The Irish in New England is a three-day conference of seventeen lectures on the Irish presence in New England from the early eighteenth century to about the middle of the twentieth. Beginning with issues of immigration and the Irish diaspora, the program addresses the work typically associated with foreign-born Irish families: railroad building, domestic service, and groundskeeping. Other sessions deal with Irish-born merchants and mariners; Revolutionary-period Irish loyalty and law enforcement; Irish suffrage; and folklore and memory. The conference concludes with a session on the growth of Irish neighborhoods and charitable societies, and the work of Irish craftsmen, artists, and entertainers.

The Seminar is designed for educators, historians, genealogists, collectors, authors, librarians, and museum curators; students and the general public are cordially invited to attend. A selected and edited transcript of this conference will appear as the 2012 Annual Proceedings of the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, to be issued about two years after the conference. Past Seminar Proceedings and publications by program speakers will be available at the conference.

The thirty-seventh annual meeting in the Dublin Seminar series, The Irish in New England will take place on the weekend of June 22 through 24, 2012, at Historic Deerfield, Deerfield, Massachusetts. The lecture program will begin at 7:00 p.m.. on Friday evening and will continue until approximately 11:30 a.m.. on Sunday. The weekend includes an optional program on Irish genealogy on Friday afternoon, 2:00 to 4:30 p.m., and a concert of Irish songs on Saturday evening. Lunch and dinner will be provided on Saturday, June 23; coffee and doughnuts will be served each morning. Dormitory accommodations will be available at the campus of Eaglebrook School beginning Friday afternoon.