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Alumni

Once Irish Way, Always Irish Way

Generations of students have crossed the Atlantic with us since 1976 — and the bonds formed over one Irish summer last a lifetime.

Welcome Friends

Our Alumni Community

Throughout the years, our alumni have played a tremendous part in the success and sustainability of our programs. We will always be indebted to our community for helping us share these special opportunities with today’s youth.

We are committed to engaging with students past, present, and future, and we hope this will be a great resource to stay connected with one another. Let us remember how impactful this program was in our formative years, and work together to make sure it lasts forever.

Stay Connected

Part of the Family for Life

Alumni Ambassadors

Prospective families can connect with our Ambassadors — past students who answer first-hand questions about life on the program.

Meet our ambassadors

Reconnect with Friends

Lost touch with friends from your summer? Over the years, many groups have set up their own Instagram and Facebook pages. If you can’t find yours, reach out and our team will help.

Get in touch

Alumni Stories

From published authors to those who built a life in Ireland, our alumni carry their experience into everything they do.

Read alumni stories
Alumni Stories

Where an Irish Summer Leads

Throughout the years, our alumni have played a tremendous part in the success of this program. Here are a few of their stories.

Durham Family Thoughts

The Durham family has been a huge supporter of this program for decades — starting with four siblings, and now four from the next generation.

Read the full story

This is not just a tourist trip to Ireland. This is an opportunity of a lifetime. Traveling to Ireland, learning the history and culture, making new friends, learning self-reliance, and gaining independence are just a few of the benefits. Simply put, this program is priceless. Listen to Maureen and give the gift of a lifetime to a special teen in your life!

A New Book from an Alumna Author

Elevation and Beyond, by Marcy Gannon (Irish Life Experience / Irish Way alumna, 1993), is the true story of the birth of an unreasonable devotion to a rock band.

Read the full story

It is one fan’s voyage through life within the context of that devotion, following an arcing, sometimes looping, path from self-centered isolation to connection and integration. It begins in an Irish Catholic family in the eighties, where the author first hears U2 on her older siblings’ vinyl. After a traumatic brain injury in adolescence, the only light through the depression that followed was Bono singing alone at a darkened bar in the 1992 video for “One.” From there, the chase begins — from a teenage bedroom wallpapered with U2 to seeing them live again, and again, and again. Available on Amazon.

Read the announcement

Irish Dance Journals

Calling all Irish dancers! Irish Way alumna, counselor, and dancer extraordinaire Casey O’Connor Kelly has published three Irish Dance Journals on Amazon.

Read the full story

They are sprinkled with coloring pages, inspiration, and tips to encourage you along the way to meeting your dance goals. Order them, check them out, and keep practicing those 1, 2, 3’s!

Alumna Starts Life in Ireland

“Ireland has become my home this past year, and what a year it has been. My journey started here at 17 with the Irish Way program.”

Read the full story

“They say all roads lead to Ireland, and for me this rings true. If it was not for the Irish Way, I would have never met some of my nearest and dearest friends, eventually meeting the love of my life, and recently giving birth to my miracle Irish baby. As a teenager, you never picture what your life will be like 20 years after a summer of a lifetime abroad. I have lived, loved, and breathed the Irish air, and now it is my new home. Thank you so much to the Irish Way for some of the biggest Irish blessings I could have ever asked for. There is so much to discover in Ireland that you might just discover yourself and your future.” — Katy Farrell O’Connor

Alumni Ambassadors

Hear It From Our Alumni

Past students share their Irish Way summers in their own words — and are happy to answer questions from families considering the program.

A Legacy of Summers

Decades of Memories

From Blarney Castle to the Poulnabrone Dolmen, our alumni galleries span generations of students discovering Ireland together. Multi-generational families now send their own children on the very program they once loved.

View the Gallery Read the Summer Diaries