Maurice Fitzpatrick

Maurice Fitzpatrick is a lecturer, film director, and author who was educated at Trinity College Dublin.

He has made two documentary films for the BBC: The Boys of St. Columb's (also an RTÉ production) and Translations Revisited. In 2017, he wrote, directed and produced a documentary feature film, John Hume in America, on the political life of Nobel Peace Prize laureate John Hume, which has screened in over 30 countries. He is also the author of The Boys of St. Columb’s (The Liffey Press, 2010; University of Notre Dame Press, 2020) and John Hume in America: From Derry to DC (Irish Academic Press, 2017; University of Notre Dame Press, 2019) which has been welcomed by Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi as “a wonderful reminder of the strength in diplomacy and the close relationship between the United States and Northern Ireland” and by The Sunday Business Post as one of the “20 Vital Books . . . about the Northern conflict.” In the US, it was named an “Outstanding Title in 2020” by Choice, a division of the American Library Association.

Mr. Fitzpatrick has studied and researched around the world.

He was a recipient of the Ministry of Education of Japan scholarship 2004-2007 and a lecturer at Keio University, Tokyo, 2007-11, at Bonn University 2011-2012 and at the University of Cologne 2012-2016. 

In addition, he was a Poynter Fellow at Yale University in 2019 and the 2020 Heimbold Chair of Irish Studies at Villanova University.

During his time at Notre Dame, he will discuss his newest film, Burntollet, now in development, within the context of parallels between the American and Irish civil rights movements.He will also screen the John Hume in America documentary.