Brendan O'Shaughnessy | originally published May 31, 2020
Ryan Lash first visited the wind-swept islands off the west coast of Ireland in 2007 as a freshman at Notre Dame with scant knowledge of the place or his purpose there.
Every year since, the siren call of these islands pulls Lash back, laying out a quest to resurrect the history of medieval monks who built monasteries on rocky outcrops in the wild Atlantic on the western edge of Europe. He now has his doctorate in the subject and is preparing a book, “Faith Along the Water,” written during a postdoctoral year with his mentor, anthropologist Ian Kuijt.
In some ways, Lash’s magnetic interest in a place and a people is not unlike that of the God-seeking monks and pilgrims who sparked his academic journey.
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On April 22, Dr. Lash, the 2020-2021 Naughton Postdoctoral Scholar in the Keough-Naughton Institute, will discuss his work in an Institute webinar titled "Island Endurance: Ritual, Heritage, and Sustainability on Inishark and Inishbofin." Read more and register.