues would be hugely beneficial to many in America, Ireland, and Northern Ireland.
“Problems related to coordination and control in markets, specifically real estate and financial markets, are of obvious international concern, and exchanging ideas on these problems should also be of high importance to the institute.”
Mauro also said capitalizing on educational exchanges and transatlantic network development will be an important future role for the institute.
While the economic situation in Ireland and Northern Ireland is “very serious” and has led to serious political difficulties, Mauro said the peace process “appears to be firmly in place and the devolved institutions embody willing, popularly supported participants.
“These circumstances, I believe, will help promote greater cooperation between Belfast and Dublin in the near future. The serious, transnational character of contemporary economic, political, and social problems, and the possibility of increased cooperation between authorities across the island of Ireland, present complex challenges to Irish and Northern Irish political actors. Helping those actors navigate and resolve those challenges is precisely the kind of thing the Irish Institute does without equal.”
Mauro holds a doctorate in political science from the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the State University of New York in Albany, where he completed a dissertation investigating the functions of Northern Irish ideology. He also earned degrees from McGill University and the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.